Swine Flu

[Andrew]

Local swine flu clinic had to turn people away. Police were called to disperse the crowd.

The provincial toll free # for swine flu has too many people calling they can't answer every call, and the answering machine got full.

They are setting up clinics to diagnose if you have swine flu.

8 schools have 10% or more absenteeism.

Next week should be fun! Especially after Halloween interactions.

EDIT:

Government officials are telling people not to go to hospitals if you have flu symptoms. As you are just infecting everyone else. Nova Scotia is opening flu clinic for flu symptom people. 33/137 schools in HRM (Halifax Regional Municipality) have >10% absenteeism.

[Andrew]

It's getting worse.

3 clinics closed early yesterday as they ran out of vaccine. Some people left work early to get vaccinated only to find out they were closed. Lineups long, one facebooker said 5 hour wait.

8 schools (out of I'm guessing 30) in my province are now 10-25% absenteeism. Might close at 30%.

It takes 10 days for vaccination to take affect. On facebook one of my contacts who got vaccinated yesterday, is sick today. Only certain people can get vaccinated (unhealthy/veryyoung/old). I think normal people can get vaccinated starting next week, but if it takes 10 days for it to work, that means I'll be more likely to get infected before I am protected.

At the grocery stores today people were coughing into their hands and then touching stuff :(

Provinces get less H1N1 vaccine next week

“Unlike virtually every other country in the world, by Christmas we should have enough vaccines for everybody that wants it in Canada,” Butler-Jones told CBC’s Power & Politics. “But it is not all available at once.”

Hurray I can get a vaccine by Christmas! WTF? By then I'll either not have gotten flu and no need, or have gotten flu and will already be immune.

Ottawa H1N1 wristbands prevent 'gaming the system'

From another article:

– 18,000 doses of swine flu vaccine were shipped to P.E.I;

– 15,000 doses have already been administered;

– 500 calls per day to the swine flu hot line;

– 8 Island schools with a declared outbreak of swine flu;

No reason to panic. We're just out of vaccine.

Toronto H1N1 clinics overwhelmed.

So we got people waiting in line in the rain waiting to get vaccinated. They're gonna end up sick with other stuff.

The government and media have been telling everyone to get the vaccine, and now they can't meet demand.

[exatreide]

Even if you are unable to get the vaccine, hopefully enough people around you are immunized. This would give you a sort of herd immunity until enough vaccines are out.

[Andrew]

Cat, 2 ferrets get swine flu, experts say some other pets may be vulnerable

Health staffer fired for Flames' flu shot clinic

Sports stars get vaccination before public.

Toronto hospital board got H1N1 shots early

Non front line people got vaccinated.

Provincial authorities say it is going to get worse.

Flu activity is three times higher this week than last week, Canada's chief public health officer said Thursday.

I'd rather get the flu now than later since I'm not currently busy. But of course I'll probably get it at the worst time.

[Edric O]

Well, guess what, boys and girls? I officially have swine flu. So if I suddenly disappear and you never hear from me again, you'll know what happened.

But if I survive, I'll have antibodies for H1N1 and you won't! Mwahahahaha!

[gryphon]

swime fluw, that's just what the government wants you to believe you know...

What you really have is much, much worse.

[Edric O]

Actually, does anyone know where I could find some fresh, juicy brains? Mmmm, brains...

[Rene]

Ah, now it's all becoming clear. This whole swine flu thing is just a conspiracy. All capitalist country's are involved, they want to get rid of Edric O ;D ;)

[chatfsh]

Drat!  They're on to us. Abort, abort!

[Wolf]

Hwi, would it be terrible of me to say "stay the course?"

[chatfsh]

Shhhh...not in front of the socialists, Wolf.

[Edric O]

I am proud to announce that I have crushed the capitalist plot with revolutionary zeal, and recovered from the dread illness that the exploiters inflicted upon me. The swine flu collapsed under its own internal contradictions, and I have re-established socialist relations of production inside my lungs. Working cells of every tissue, unite! :D

[chatfsh]

*Consoles her biomechanical minions*

Fear not, my little ones. Abandon all despair, for we shall regroup and develop yet another biological agent to invade the pernicious  hosts of our socialist enemies.  Victory is near!

