don't panic, but "SWINE FLU COULD SPREAD GLOBALLY"

wish I still had some prednisone

have a box of 3 year old tamiflu, dunno if I'd be smart enough to take it in time

new screenname

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/24/health/AP-US-Obama-Swine-Flu.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Alex Jones's prediction has come true. How is everyone coping with the FEMA camps/police state law/involuntary vaccinations with nanobots?

How dare the US government declare the deadly swine flu to be dangerous? I'm not dead or dying, which proves they are wrong.

i think the tamiflu is harder on my kid than the flu at the moment. she seem to be ok, fever pretty much abated, takes the tamiflu and pukes within an hour :(

damn I really want to get swine flu so I don't have to worry about getting swine flu

Okay, convinced them to give me one, so I take back some of my earlier critism.

Nanobots: ACHIEVED.

I look forward to using my new nanobot powers to support our Glorious Leader, Comrade Imam Obama.

If you are eligible to receive the vaccine, getting to a vaccine clinic three hours early may not too early. We arrived two hours early and waited for five hours in line (just for the kid - I'm not a priority group). They didn't even have any injections left by the time we got up front and we had to settle for the nasal mist.

Our appointment for the kids went off without a hitch. In and out in 10 minutes, lots of local friends had just as easy a time. Friends of ours in Portland, on the other hand, waited for hours and were left wanting along with some 850 other people in line (plus the requisite news crews). Some municipalities are more prepared and organized than others.

The current "Wired" cover on anti-vaccine types sheds some interesting (though not new) light on the anti-vaccine mentality, which drives folks like my parents (both physicians, one of whom does pediatric infectious disease and the other working in a low-income pediatric clinic) nuts. Ironically, anti-vacciners also tend to be highly educated and affluent. The parent working the clinic says most of her patients are getting vaccinated. The parent in the private hospital says he's only been able to convince 1/3 of the doubters he sees to get their shots. He did, incidentally, have a doctor colleague who chose not to get his H1N1 shot, figuring as a physician he could take it. Then he got swine flu and was out on his back for 12 days. That colleague now spends much of his time proselytizing to patients. Blows my mind how so many fear the cure more than the illness. My dad likes to say that vaccines and indoor plumbing are the two greatest advances in modern health, and doing without the former you is like choosing to do without the latter.

I've stopped trimming my nose hair in case that helps save me from the swine flu. Fuck it if y'all think that's nasty.

*3 y/o recovering from flu blows nose, examines tissue. looks up*

"well, that's colorful!"

*dad hits hand sanitizer again*

howre the kids doing, hunt3r?

annoyed my kid needs a second booster shot to fully vaccinate him next month. are they even going to have any then? in the meantime, we're in our third or fourth week of some other kidn of virus that doesn't appear to be swine flu but certainly makes everyone around us paranoid.

flu kid is doing quite well. after consulting with doc, we bailed on tamiflu after 3.5 days. patient was not eating at all, was very weak, and became v v nauseated after each dose. while her appetite is not back, she is much perkier than before.

nobody else in household has fallen ill yet. we are cautiously optimistic, then.

xpost

don't panic but

Oh wow it seems that I got the shot too late, I am now almost certainly in the throws of this porcine beast.

It comes on so fast I must admit a begrudging respect and fascination.

(P.S. in case any vax deniers read this, I got sick the next day, not within hours, which means I just got the vaccine too late, not that this is at all related to said vaccine. Also you're jerks who are putting the immunocompromised at risk with yr panic.)

throes

kinda impressed that was the only typo, what with all the sweatshivers

Have never had this porcine flu but I sure as hell remember how fast Proper Flu hits. Last time I had it I was out having drinks one evening and within about an hour I went from fine to shivering, feverish and "where the feck am I" and had to hurry home. Ugh.

A friend of mine had swine flu and the symptoms were worse than any case of the flu I've ever heard of. Especially for someone his age/usual health level.

Met an unusual semi-vacciner last night, who got his kids most of the major vaccines, spread out, but won't get his kids any of the "optional" vaccines, like chicken pox or flu because ... it's unclear why. Something about "research" (cough google cough) and their little developing bodies being overwhelmed by such powerful medicine? Bunk, whatever it is, but there's no changing his mind. Annoying, more than anything else. Given anti-vacciners are overwhelmingly educated and affluent, skipping vaccines is sort of like the opposite of entitled conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous non-consumption?

really getting paranoid abt this, esp as im not feeling 100% atm. last year got my ass kicked three different times by some vicious bug (not out of bed for 4 days at a time), so i can only imagine what this'll be like. im not sure i can get the vaccine and my job pretty much guarantees my getting it. i have four students home this week the symptoms. i should stop smoking.

rly dont wanna get this when its my last weeka t work

i should stop smoking.

If you get the H1N1, you won't be smoking for at least a few days. In which case, there's your ante on a complete withdrawal.

Note for the afflicted w/ the hanging-on cough: Delsym, though possessed of a very strange texture, seems to work really well for cough suppression.

i feel my sinuses swelling/closing. i hope im just getting a cold x 1000

i should stop smoking.

If you get the H1N1, you won't be smoking for at least a few days. In which case, there's your ante on a complete withdrawal.

― Aimless, Monday, October 26, 2009 5:22 PM (19 minutes ago)

yeah the only real bright light about this whole thing is i am now 2 weeks smoke free! i mean, why the fuck not (and yeah i normally smoke during flus/colds, but there was just no way that was happening when i was sick, like physically impossible).

