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100 Years Ago, Influenza Killed 50 Million People. Could It Happen Again? (usatoday.com)
Last year 80,000 Americans died of the flu -- and 900,000 more were hospitalized, according to estimates by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. NBC News reports:
The numbers were shocking. Until now, CDC has said flu kills anywhere between 12,000 and 56,000 people a year, depending on how bad the flu season is, and that it puts between 250,000 and 700,000 into the hospital with serious illness. The numbers for the 2017-2018 flu season go far beyond that... Usually, flu hits first in one region and then another, but this past season saw widespread flu activity all at once, for weeks on end.
Coincidentally, it's the 100-year anniversary of the great flu pandemic of 1918, according to an article shared by schwit1: Up to 500 million people -- about one-third of the world's population -- became infected with the influenza virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. As many as 50 million died, or one out of every 30 human beings on the planet, killing more American troops than those that died on World War I battlefields. The intensity and speed with which it struck were almost unimaginable, the worst global pandemic in modern history.
The article asks the ultimate question: Could it happen again? Top health and science groups, such as the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, predict influenza pandemics are nearly certain to recur. "Influenza viruses, with the vast silent reservoir in aquatic birds, are impossible to eradicate," the World Health Organization warned. "With the growth of global travel, a pandemic can spread rapidly globally with little time to prepare a public health response." A pandemic could also arise if a strain mutates with or develops directly from animal flu viruses, the CDC said...
In a near worst-case scenario, a new, lethal and highly infectious flu virus would break out in a crowded, unprepared megacity that lacks public health infrastructure, according to Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Heath. Such a fast-moving virus could burst from a city and catch a ride with international travelers before public health officials realize what is happening.
The article points out that today there's now safeguards to detect and counteract influenza outbreaks that didn't exist in 1918 (including outbreak-detecting systems, as well as better antiviral drugs and the ability to develop vaccines more rapidly). But it also reminds us that the 1918 flu pandemic killed more people in two years than the plague did in an entire century.
The CDC recommends that every year, anyone six months of age or older should get a flu vaccine. But I'd be curious to hear from Slashdot's readers. Have you gotten your 2018 flu shot?
Coincidentally, it's the 100-year anniversary of the great flu pandemic of 1918, according to an article shared by schwit1: Up to 500 million people -- about one-third of the world's population -- became infected with the influenza virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. As many as 50 million died, or one out of every 30 human beings on the planet, killing more American troops than those that died on World War I battlefields. The intensity and speed with which it struck were almost unimaginable, the worst global pandemic in modern history.
The article asks the ultimate question: Could it happen again? Top health and science groups, such as the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, predict influenza pandemics are nearly certain to recur. "Influenza viruses, with the vast silent reservoir in aquatic birds, are impossible to eradicate," the World Health Organization warned. "With the growth of global travel, a pandemic can spread rapidly globally with little time to prepare a public health response." A pandemic could also arise if a strain mutates with or develops directly from animal flu viruses, the CDC said...
In a near worst-case scenario, a new, lethal and highly infectious flu virus would break out in a crowded, unprepared megacity that lacks public health infrastructure, according to Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Heath. Such a fast-moving virus could burst from a city and catch a ride with international travelers before public health officials realize what is happening.
The article points out that today there's now safeguards to detect and counteract influenza outbreaks that didn't exist in 1918 (including outbreak-detecting systems, as well as better antiviral drugs and the ability to develop vaccines more rapidly). But it also reminds us that the 1918 flu pandemic killed more people in two years than the plague did in an entire century.
The CDC recommends that every year, anyone six months of age or older should get a flu vaccine. But I'd be curious to hear from Slashdot's readers. Have you gotten your 2018 flu shot?
Here comes all of the stories on how we are all gonna die from the flu.
if we don't have a strong, coordinated response to a large scale outbreak yeah, it'll happen again. We haven't magically evolved somehow. We're still vulnerable to the same crap we always were.
This is kind of a sticking point for me. I know lots of folks who, because something bad hasn't happened recently or to them or their immediate family, they think it's a non issue. Like those folks who were vehemently opposed to background checks for guns until they were shot at or folks in favor of single payer healthcare because they lost their jobs after a stroke. People's inability or unwillingness to extrapolate never ceases to amaze and infuriate me...
