Is Swine Flu Being Handled Properly? (vaccine policy)

[AlaskaDenise]

HOUSTON - There is a controversy brewing about whether health officials have the right plan to fight off a pandemic.

The debate boils down to two options: is it best to protect the weakest members of society first or take measures to limit the spread of the virus.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination guidelines suggest targeting people who are most likely to get sick. Emergency medicine specialist at St. Joseph's Medical Center Dr. Kadisha Rapp agrees with federal guidelines.

"Letting people who can fight it, fight it (is the best option). Those who can't, those are the people who should be protected first," said Dr. Rapp as she rushed to care for patients at Houstons oldest hospital.

Opposing research suggests the most fertile breeding ground for the virus will be at the nation's schools. Therefore all children should be vaccinated to prevent viral exposure to their parents and via those adults to the broader workforce.

The CDC predicts 1.8 million Americans could be hospitalized with swine flu and between 30 - 90 thousand people will die from the virus. Though that number seems scary, Dr. Rapp insists the vast majority of swine flu victims will survive.

On Wednesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services is holding a regional pandemic flu conference in Houston to discuss local plans for a future outbreak.

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/health/swine_flu/090825_swine_flu_predicitons_problems

 

[Niko]

Re: Is Swine Flu Being Handled Properly? (vaccine policy)

I realize this is like comparing apples to oranges, but we don't have enough apples for comparison yet.
See this post from 2006: Effectiveness of School-Based Influenza Vaccination

 

[tropical]

Re: Is Swine Flu Being Handled Properly? (vaccine policy)

#1: "The debate boils down to two options: is it best to protect the weakest members of society first or take measures to limit the spread of the virus."

Both!

As a generic answer, it can be noted that at the polls, or at the meds, worldwide there were no citizens subscriptions about any delegated right to anyone to place them as NOT included, and not be scientificaly medicaly protected from an potential deadly infectious illness agent.

If the worldwide society folks augmented / builded / converted more vaccine productions facilities / production vacc. lines in time (which need was clearly spoted by the 2005 bird flu scare), now it will be no limited quantity of vaccines, nor few months of retard until they must be applyed.

So the answer is both.

If somebody argues that facts is facts, and we haven't that option now realy, no problem, it can be done alternatively:

- the weakest (illness prone - humans with other chronic illnesses,...) must be vaccinated first, because they could die

- at the same time, the other ones who must be posed in a position to not spread the illness because are un-vaccinated, must be home-grounded, or working in adequate personal protection gear (N100 mask, eye protection, gloves, decontamination), until the wave vanished, or are vaccinated- so they will not spread it

Hard? Maybe it will be harder if all the 50% became sick in the same month ...

This new "hard" question is the consequence of the "hard" NON decision of grounding the planes, tourists, and closing the borders for only 2 weeks (with countries hotspots viral blanketing) at the very begining of this pandemic.