Will you take the Swine Flu Jab?

drunkenmaster said:
people forget, a mutation isn't automatically worse and the chance of mutation is pretty low though increased by the amount that virus's do actually reproduce. Human evolution is slow as well, we live long and reproduce very slowly, a virus will reproduce millions of times in days. But a survivable reproducable mutation is very unlikely and theres nothing to say it will become worse and more deadly, evolution is trial and error, it may mutate into a harmless and more contagious disease, or become deadly but almost impossible to spread.

Nothing to be worried about in the slightest.
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Exactly, it could mutate into a deadly virus that kills within a day, in which case might stop it spreading anywhere due to its high efficiency death rate. eg Ebola (awesomely interesting virus).
 
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I'm hoping that the population of this country will actually practice more personal hygiene first which in turn will help limit the spread of this disease even if it mutates. The amount of blokes I see walking out of toilet cubicles whilst taking a tinkle and then straight out of the main door without washing their hands is absolutely disgusting. If they do that then I can't see them washing their hands or using a tissue when coughing.
 
drunkenmaster said:
you do realise of course, and I feel silly for pointing this out as you clearly know, but in 1918, there weren't of course all that many people alive who were over 65, so you'd naturally expect fairly few of the deaths to be in over 65's, because even if you killed them all, it would still not be more than those under 65 who died.

The life expectancy in the USA only broke 65 in 1949, it was under 50 in 1917, and took an unsurprising hit in 1918 as.
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And that is why we look at rates rather than raw figures. E.g. per 100,000 people 65-70, how many died.
 
Hopefully I will be getting the jab due to my current sucesptibility etc. The virus can get so deep in to the lungs it causes blood clots. healthy or not, you can almost certainly die from that.
 
Wiggins said:
I'm hoping that the population of this country will actually practice more personal hygiene first which in turn will help limit the spread of this disease even if it mutates. The amount of blokes I see walking out of toilet cubicles whilst taking a tinkle and then straight out of the main door without washing their hands is absolutely disgusting. If they do that then I can't see them washing their hands or using a tissue when coughing.
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I try to teach this to kids with my magic Infection Control box.
At a Careers Fair I will show them how easy to spread disease & bacteria around but back at my Skills Lab I'll also show them how to scrub properly.

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dmpoole said:
I try to teach this to kids with my magic Infection Control box.
At a Careers Fair I will show them how easy to spread disease & bacteria around but back at my Skills Lab I'll also show them how to scrub properly.
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/aside

You really seem to be enjoying your 'new' job? :)
 
dmpoole said:
WAS a big killer but thankfully in the last 18 months we have been taught better Infection Control routines eg Barrier Nursing & screening
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It was an interesting case that - Media blew the whole thing out of proportion by sending samples off to a lab that belonged to "the uk's leading MRSA expert" who was actually a bloke in a shed in Northampton who was the only one coming back giving positive samples when everyone in the real labs couldn't find anything whatsoever!

Loads of reading here, for those that might be interested
 
Damn Nitefly, that information is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Had flu at Christmas and it wasn't so bad.
 
Wiggins said:
I'm hoping that the population of this country will actually practice more personal hygiene first which in turn will help limit the spread of this disease even if it mutates. The amount of blokes I see walking out of toilet cubicles whilst taking a tinkle and then straight out of the main door without washing their hands is absolutely disgusting. If they do that then I can't see them washing their hands or using a tissue when coughing.
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When I'm in public toilets I find my personal hygiene is best served by touching as little as possible, you're probably picking up and spreading more germs handling the taps than those disgusting people who walk straight out do.
 
The flu scare back in the 70s, the vaccine killed 2500% more people than the flu itself. I think I'll take my chances with the flu, thanks.
 
meghatronic said:
And that is why we look at rates rather than raw figures. E.g. per 100,000 people 65-70, how many died.
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you didn't look at rates, you very specifcally said that 99% of PEOPLE THAT DIED were less than 65. you didn't say 8% of over 65's died, or 100% of over 65's died, just that most of those that did die weren't over 65.

There probably weren't over 100,000 people in the USA that were over 65, did you miss that part at all? The life expectancy of people born in 1917 was expected to be 50(for males). THat means those BORN in 1917 without living through earlier dirtier harder years WOULDN'T be expected to live past 50, those already 25, wouldn't have be expected to make it past a lower number.

SO its perfectly possible that the number of people over 65 was less say 0.5% of the population, and that 0.4% of all people over 65 died from it, however the only stat you show is that 99% of people that died from it where younger than 65, not suprising, again, because 99% of the population in the world were under 65.

Its also worth pointing out that those in the first wave, were immune from the second wave which was far more deadly. Its perfectly possible that the older people were more susceptible to actually catching the virus due to weakened immune systems, but because it was weaker and not very deadly, they all became immune to it, which is perfectly reasonable and follows normal flu patterns. When the second incredibly deadly and contagious version, the strong immune systems that kept them from even getting it, stopped the stronger people having immunity, hence the data.

Its also worth noting that very VERY similar outbreaks of VERY similar viruses occured decades before. a 20 year old wouldn't have been alive for those outbreaks, a 65year old WOULD HAVE BEEN and so could have had immunity for decades before.

Theres a tonne of reasons why older people wouldn't have been effected as badly, but theres no data I can find that suggests what the mortality rate officially was for the over 65's, even if it was significantly lower, previous immunity is a VERY valid reason for such stats.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Its also worth noting that very VERY similar outbreaks of VERY similar viruses occured decades before. a 20 year old wouldn't have been alive for those outbreaks, a 65year old WOULD HAVE BEEN and so could have had immunity for decades before.

Theres a tonne of reasons why older people wouldn't have been effected as badly, but theres no data I can find that suggests what the mortality rate officially was for the over 65's, even if it was significantly lower, previous immunity is a VERY valid reason for such stats.
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We're back on the same page again.... :)
 
Been dealing with many people with swine flu the last couple of weeks, and the best part is our employer has said basically at this moment in time the more people who get it the better if there fit and well, but of course should we the front line go off with it, that will be out sickness % being bumped up.

I believe our 'jab' will be pretty much all but mandatory, so wont get much of a choice in the matter.
 
Freefaller said:
MRSA is a killer, but this has nothing to do with swine flu. Swine flu doesn't kill, flu and illness within weak people kills (and I mean weak in terms of immune systems or previous illnesses etc...).
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By your own reasoning, MRSA doesn't kill, illness + MRSA kills - for both influenza and MRSA related disease the vulnerable (those already suffering) are at risk. That was why I made the comparison.

However, swine flu is extremely contagious, whilst MRSA related illness is confined to hospitals.
 
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