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Because the herd needs thinning.
Will it bring people together to solve the problem and care for each other or will it make us even more isolated and insulated?
> Have you gotten your 2018 flu shot?
They offer flu shots for free at my office. I have kids in school and elderly relatives, darn right I got it. Also I don't believe in crazy conspiracy theories, so no reason not to get one. Not sure why you want to know, but here it is.
(1) This would be terrible, no one wants to lose their friends, neighbors, or even their own life.
(2) World's overpopulated anyway -- humanity needs a good thinning to ensure survival of the species on an overburdened planet.
The Pacific Northwest flu season tends to have a later onset, for whatever reason. So that, combined with my mad procrastination skillz, means I often don’t get around to getting the shot until November or even early December.
#DeleteChrome
If the bird flu goes airborne we could be in trouble.
GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
As there are far to many people.
The main problem with flu shots is that they target a particular variety of influenza. Too often, that is the wrong variety for the pending influenza season.
Last season (2017-2018), my wife and I got our flu shots early in the fall. In the week just before New Year 2018, we both thought we were coming down with colds. The day after New Year, we felt sick enough to see our family doctor, who swabbed high in our noses. After dinner, he called us to tell us we tested positive for influenza.
Later that same night (still 2 January), my wife could not stop coughing. Since she had a heart problem (now fixed), I suggested that I should take her to the local hospital's emergency room. She did not want to go, but I insisted. She was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia although we were both current with both kinds of pneumonia shots. (According to our doctor, the two types of shots only protect against about 60% of the types of pneumonia.)
Each year, we still get our flu shots in the hope that, this time, the shots are targeting the variety of influenza that will be going around. My wife got her flu shot in August, and I got mine the beginning of this month (September).
An attempt to develop a universal flu shot is underway. The goal is not to target any one variety of influenza but instead to protect against all varieties.
I've been taking my "flu shots" for at least 8 years. They do help, including due to cross-immunity. I *do* get ill, but the colds are less severe, and it became rare for me to get even one strong cold (which would be a weak influenza infection)...
One thing people often don't grasp is that vaccines can help the defense against close-enough bacteria and viruses, they are not just for immunity (and often they won't get you immunity, but rather a much better immune response against those agents, which means a lot less severe (and shorter) infection -- which is the difference between life and death.
One prime example is the vaccine against tuberculosis, which more often than not, is helpful against leprosy to the point of ensuring you are not going to get leprosy even in a situation of high exposition (e.g. when your partner/parent got leprosy).
The influenza shots work the same way. Your colds (and influenzas-that-were-not-exactly-the-ones-in-the-vaccine) will be less severe if you get one at all (*I* always do, but I will take two weak colds an year over the ten or so, with at least two that would leave me bedridden for a few days, that I used to get before I started taking the influenza vaccine).
In any given year, millions of people catch the flu. The vast majority of those who die as a result, are the very old, the very young and those with other health issues. One of the things that made the 'Spanish Flu' pandemic of 1918 so uncommon was that a high percentage of those who died were young, strong, and otherwise healthy people.
We are way overdue for a good population culling event.
A good war.
A good pandemic.
Or why not both?
I just hope the stupid, stupid/rich people are culled. I've got a lot of remedies and snake oil to sell.
World overpopulated anyway. #giveChinaFlu
Over many decades, I have had influenza 4 times: once after a vaccination back in the '70s (US Army insisted; probably a coincidence) that lasted 3 days; once in the '80s, about a week; once in the '90s, again about a week; and a few years ago, lasted about 10 hours (fever, chills, very sleepy; I know it was the flu because my road trip companion tested positive and was down for a few days after Tamiflu). She just had a full week, while I stayed over to take care of her, but didn't catch it. In high school, my entire family (parents, siblings, grandmother) had the whole 7-10 day case, while I had nothing.
I'm very lucky, I know, but I'll keep trusting my apparent immunity, at least until they have a known-good broad spectrum vaccine.
