SWINE FLU coming to a city near you

[Hatterized]

reported now in all 50 states......and 72% of colleges/universities.....

all the experts say quite an outbreak this early into the flu season......

and Kathleen Sebelius director of HHS (Health & Human Services) speaks just like her boss....Obama......she uses the expresion....ummmm ummm....quite often......and says.....the vaccine SHOULD work.....

is there anything this administration can do to assure we the people.....or is it ALL trial & error......

[Big Fish Billy]

I've never been a believer in flu shots, especially after having rhumatic fever after a polio shot back in the 60s. But I have to admit, I'm thinking about it this year......

[longfisher]

I have a background in medicine and particularly in vaccine development. In the mid '80's I spent several years working in a laboratory whose aim was to develop a vaccine to AIDS. We never succeeded and neither has anyone else, so far. So, we settled on using our results to improve diagnostic tests for AIDS, instead.

That's not to say that I know better than any of you but for one thing that those fruitless years taught me very well. Mother nature is fickle as all get out and anyone, particularly a government bureaucrat, who speaks about the efficacy of a vaccine with absolute conviction that it will work is probably just blowing smoke, at a minimum, and is deliberately misleading the public at worst.

I appreciate her qualifying her remarks, instead of being overly confident in the protective ability of the vaccine. Although the virus has proven to be more stable and less mutable than initially projected in the populations it's already impacted (mostly in the southern hemisphere or in poorer countries in the northern hemisphere), that does not mean that it can't or won't mutate this winter in a very large infected population like here in the U.S.

History, shows that these flu viruses have proven particularly prone to mutation with the result that they tend to subvert immune surveilance and become more infectious and perhaps deadly. So, the Director of the DHHS has good reason to be wary in what she says.

That said, I'll share with you what I tell my health insurance customers when they ask whether or not they should take the vaccine. I do believe that it will pay to get immunized and to have your families immunized for this strain. I'd also take the regular flu shot, as well. CDC estimates that the swine flu has the potential to kill as many as 90,000 people this year in addition to the normal mortality of just short of 40,000 people from the usual flu bug which will also be seen.

From what I gleen from communications to agents here in Texas from the health insruance companies, as far as coverage is concerned the cost of the vaccine will be reimbursed just like any other adult preventative care procedure, generally at 100% reimbursement and without having to first meet the deductible. At least, that's the case on the relatively good plans from the brand name insurers.

Now that's just Texas and that's just the largest insurers, the brand names, if you will. Each state regulates its own insurance industry with the consequece that each insurer has a different company in each state even though they may be allied and controled by a parent company. Those companies may have policies towards H1N1 that differ from the allied company here in Texas. I'd phone my agent if I lived outside of Texas and wondered about coverage.

Now, back to the virus itself.

The unique thing about the H1N1 swine flu is that it's primary victims are unlike those of the seasonal flu which are generally the old, the sick and the immune impaired. This virus seems to effect the young much more, particularly those who are either teenagers or post-teens like college students. That's evident in the statistic you cite of so many colleges seeing the virus already.

One reason that this virus is not likely to harm the older folks is that both of the antigens (the H1 and the N1) have been seen in the past by those of us older than 50. There were previous flu epidemics in the U.S. where most adults of that vintage and older may well have been infected with a couple of other viruses which contained one or the other of these antigens. So, the prediction is that they'll enjoy at least some amount of immunity to the current strain and that if they're infected their symptoms will be mild.

I'm 57. But I'm still going to take the vaccine as sort of a booster shot unless there's a shortage. If there's a shortage, I'll not be immunized so as to not unnecessarily waste a dose that could go towards protecting someone else who might need it more.

Members of my family are younger. I'll insist they get vaccinated.

As there seems like nothing can escape politics today, not even health issues, I note that there's been a lot of scaremongering from various interest groups and lots of condemnations of the pharmaceutical industry over the vaccine and related issues. These aside, I would still advise you to get vaccinated.

If you choose not and if you're younger than 57, you would be well advised to ensure your health insurance is adequate to sustain you during a lengthy hospitalization and that your life insurance is up to date and will cover your finaicial obligations should you become one of the 90,000 who are projected to die.

LongFisher

[Big Fish Billy]

I'm 57 too, and thinking along those lines as well, thanks for clarifying...