Posted on 03/02/2010 12:27:02 PM PST by jazusamo
This has been a flu season like few others.
Normally at this time of year, influenza is rampant in the U.S., prompting hundreds of thousands of people to stay home in the dead of winter with fever, aches and pains.
Now, after raging through college campuses and communities last summer and fall, cases of the new H1N1 swine flu virus have dwindled to a trickle, and run-of-the-mill seasonal flu has barely made an appearance. Not one state reported widespread flu illness to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the week ended Feb. 20, the latest data available. The percentage of all doctors' visits by patients with influenza-like symptoms has dropped from a high of 7.8% in late October—the largest peak since the agency began surveillance in 1997—to 1.8% in late February, well below the norm for flu season.
Doctors and flu experts say the lull is unusual. "This is typically the peak of flu," said James Turner, executive director of the University of Virginia's department of student health. He said the Charlottesville, Va., student health center usually sees as many as 130 students a week complaining of flu symptoms this time of year. Recently, no more than three to five students a week have been coming in with fever, cough or other signs of flu, he said.
It is not clear why there is so little flu, particularly swine flu, going around, experts say. "Surely there's a sufficient number of people who haven't been infected or vaccinated," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Many scientists say the answer probably has to do with how the flu virus progresses. Influenza comes and goes in waves, normally running from October through May...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I'm convinced that the entire purpose of the propagation of the "swine flu" scare was to convince people that the government was the hero for discovering the problem and acting upon it in a positive fashion. This was all about persuading the public that the government is capable of running the health care system, and doing it well. It was all marketing.
In reality, the swine flu is no different than any other flu strain. It is neither stronger nor more docile. It's just the flu.
I think they were hoping for more than 60%.
There was no regular flu shot available for my 6 year old. She never received one this year. I told the nurse “when Bush was President she always had a flu shot”. They wanted me to go to a welfare clinic to get one. I refused.
Very simple answer. As in so many things, guvmint doesn’t know what it is talking about.
I still hear the frantic warnings on the radio to get your H1Ni shot NOW before its too late. It came through here pretty early in the fall and hasn’t been back. Those of us who have been taking sunshine-in-a-gelcap i.e. vitamin D-3 have missed out on the whole flu and cold season.
Flu and colds are winter phenomena because in winter people don’t get sunshine and don’t get their maintenance dose of vitamin D thereby. You can get vitamin D-3 5000 iu gelcaps at WalMart. My wife is a schoolteacher and for thirty years has brought home whatever flu and colds were going around at school. We have both taken the D-3 10,000 iu(what you get in an hour or so of summer sun) a day since early September this year. Mrs. did not bring home any maladies including the H1N1 which laid all the kids out in October.
Exactly! Follow the money.
There’s no shortage of vaccine now like there was for months and a lot of it is going to go unused, bad for them financially.
The flu hasn’t hit in this area anywhere’s near like they were predicting.
“
Wasn’t this flu supposed to kill off 60% of the population or something?
Honestly scientists and commentators need to stop watching so many
bad sci-fi movies.
“
That’s part of the problem.
Unfortunately, the scientists probably read too much history by the MDs,
public health officers and the other folks that survived the “Spanish”
influenza while people, dispropotionately in the health ages of 20-40,
were dropping like flies.
And these public health types were totally impotent to stop it.
The media tempest that erupted last year over H1N1...probably
not necessary.
But the public health officials are paid to head off “the worst case
scenario”.
Sadly, that intesected with the journalists, too many without degrees
in biological sciences, whose job is to scare us to death and sell their
magazines, cable TV specials, end-of-life-as-we-know-it docudramas.
I do have some D with my Calcium. I will check out a larger dose!
The D you take with calcium is sufficient to enhance the calcium. It is only a miniscule portion of what your body needs and does not get in the winter or any time if you work at night as I do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.