Up until this year, Quebec has offered free flu shots to kids of 6-24 months and everyone over sixty.
But they've decided to cancel them this year for all but "at risk" individuals, not as a cost saving measure, but because they've concluded they don't really work. Or at least haven't for some years now.
http://www.iheartradio.ca/cjad...
No. Well...maybe. Actually, yes. It really just depends.
when faced with a large outbreak. Aside from flu shots there's quarantine procedures, extra steps to be taken at hospitals and clinics, keeping water clean, etc, etc. I suspect I'm only scratching the surface since I don't work for the CDC and I haven't studied flue outbreaks.
That's another problem the world has (America especially). This idea that we can't do anything about these things. It's mostly from folks who, well, haven't really studied the topic. It's part of a general antipathy towards experts and "elites", a desire to not be told what to do and a desire to think that "common sense" can solve problems.
Thing is, the world is really, really counter-intuitive. There's so much in this world that doesn't work they way you think it would. Like how it's several times cheaper & more effective at stabilizing a nation to send some food aid than troops, but that if you overdo the aid local businesses can't thrive because they can't compete with free.
The world is a really, really complex beast. Even things we think are simple aren't. There's damn near nothing that couldn't do with a bit more study and care.
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WDC too
There's a very, VERY sensitive tipping point when it comes to infections spreading or not. It's very close math. You know what countries have very few problems with flu outbreaks? The ones where it's illegal to go to work with the flu.
"I hope you get the flu and die from it."
You mean "I hope you get H635N2746 and die from it". Or whatever the new strain that pops up next year is. Influenza is not a single virus. The flu shot is a mix of the previous strains.
I won't die from it, because I'll get a vaccine for H635N2746 as soon as it's flagged as a possible pandemic. I won't wait for a generic cocktail of flu vaccines injected in autumn, and last years H1N1 injections won't cover me.
You need to stop being so triggered, and understand the limits of the vaccination. When the news reports a new outbreak of a strain that the UN deems a possible pandemic, you need to understand that LAST YEARS FLU SHOT WON"T PROTECT YOU.
had the flu last year and felt like i was going to die. does that count?
Scott
There are a number of people who will contract the flu virus but never show any symptoms. These people will still spread the flu to their loved ones, co-workers, people on the train, etc.
This is why, "But I never get the flu," is not a good excuse for not getting the flu shot. Even though the flu shot does not work 100%, it still saves lives, and the more people who get the shot, the more lives that are saved. If people who "never get the flu" get the flu shot, more lives will be saved.
If you have any kind of insurance, the shot is free. If you don't have any insurance, the shot is free. Look around. I think CVS or Walgreens has a deal where you pay some small amount, say $5 for a flu shot and they give you $10 in coupons or something, but there are free shots for almost everyone.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I wager many people walking around California already have a cocktail of drugs in their system. They'll be fine.
So the kids are dying anyway? I am perplexed by this post.
With modern air travel to spread infections, crazies who refuse vaccinations, and lower income people in the developed and undeveloped nations who lack access to vaccinations providing more hosts for viruses to mutate. If that all isn't bad enough, China is now refusing to share newly discovered strains of the flu virus in breach of WHO guidelines.
Neither do pigs.
Avian influenza, Swine flu/ HnnNnn pass to humans because people in Asia raise 'house chicken', chickens running around a house eating food scraps. The constant bird-human interaction passed the infection over, faster than people could recover from the flu they caught.
Wild birds tend not to be a problem.
I'm (obviously) not a biologist. Is there such a thing as a binary virus, either naturally occurring or engineered. Is it even within the realm of possibility?
Like a binary nerve agent, each individual virus is relatively harmless. Each one by itself wouldn't raise a flag. Authorities might not even consider it a worthy endeavor to develop a vaccine. If they did, most people wouldn't feel the need to get inoculated. Only when a person contracts the second does it become fatal.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
China is currently holding back on Flu that is moving from Chicken (avian flu) to Humans. It is killing everybody that it infects. Once this one mixes with Human flu and can fully transfer human2human(which it is thought IS the case), then we will see a pandemic.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
And a happy, hearty "Fuck you!" from NY (western NY, in particular), to you, too.
