STOP the H1N1 MADNESS!!!

Ok, already people. Can we all just get over the H1N1 HYPE?? Influenza viruses have been part of our viral landscape for eons. Of course this is a new one, but... soooo?

Check out this little piece of information:

As of 17 October 2009, worldwide there have been more than 414,000 laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 and nearly 5000 deaths reported to WHO.

That's just over 1% kids. You might think, "What're you nuts?? I don't wanna be that 1 in 100 to croak (or do the 'terminal snort' if you prefer)!" I can see your point, definitely, but now you have to check this out... in an average year, flu kills about 10% of its victims. Yes, TEN PERCENT. So now, you tell me... who's shysting whom?

And, interestingly enough, according to that same WHO update, "the U.S.A. is still reporting nationwide rates of Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) well above baseline rates." I find it hard to believe we are less healthy, more congested (in as much as mass of people in a certain area), or less health conscious than elsewhere in the world. I would say, if you're interested to know, the sheer fact that we are so incredibly and compulsively riveted to any information available about the swine flu that anyone with any of the several signs/symptoms of this illness runs, ney JETS, to their family doctor, pediatrician, or emergency room to be tested, and this is why we have higher rates of swine flu than anywhere else. 

The idiocy of this last is obvious, to me, at least, and I'm not really all that smart: swine flu, like any other flu, is caused by a virus, and because of this there is little the medical community can actually do for a patient who is sick from it. There are antivirals available, but the problem with these are if you don't take it at the very beginning of symptom onset, it's not going to do any good! Flu is generally self-limiting, except in rare cases, and you'll be miserable in the middle of it, but most likely you're not gonna die. (And THAT, dear friends, is the only news report I'll be happy hearing on CNN, FoxNews, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc. etc. etc...)

So, with that all said, I will share this little personal fear with you... If by chance I do contract the dread swine flu, I'll probably die. I say this because, I'm pretty sure that if there is a hell, there is probably a very special place reserved for people like me, who dared to mock H1N1.

Oh, and also? I am at higher risk than most of getting the swine flu because I'm an ER nurse. I come in contact with lots of sick people every day. The sheer mass of those who have come in with aches, cough, and fever lately is mind boggling. I don't want to call them 'idiot', or 'scaredy cat', or 'zealot', but I can't help myself, at least in my head I can't. Besides, in a big picture kind of way I'm not all that worried about myself, because while H1N1 may be contagious, STUPID is not. I feel pretty safe :)



Oh, and P.S. In regard to the "not that smart" confession: I can hang, but I'm definitely not MENSA quality smart.
And also, P.P.S. Yeah, right! I just threw FoxNews in there for shits and giggles. I don't call that news, I call it the mouthpiece of the uber conservative, Limbaugh loving, closed-minded, minority party.
Finally, P.P.P.S. My personal opinion about the hype behind the H1N1 hype is this: our country is so economics driven, so if we SCARE everyone into getting the flu vaccine and H1N1 vaccine, it'll save lost time at work. Coercion of the unsophisticated masses. Plain. And. Simple. Aren't you glad I stayed off my high horse until now? Me too.