...uh, just my way of  saying - Glad you're feeling better, Edric.:)

[Andrew]

At least now you won't need the flu vaccine meant to take control of your mind.

Still not available to general public yet where I'm at. Maybe in 2 weeks.

[Sneakgab]

Especially funny because the capitalists probably WERE the ones who caused Swine Flu (kind of). Though it was not the aim of their acts, whose motivations were far more mundane than assassination: Just the common profit motive.

I'll just quote myself to explain why.

''''Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim''

If by ''human error'' you mean loading your cattle with antibiotics (thus weakening their immune system in various ways [by the way, antibiotics do not affect viral infections such as flus of course]) and herding them into tiny spaces (thus increasing density and the distance between hosts) as well as generally reducing the healthiness of the cattle through various means (like hormone injections) that through different levels of directness that reduce their ability to defend themselves against infection and creates (edit.well, not creates exactly, more facilitates the spread of. You know what I mean. edit.) strands of virus that are resistant to the antibiotics normally used to treat them (since mammalian viruses are presumably treated with similar antibiotics even for different species [ie: humans and whatever cattle species]), then yes, swine flu may have been caused by human error.''

I mentioned that antibiotics do not affect flus to point out that they played no positive role in the combating of Swine Flu. However, even if we were speaking about a bacteria, though they may positively combat one, they would still contribute to the creation of strains resistant to anti-biotics. Unlike humans where their is sometimes good reason to administer anti-biotics , doing it in pigs is pretty much facilitating the evolution of strain resistant bacteria for no good reason (especially how they are administered constantly instead of only when a pig is seriously sick). The big agro companies get a few more bucks. That's it.

So when some poor sod gets desperately sick, the anti-biotics won't help anymore, all so that some rich guy can get even richer.

You know, speaking about needless anti-biotic application, this mad dash for swine-flu vaccination is sad to see as well (since it has been suggested that vaccination may have negative effects as well as costs [time, e.t.c], so it shouldn't be done for the sake of negligible benefit).

[Rene]

That's an interesting explanation. I've never heard that cattle get antibiotics all the time before. For us humans (at least in my country) you can only get that stuff when prescribed by a doctor, and you're saying companies can get huge amounts for their pigs? That's pretty strange.

@Edric O: Good to hear your health is back to normal

[Dante]

Oh sure, livestock are loaded with antibiotics, among other things. The real problem in that is that a lot of them are excreted by the animal in a form that still holds some effectiveness. So broad-spectrum antiparasite drugs, for example, could still be in a form to harm other animals.

Example: I did some work in my final year of university on ivermectin, which is a drug used to fight invertebrate parasites. It works by interfering with invertebrate nervous signals, thus inhibiting muscle control and neurological function. Conveniently, it has no effect on the corresponding mechanisms in vertebrates. Further, it's about as broad-spectrum as you can get. It works against insects, worms, flukes, mites, just about anything.

Now just as in humans, drugs for livestock have to be hardy enough to do their purpose, and not end up dissolving to nothing in one of the cow's stomachs. The problem with that is that they are very often hardy enough (and in great enough concnetrations) to still be in workable form when they are excreted. And when it's as broad as ivermectin, this spells trouble not only for the hundreds of organisms that depend on dung in one way or another (it doesn't stop with flies and beetles), but the ones that are negatively impacted when the dung is improperly broken down (the livestock itself and ultimately humans, though one could call that poetic justice).

So yeah, not only do livestock get antibiotics, there's a pretty good case that they're getting too much of them.

[xenome]

  HELLO...

-tap tap tap on the petri-dish-

are you squirming little amoebae actually AWARE....?

MY GOD...!

Professor Zvienkopf..!

Look...!

They move towards the light..!