J0n W1ll1am5 told me the other day that he has now quit smoking thanks to a bout of H1N1.

This will possibly create some openings for temp work, right?

Sure as shootin, it ought to.

The girl that sits next to my daughter in third grade -- and who has had obvious signs of sickness for a few weeks -- is now out with Swine Flu. Her father is a brain-surgeon, so we figured the girl would be pulled out of school by him at an early stage if her symptoms suggested H1N1. My daughter is now sniffling a little. I'm concerned. I am overly-paranoid, I guess.

Anyway, we're calling the pediatrician tomorrow to see what can/should be done.

siblings of one of my son's classmates "likely" have h1n1 (though apparently the girl herself doesn't; she's out of school regardless), and one other kind "likely" has it, though the fact that his parents said he seems fine two days later makes me doubt it. this isn't some two day thing, is it?

Did your kids get the vaccine?

my son got it on friday but they said it takes 10 days to take effect, and if you kid is under ten they still need another shot 28 days later for full immunity. so you know, fingers crossed.

good luck, parents of ilx

OMG PEOPLE ARE LOSING THEIR FUCKING MINDS OVER THIS. Sorry - I just . . . I've fielded at least 50 calls today from irate ppl looking for vaccines. ;_; I know people are frustrated and they end up taking it out on whomever they get on the phone but god damn. /vent

The girl that sits next to my daughter in third grade -- and who has had obvious signs of sickness for a few weeks -- is now out with Swine Flu. Her father is a brain-surgeon, so we figured the girl would be pulled out of school by him at an early stage if her symptoms suggested H1N1. My daughter is now sniffling a little. I'm concerned. I am overly-paranoid, I guess.

Maybe he sees it as pointless to keep his child at home, since there's an incubation (?) period anyway?

Xpost Yes, I'm freaking out a little over this.:-(

we had a lecture today on ethics in a pandemic, and all i could think about was how the lecture hall was filled with the riskiest population: young people planning to spend time in hospitals

there's an incubation (?) period anyway?

a few days, and people are contagious the day before they exhibit any symptoms.

Normally I'd agree with you, Nathalie. But here the girl has apparently been obviously sick for a while -- long enough to go beyond the incubation period into the actual sickness period.

In any event, we kept my daughter home today (she had cold, not flu, symptoms, so it was purely precautionary). She's much better now, and shockingly anxious to go back to school. I suppose being at school is better than me haranguing her about doing homework/preparing for tests.

Oh, I didnt want to imply he was "right". I wld def keep O at home.

finally one kid down with this at preschool. I'm completely anxiety ridden about the entire thing despite knowing I've done everything I can (we all have vaccines and I've brainwashed my kid into washing his hands all the time...as much as you can brainwash a 3 year old to do anything, which is not much). we've had colds back to back for over a month, on like our third one in a row, really don't want anything more serious.

My kids got their first shot literally an hour or so after it became available to us, but we'll be traveling out of the country before they can get their second shot. We'll be out of range of H1N1 season, and one shot is better than none, but still, I dread what they'll be exposed to on the flight.

At least in the States/NA we're still weeks/months away from the seasonal flu kicking in. Depending on how bad H1N1 gets, things could get even messier in the near future. Can one catch more than one flu at once, H1N1 as well as seasonal? That would suck.

living in one of the densely populated cities in the world...not freaking out too much about this, despite the fact that I live alone and if I really get laid out, I don't know who I can ask to help me out...

My boss now has H1N1. I'm scared to death that I'm going to get it and give it to my three month old daughter.

What would you choose: A flu? or injecting a toxic, mercury-based substance (2nd deadliest substance on EARTH) into your body?? Don't be scared into getting the swine flu vaccine by the government or media!

^^facebook update from a (shock!) chiropractic acquaintance. i have to go to work now, but suggested rejoinders are very welcome (i am curious what #1 deadliest is, and by what process these things are determined, and where it ranks when we allow other planets, etc etc, maybe it is as im sure this is all v v scientific...). she's also lately been facebook-advising mothers w young children to maybe not get the vaccine.

srsly though, i know that thimerosal was taken out of mmr's even though its amt was negligible, and that there's little enough mercury in these shots for an adult to process easily...is there really any debate about whether it would overwhelm small kids' systems? any links i could pass on would be appreciated.

mercury-based substance (2nd deadliest substance on EARTH)

loooooooooooooooooooooool

btw i got my vaccine appt made for next week, fuck yr idiot friend

facebook update from a (shock!) chiropractic acquaintance

Not so shocking.

I think I read that Plutonium is the most deadly substance.

(NB: some chiropractors are really good, but they stick to what they know.)

I think I have this? I've not been tested b/c I'm living abroad and haven't yet figured out how to use the health system here, and I'm not so sick as to need a doctor. But it sucks. And my three kids last week had what seems to have been the same thing. And they're mostly better now, with some residual coughing. It could be that we have some flu-like virus that's native to Europe but not to the USA and to which we have less/no resistance. But I have colleagues here with H1N1, including one whose child is presently hospitalized for it, so I've likely been exposed to it.

tell your friend that CLEARLY these anti-vaccine rumors have just been started by the Bilderberg foundation to further their goal of reducing the earth's population to 500 million, and that they don't want anyone to take the vaccine

then if they really open up, calmly point out that only Alex Jones directly targets the Bilderbergs and that the pro-capitalist Bilderberg inductee Glenn Beck is anti-vaccine