New Virus Means Deadlier Flu Season Is Possible

HughPickens.com writes Donald McNeil writes in the NYT that this year's flu season may be deadlier than usual because this year's flu vaccine is a relatively poor match to a new virus that is now circulating. "Flu is unpredictable, but what we've seen thus far is concerning," says Dr. Thomas R. Frieden. According to the CDC, five U.S. children have died from flu-related complications so far this season. Four of them were infected with influenza A viruses, including three cases of H3N2 infections. The new H3 subtype first appeared overseas in March but because it was not found in many samples in the United States until September, it is now too late to change the vaccine. Because of the increased danger from the H3 strain — and because B influenza strains can also cause serious illness — the CDC recommends that patients with asthma, diabetes or lung or heart problems see a doctor at the first sign of a possible flu, and that doctors quickly prescribe antivirals like Tamiflu or Relenza. "H3N2 viruses tend to be associated with more severe seasons," says Frieden. "The rate of hospitalization and death can be twice as high or more in flu seasons when H3 doesn't predominate."

Comments

It's possible..(or not)...but you should be scared

[NotDrWho]

CDC issues yet another alarmist virus scare to maintain funding. Film at eleven.

Next year, rinse, repeat, rinse repeat, rinse, repeat

Boy who cried wolf

[BitZtream]

So how many times are we going to go through this same alarmist, the world is going to end because of ... the flu thing?

I started paying attention to this crap in the late 90s when I realized 'it seems like every year we're going to have a horrible flu outbreak' ... then they started naming the flu for the year, which meant my drama queen sister in law seemed to get 'deadliest flu strain ever' every year ... and saying things like 'I have H1N1, its the deadly one!!!!!' except of course ... H1N1 isn't a specific strain, its a class of strains ... and its the most common one for all time, which pretty much everyone gets.

Every year, some news station will show someone from the CDC talking about how much more dangerous this year is ... and they'll throw out numbers ... and then when you go compare those numbers with the CDCs website of ACTUAL statistics ... you see that the numbers they are saying are bullshit ... and that the numbers for this year are actually pretty much average and right down the median of the range from previous years.

Now they've changed the data they display. They no longer display historical data, now they display what they call the seasonal baseline, which is essentially the lowest year ever recorded, and an epidemic threshold, which is exceeded EVERY SINGLE YEAR except extremely rare ones ... and no longer do they show that this year looks exactly like last year, and the previous 20 all look almost identical.

Scaremongering

And while we're on the subject of the flu ... why is it that I'm the only one in my family that doesn't get a flu shot and I'm also the only one who has managed to not get the flu every year except for the year before last ... when doctors convinced me to get the flu shot because I had a newborn son ... ironic that I GOT THE FLU THAT YEAR.

Just fucking stop.

The flu is scary for immunocompromised hosts, which is basically no one other than HIV/AIDS carriers and older people. Even freaking kids have an immune system that does well against it.