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h1n1
September 2009 
Viruses...
ingebrita
In the wee hours of yesterday morning my sister came downstairs looking for something to relieve a very sore throat. We gave her some all natural throat lozenges and she was able to go back to sleep... When she woke up in the morning she had horrible laryngitis and had gone through more than half the bag of lozenges. Yikes! But she went into work anyway - she's a college professor scrambling to get all her students' projects done and grades submitted by the 21st. Will have to call her at home today and see how she's doing. Of course the possibility of the H1N1 virus concerns me.
When this whole swine flu scare began my father, who was a research virologist before he retired, had been following the news reports with his usual scientific curiosity and scrutiny. With his poor short term memory it was nice to see him focused for a little while. He didn't say much, but once started chuckling and asked aloud, "Now wouldn't that be ironic if a virologist wound up dying in a flu virus epidemic?" The idea clearly amuses him as he is in such poor health he often tells us that it is time for him to die but death won't come.
It kind of puzzles me about the media take on all this. At first they seemed to be in such a panic. Then they started analyzing their own reaction to it. Now they're playing it down and I wonder why. When the 55 year old assistant principal in New York City died they said he "had preexisting health conditions." What is that supposed to mean? His death didn't really count somehow? There aren't many of us who don't have preexisting health conditions! He was healthy enough to hold down a job. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
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Barbara, your father sounds like he has a cool sense of humour, intensive farming of animals has a lot to answer for, perhaps if everyone ate less meat they could have a better life, and we wouldn't be brewing such problems
Barbara, have you seen this article? A good overview I think… http://www.montrealgazette.com/Health/H1N1+scare+just+false+alarm/1601656/story.html
Gael, Dad does have a great sense of humor. When I was a kid my friends loved to stay for dinner and he'd have us all in stitches joking about everything imaginable. I agree with you, these corporate factory farms are a menace to people and animals alike, and also to Mother Earth. When we do eat meat it we make sure it was raised locally and naturally, on an organic family farm. It costs a lot more, but it's a price we're willing to pay for the benefit of the this little blue planet and for the sake of our own health and well-being.
Nicole, thanks so much for the link to the article! It explains exactly what I suspected, that the virus, so far, seems to be no more lethal that the seasonal flu!
“…as of Friday, the WHO reported that the H1N1 strain has caused 60 deaths out of 7,520 confirmed cases.
That’s a mortality rate of less than one per cent.
In the United States … only three people have died out of 4,298 cases. From those numbers, H1N1 appears to be no more lethal than the seasonal flu.”