Yeesh. What if I don't WANT the flu? Every time I've gotten a flu shot, I've immediately gotten the flu.
What I have determined that I actually need is something that PREVENTS the flu. That would be pretty sweet.
I haven't had the flu in about 25 years.
This may be due to not having a lot of contact with children and working from home a lot and just washing my hands frequently. I don't use hand sanitizer, just soap and mildly hot water. I don't get shots mainly because I hate needles and sometimes such things have a short-term negative effect on me. Sure, it may only be a day or two, but why put myself through that?
OTOH, a sysadmin friend of mine who constantly had to run around helping users with their computers used to constantly get colds and the flu...until he moved into a position that didn't require him to constantly touch other people's keyboards.
The last time I got the flu I quit smoking for 9 days!
It probably would have been permanent because I was already over the flu and had even managed to go to a couple of bars without having a cigarette and this was when non-smoking bars didn't exist.
I was a non-smoker thanks to the flu...and then I found a half a pack that had fallen underneath some furniture and it took me about 10 minutes before I smoked one - just to see what it was like.
And then I smoked for another 20 years or so. I can't even remember how long it's been since I had a cigarette.
Sorry for rambling...I've had a few drinks.
I've been smoking a pack a day for 40 years, and drinking at least a 12 pack a week. I don't get sick ever. This is just one data point; use it any way you wish.
knows that a disease has to start on Madagascar in order to succeed.
its quebec. a distinct lack of maple syrup was to blame.
the problem you're describing is mostly a man power one. We've got plenty of that if we want to put it to use. It's usually done through the military because that's the only place you can get Americans to consistently spend money. Norm Chomsky pointed this out ages ago, how the Military Industrial Complex was used to get things done that needed doing but that Americans were too cheap to pay for.
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Last (and first) time I got a flu shot, I came down with the flu a month or so later. The shot is, what?, 30% to 60% effective? In other words 50:50. So, why bother - unless your health (or age) increases the risks to the extent to justify it. Driving to a clinic entails both costs and risks - 35,000+ people die on the roads each year (in the USA) and there are 5.7 million collisions.
Howdy from the midwest. I share your "Fuck you!", and pledge my support wherever you may be.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
"there's now safeguards"
What ever happened to pride in one's profession?
Trump is more famous than you. So Trump is smarter than you...
I don't think that's how it works. The people you are talking about seem likely to be 'even less famous' than Trump.
Colds and flu are completely different.
Be best for global warming if it's Americans, Canadians and Australians who die off by the 10's of millions, The planet will thank them.
We have a serious problem with overpopulation taxing resources. We could lose a few billion and other than the stench, would be better off.
Why are you limited to only one virus? When one contracts a flu their immune system is compromised. This invites all sorts of other problems that would have normally been avoided. So even if the flu shot does not cover a specific virus, it can still assist you should you come in contact with said virus and want to recover quickly.
Pretty hard to catch the flu when you never leave your basement.
IV vitamin C remains in the "memory hole" category with "standard medicine" despite decades of successful use, off screen, or off label
New Zealand, 60 minutes
Riordan Clinic
Most people only use injectable vitamin C to provide an initial improvement with 1-2 infusions, rather than reliably pump it down with 2-3 days of infusions, 3x per day at 0.7-1.1 grams per kg of body weight per infusion.
Likewise, higher dosages of vitamin D3 both improve initial resistance AND modulate or ameliorate things like cytokine storm.
see also www.vitaminDwiki.com
Too often, that is the wrong variety for the pending influenza season.
Actually the flu shot is usually spot on for the most at risk variety of influenza of the season. That you still get the flu is a realisation that there are many variants of the flu out there and going around. Only the most widespread are targeted which makes you immune to about 40-60% of the strains out there.
That said 2017-2018 they did get it wrong. The WHO listed it as 10% effective partially due to targeted strain mutating between the hemispheres. But one bad year is a far cry from "too often". It's actually quite a successful program on the grand scheme of things.
Years ago our company provided free flu shots and one of my colleagues responded allergic to it and ended up in critical condition in hospital for weeks. He never fully recovered but is able to work again.
