Flu vaccine fiasco…

This from Pulse magazine, an addendum to the previous post:-

“Exclusive: GPs inundated with patients requesting flu jabs have been

Where have all the flu vaccines gone?

Here’s an absolutely wonderful headline from the Guardian, that demonstrates perfectly just how badly mismanaged this country is:-

“Some GP surgeries are running out of flu vaccine, admits government…”

Going on to say that “Suppliers have been asked to

Flu crisis looming? Really?

Pulse magazine said, on Friday:-

The GPC has warned of a looming flu ‘crisis’ and claimed Government cutbacks in marketing have led to a dangerously low uptake of the seasonal flu vaccine among patients.

In response to which, a commenter observed:-

“…the patient’s major concern was the swine flu content. There should have been a national advertising campaign.”

Seriously? A doctor thinks

Flu vaccine – 2010…

I subscribe to Dr. Mercola’s newsletter and, just occasionally, there is a gem peering out at me from among the dross. Today is such a day. Just don’t abandon your critical faculties altogether, though.

In the US, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), is getting its knickers in a twist over the lack of enthusiasm for the swine flu vaccine last year.

Forget lunatic allegations of

All my COPD and flu posts in one place…

Here are links to what I think are the most important of my COPD and pandemic flu posts, in one place. You can access a lot more by typing COPD into the search box (top right).

The post about the pneumonia vaccine isn’t COPD-specific, but since many people with COPD will be offered the viral pneumonia vaccine, it’s worth including because, as you’ll see from the

Swine flu panic? Don’t, OK? There’s no need…

According to health secretary Andy Burnham, today, the health service is crumbling under the pressure of people panicking about the swine flu. Really? Well he shouldn’t be too bloody surprised, considering the torrent of bullshit that’s flowed from government sources of late.

From 650,000 deaths forecast – and without the slightest evidence to support the prediction – to the advice that pregnant women were probably doomed, we’ve been force-fed the ingredients of panic for weeks, and the problem is amplified by the fact that most people are (a), abysmally ignorant and (b), believe what they read in that scurrilous rag, the Daily Mail.

It’s all very simple – for most of you it’s a mild form of flu and you have nothing at all to worry about so, FFS, stop running around like headless chickens, or trying to blag Tamiflu from the flu help-line or website. In  my view, anyone who does that, and doesn’t have flu, should be jailed.

And I mean that. For every one of you who is perfectly well, yet fraudulently claiming Tamiflu just in case, someone with a serious health problem already may well die for the lack of the drug, you unspeakably selfish, subhuman, witless, bastards.

For most people the infection is mild, and the only ones who need to worry are those, like me, with a pre-existing condition, especially respiratory illnesses, as I’ve said. And not least because some fucker has swiped the Tamiflu!

And by the way, Tamiflu isn’t the panacea that most people seem to think it is. Tamiflu will ease the symptoms a little, and may reduce the course of the flu by a day. Er, that’s it. It is not a cure. OK, it doesn’t do much, then, but even that little may be critical for someone like me.

There is, according to my GP, who told me this a few weeks ago, when I got him out because I felt like shit and had a temp of 103F, there is one certain marker for this form of flu – a temperature of 106F or more.

So if you don’t have one, buy a clinical thermometer – every chemist/pharmacist in the multiverse sells them – and learn how to use the bloody thing! The most reliable method is to tuck it into your armpit for 4-5  minutes. This is because people can be dumb, and are likely to put it in their mouth after a hot – or cold – drink, or while smoking, and get a wildly inaccurate reading. And please, buy a mercury thermometer. Not only will it last you for many years, it’s more accurate. Just remember to shake the mercury down before each use.

To be honest, I was reluctant to post that information, as dishonest pricks can use it to try to get Tamiflu when they don’t need it, but it’s not exactly a secret and if it stops just some people hassling the health service, it’s worth it.

No matter that you might have a head full of snot, and feel like crap, if you don’t have that temperature, it’s just a summer cold – you do not have flu.

One final thought. I’ve covered flu and COPD in depth, but I have no idea how it will affect people with ME/CFS. Logically, there should be no risk, other than an almost inevitable relapse afterwards, as with normal flu.

Swine flu – don’t panic. Seriously…

Don’t be taken in by all the alarmism in the media about how the flu is spreading, and how the millions of calls and website hits (9.3 million hits an hour) indicate just how severe the problem is – as I heard a complete moron of a government spokesman say this morning; he couldn’t have been more wrong. Hype is beginning to outstrip reality – 9.3 million website hits an hour DO NOT

Flu stupidity…

Virgin, it seems, and maybe other airlines – information is currently sketchy – have started vetting passengers for signs of swine flu, and not letting them travel.

Only three bloody months too late…

Swine flu deaths…

The radio is rife with reports of “all the” deaths from swine flu (currently 29). This is because radio newsreaders’  newsroom editors are as thick as pig shit. As, it may prove later in the day, are TV news people. (And currently, there are 650 people currently infected and alive.)

Note, July 17 – the forecast, today, of 65,000 deaths – or maybe just 3,000 – is little more than a wild guess. There’s not the slightest evidence to support the upper figure, and the lower figure is, as I’ve said, lower than normal. It would be nice if officialdom stopped panicking people and actually did something useful for a change…

Look – pay attention – in

More thoughts on the flu pandemic…

Actually, when I typed that the first time it came out as Morte thoughts… How very apposite…

.

The conduct of the government, the health service and pretty much anyone else involved with swine flu has been totally half-assed. Except maybe for GPs but, because the measures involved to support front-line doctors are more or less non-existent, they’re pretty much screwed anyway.

From the outset, I have questioned the  the sanity, when there are several cases in a school, of closing the school and turning the kids loose on the streets, in what they were calling the “swine skive” in London – Tamiflu notwithstanding.

Quite a few of those children subsequently