However, H1N1 is just too technical sounding and strains of it can be found it humans and birds as well. Which reminds me of something that happened a few years ago called Avian Flu, which by the way has killed 257 people worldwide since 2003 and has infected 16 people in Egypt so far. So instead of calling it H1N1, we're just going to call it the seasonal flu and whether you want to accept it or not, most of these cases are probably just regular flu outbreaks.
How can I be so sure about this? First of all, while the flu vaccine don't seem to be working in this flu outbreak, there is Tamiflu and Relenza that people can take and either one works. Obviously the flu that is going around has some similarities to regular strain otherwise nothing would be working. Another possibility could be that not as many people went to go for their seasonal flu shots last fall, which could place them at a higher risk for getting the flu. Let's say that everybody did go for their flu shots last fall, who's to say that the vaccines were 100% accurate and the last year's vaccines were designed to protect against three types of strains. one of them being for a H1N1 strain.
The following information can be found on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.
The flu vaccine protects against the three main flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. This year’s influenza vaccine contains three new influenza virus strains.
They are:
- A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like virus;
- A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus;
- B/Florida/4/2006-like virus.
The 2008-09 influenza vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses, or it can make your illness milder if you get a related but different influenza virus strain.
That last part is really important because if some high school student, who feels she doesn't need to get her flu shot, goes to Mexico for Spring Break, catches this disease and brings it back with her, that means that anyone who comes in contact with her who took last year's flu shot has a high chance of getting sick. If a survey was done in New York I wouldn't be surprised if almost everyone who has gotten this flu had gotten their flu shots taken last fall.If that still doesn't convince those who still suspend their belief, it has been scientifically proven that the body after a while can eventually build up an immunity to a certain strain and therefore a new vaccine must be created and that's basic biology. So please don't let the media scare you into thinking that this is going to bring America to its knees because they're just simply doing their job by reporting the news. However, as Professor Kaufman mentioned in his class today this story really has no big impact on us. It's like a table with a missing leg, sure it can hold up for a while but when people start to press down on it, it just collapses. When the mass media starts to see things subside they will fade away from this and move on to something else. However,we as the media can simply look at all the chaos and panics about swine flu and file it under "G."
If you want to read more real information about the Swine Flu, really Seasonal Flu, visit these links that I posted below.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/flu_vaccine_updates.htm#protection
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/index.html
You can always listen to the radio, watch the news, read a paper or surf the web, but remember that in the end, I Am The Media! You Are The Media! We Are The Media! Please feel free to comment and post your opinions.
This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.
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