Would be nice to know up front if you are at risk for such a reaction before getting the flu shot.
Red states, fuck you
Doctors aren't infallible, but on medical matters they're probably the go-to people.
Your doctor is a doctor. Andrew Wakefield isn't.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It is unfortunate that western NY is in the same state as the rest of NY.
Maybe NY and PA could negotiate a land swap deal. Exchange eastern PA for western NY.
What does unfit for military service even mean? This sounds like some excuse offered to a draft board to get excused?
"Sir, I am unable to do 5 chin-ups/pull-ups/whatever-kind-of-qualifying-callisthenic-to-qualify-for-military-service." "Too bad, son, you will have to stay home and wallow in shame to not be at the front with your friends, living out your natural lifespan with your limbs intact."
Sure. People die all the time. Flu is always changing to get around immunities and drugs.
I feel for the people who are forced to be in large crowds. For the rest of us, there is Amazon Pantry and other food delivery services, assuming you don't have to physically go into work. Some of my family can't stand to be indoors more than 1 day. They have to go, go, go, go. That isn't me.
I've been working from home over a decade now. Some weeks, I barely step outside to get the mail at the street.
In the USA we have right to decide if we want medicine or not. Y'all sound like you want to force the Flu Vaccine on EVERYONE.
Personally, I do not trust Big Pharma. I had the flu shot once, and it made me ill. I'll never get another one. Not to mention the
risks from adjuvants.
Red pill yourselves people!
Stop lying when lives are at stake. Medical professionals in the US are required to get the flu shots. It's not true only a small amount of them get it - 100% gets it
For the benefit of us all, please keep nit taking flu shots. We want the future to be free from your influence.
The kids didn't die before -- they just got the flu. I would guess that they hope they won't die this year either.
I understand their point to be that the kids who didn't get the shot (the parents can opt out) turned out to be, in general, no worse off than those who did.
No. Well...maybe. Actually, yes. It really just depends.
Maybe NY and PA could negotiate a land swap deal. Exchange eastern PA for western NY.
One of the rare swaps where both sides lose...
FTFA:
>> "As many as 50 million died, or one out of every 30 human beings on the planet,"
I always hate when journalists start mixing apples and oranges by taking statistics and generalizing them in a "1 in X chance". DAMMIT! Don't say "That's a one out of 30 chance" and just say "As many as 50 million died, or about 3% of the human population at the time".
He said highly trained...so instead of looking at the nurses, doctors and staff at hospitals, go look at how many researchers at places like AstraZeneca, CSL, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur, Seqirus, etc. actually get "flu shots" (in quotes to indicate what the average person gets). But hey, don't let a $1.5+B flu shot market let you think all those "get your flu shot" marketing campaigns are wrong, just make sure your vaccine is labeled as appropriate for sheeple.
The Spanish Flu caused a cytokine storm. Basically caused your immune system to overreact, and kill yourself. Consequently, people with strong immune systems - fit and healthy young adults - were the most likely to die from it. Contrast this to modern examples of the flu which mostly picks off children and the elderly.
If the population today is generally healthier than in 1918, something like the Spanish Flu would be even more deadly today than it was then. (Though to be fair, we don't have a World War going on forcing people into tight quarters and to move around the world, spreading the virus.)
My employer paid for them, and I used to get them. I noticed that I feel under the weather for a couple days after getting one. Not like flu sick, but not great. like muscle achy everywhere and fatigued. I also noticed the only times I became massively sick with a flu was on years I got the shot. The shots never seem to be effective for me. I am 40 years old, so have been exposed to many strains already and been tremendously sick numerous times. The flu sucks and if there weren't so many variations of virii that cause it I would definitely get the shot. If you don't have side effects from the shot, get it. If you do, then don't. I can't know that priming my immune cells for the variants in the shots I took helped me later on or not. It might have.
As I understand it, the danger lies in a virus that doesn't care if you had shots or not.
The Spanish Flu was an avian flu. To develop the shots, the labs have to make a guess at which one of the various stems is going to be the most prevalent for that season and then start producing the shots. That takes a couple of weeks or months (seems like it's weeks these days).
If a very aggressive strain would spread before anyone could develop something to counter it, it would spread uncontrolled - we'd have a pandemic.
Even if it had "only" 10% mortality, life as we know it would come to a halt. The Katrina-aftermath would look like a peaceful picnic in comparison.
There's the 2011 film "Contagion" with Matt Daemon that apparently depicts reality quite well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I have never had a flu shot in my life.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Lets aim for 500 000 000.
Stop lying when lives are at stake. Medical professionals in the US are required to get the flu shots. It's not true only a small amount of them get it - 100% gets it
Sorry, but I'm not the one spreading lies. The vaccination rate among medical professionals in the US is high but well short of 100% according to this article. Furthermore when not mandated the article states that the rate drops to 45%.
In Canada it seems the rates have increased somewhat in recent years but still around half do not get vaccinated as this, very pro-flu vaccine article states. In BC making it mandatory has increased rates of vaccination to 80% but that's avoiding the point.
If the only way you can get medical professionals to have flu vaccinations is to force them to it raises very serious questions about how medically valuable this vaccination is. Trying to cast doctors as uncaring, as the Alberta article does, has not been my experience, Generally, they seem to just disagree that the shots are worth it due to the rapid-evolving, unpredictable nature of the virus. The recommendation I have always received is that when you get elderly it is worth it but for a normal, healthy adult the benefit is minimal.
This is not "Linus Pauling's [oral] vitamin C theory". The IV anti-viral procedure and results precede Pauling's arrival and advocacy of oral treatments by at least two decades. Pauling was introduced to vitamin C treatment in 1966 and his advocacy began in the late 1960s. It is a hammer and tongs salvage therapy that is the strongest general anti-viral treatment available.
IV vitamin C therapy has been embargoed by MSM for decades. Only a relative few have direct experience and/or technical background to blow through the lies and ignorance. It is a great tragedy for anyone that died or was damaged by acute viral disease.
See also
Injectable Vitamin C and the Treatments of Viral and Other Diseases by Robert McCracken Ph.D.; and
Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable, by Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D
Flu pandemic is one of the three "not ridiculously unlikely" emergencies our building picked for its "Emergency Preparedness" considerations. Basically, if something has a 1% chance per year of happening or better, then we'd include it. That came down to major earthquake, 100-year storm, and this, all of which can disrupt basic services and even food supply.
The movie "Contagion" shows a fairly realistic depiction of how such a pandemic could go, and food supplies do run short at one point, the army is handing out MREs, and not enough everywhere.
When I took training for it at work (running a water treatment plant) years back, they point out that it isn't about that many dying, or even that many being sick: it's how many people are home with sick kids and other relatives, how many SAY they are because they're terrified to leave the house. So we trained up all the office staff to be able to (basically, with supervision) run the plant so that even if we were at 25% (plant-experienced) staffing, we could keep the water on. Electrical and gas utilities have similar strategies. Grocery chains and private trucking companies do not, to my knowledge.
You can get the adult flu vaccine for a few dollars almost everywhere. The children's vaccine is very difficult to get except at your doctor's office, and means taking kids out of school for the day (and yourself out of work too). We missed our weekend flu clinic one year (already sick ...), and this year the weekend flu clinics are only on weekdays. :/ If you're later in the season, the childrens is gone (we knew a public health nurse who got us ours when we hit 6 months, well into the season already. She only had 2-3 left.) I'm talking to you Sutter Health.
Their stupid fucking flashy signs next to the highway advertising this own hospital. This stress causes flu.
Damn burse gave it way to high on the shoulder. Said something but it was too late... jabbed.
3 weeks later and it is only now starting to feel better. Still only about 50% strength.
I'll get another shot next year. In my ass cheek.
>>Stop lying when lives are at stake. Medical professionals in the US are required to get the flu shots. It's not true only a small amount of them get it - 100% gets it
>Sorry, but I'm not the one spreading lies. The vaccination rate among medical professionals in the US is high but well short of 100%
Where *I* live in the US, it absolutely is NOT required for healthcare workers. However, it is generally provided by the healthcare companies for its employees for free, and it is strongly encouraged. And a majority do get it. And that is probably the way it SHOULD be. In a [supposedly] free society, making something like that "required" is dubious. There are those who get quite ill from the vaccine (no, you can't get the flu from a flu vaccine, but for many their body will absolutely react to it as if it were a live invader) and there are other risks and allergies associated with any vaccine. Make no mistake- I am very "pro vaccine" (in most cases), but not to the point of taking away people's choices. Make it available. Educate. Promote. Encourage.
Antivaxers are not very bright. The flu is a deadly virus. It doesn't always kill but since it is constantly mutating it can become a lot more deadly all of the sudden and by the time the world realizes this is that flu, you won't be able to vaccinate the mobs quick enough. So get a flu shot every year (they are free if you have any kind of insurance and fairly low cost otherwise). It is true that even if you've been vaccinated it might not protect you from the one that kills but at least it is what you can do right now. You buy lottery tickets with a 1 in 200,000,000 shot of winning. I'd say most flu vaccines have a better chance than that at providing protection. So, get with the program!
Be More, Be Manly, The Manly Geek Ubergeek Extraordinaire Blogger: www.manlygeek.com/blog Podcaster: podcast.man
For sure.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
Die of lung cancer? You died of the flu. Die of pneumonia? You died of the flu. About a decade ago the flu vaccine machine wasn't selling a lot of flu vaccines. They talked to their powerful friends about this problem, and other statistics for death were lumped into the flu death statistic in order to help their scare tactics. Why? To keep the flu vaccine(which doesn't actually work--says so right on the label) raking in the money.
"Only about 15-20 per cent of people who come down with flu-like symptoms have the influenza virus -- the other 80-85 per cent actually caught rhinovirus or other germs that are indistinguishable from the true flu without laboratory tests, which are rarely done"
"According to the National Vital Statistics System in the U.S., for example, annual flu deaths in 2010 amounted to just 500 per year -- fewer than deaths from ulcers (2,977), hernias (1,832) and pregnancy and childbirth (825)"
source: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrence-solomon/death-by-influenza_b_4661442.html
1918 did mainly attack vulnerable races, Blacks in SA and Moari in NZ for instance, but we have done such a good job of not breeding for finesss now it will be worse. As well as many more of us.
These are kids who are at risk for dying from the flu. I have a hard time believing parents would opt-out from the shots. Maybe Quebec is full of religious nutters though, I don't know.
Except that , being pretty much all white, civilised and advanced, those countries will be fine.
The muds living in their filthy hovels though will die in the millions.
Considering that everything else that the modern medical industry has done to us has lowered our natural immunity to almost non-existent, I think that there is a real danger of an epidemic wiping out a significant part of the population.
If memory serves the 1918 flu killed so many because of dehydration.
This strain caused massive fevers and someone who was alive the night before could be dead by morning.
Please tell I'm wrong here: 80 thousand people died of flu in 2018 in US?
I quickly searched and found, for instance, that Brazil had less than 1000 lethal cases of flu in 2017. A large part of the population is immunized yearly, though, through vaccines.
So, is that number real for US?
I got mine.
A lot of people get it for free. OAPs, Asthma sufferers etc.
But for the rest of us it's ~15 quid. I rang my local pharmacy (Doctors in the UK only do the freebies) and they had one dose left in stock.
So there are a lot of us willing to pay 15 quid and get it.
I had the flu in 2012, was in bed for 3 weeks, lost 18 pounds in weight. So 15 quid seems worth it.
Question for everyone: Who's employer pays for their flu jab? I'm sue it would be cost effective. Mine doesn't.
Geez, disliking just *one* case of vaccines is as good as hating them all, huh? Somebody didn't read all the way through...
Vaccines for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, other kinds of diseases that are deadly but slow-mutating, definitely get those, the low rates of mutation of those diseases is why the vaccines work so well. I'm saying that influenza strains are a different beast from these.
It's still a only an educated scientific guess as to which flu strain will be dominant in any given "flu season" year (they usually pick one that's about halfway across the globe from your country), and whether they picked correctly or not determines the efficacy of that year's vaccine.