Earlier today, my wife and I received the H1N1 vaccination "Arepanrix H1N1" from GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) here in Canada. This is the one with the adjuvant and the nasty preservatives.

This is the first vaccination we've ever had for any flu, and the only reason we had it administered is because we have an infant in the house and we're willing to take some risk to ourselves for the chance of not bringing in the virus.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep posting. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks. I expect that within a month or so I'll be running the streets looking for flesh to eat. Maybe in around 28 days.

I do think that the media are blowing this flu way the hell out of proportion. If the way the medical community is in Canada is any indication of elsewhere, the numbers of infected persons is much lower than advertised. I've learned that here they're treating pretty much any flu or flu-like symptoms as if the person has H1Ni. Not sure if that's out of cautiousness or pure laziness. I'm inclined to go with laziness.

As an example, I found out last night from my sister-in-law that her niece "has H1N1" - so today my wife asks her if they've done a blood test or culture or anything to determine the strain and if it's even influenza. No. She's running fever and that's all the doctor needed to call it H1N1. Nice. I'm all for caution, but I think it's important to accurately identify whether the illness is caused by this virus.

I know a few companies that are going to bounce back remarkably from this global "financial crisis" we've been in. GSK... Novartis... Sanofi... Of course when we all turn to zombies and start eating each other, I'm sure the stock markets will crash. Their executives had better start cashing out and building bunkers - or a moon base.

From what a doctor friend told me, H1N1 isn't actually any more deadly than the flu that comes around every year. A large number of people die from flu every year and there isn't a particularly big deal made of that.

The issue is that H1N1 has the potential to mutate into something which is extremely virulent and deadly. They want to minimise the number of people who have it because of this since the more people that have it, the higher chance that there will be this mutation.

In the UK you get "diagnosed" with H1N1 by calling a call centre, they then authorize you to receive a Tamiflu dose (if you want it).

However, they do then follow up a random sample of the people "diagnosed", sending them a test kit to return so that they can track what proportion of people phoning actually have H1N1. IIRC at the start of the outbreak it was just over 1 in 10.

As I understand it, it doesn't need to mutate to something more deadly. It just needs to mutate so that it is easier to transmit. At that point because the population at large doesn't have any existing immunity it would then cause a fair bit of damage in one big hit.

My observation is that there's way too much Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) being promoted in the media, mainly from CYA politicos and from people who stand to benefit from the hysteria.

This seems to be an amazingly well orchestrated campaign to market medical supplies and vaccine doses. A select few are becoming incredibly wealthier as a result of this marketing strategy.

Amazing.

I've had my seasonal flu jab this year, which I get every year because I had childhood asthma. I'm still debating whether to have the H1N1 jab or not.

We had a swine flu 'epidemic' at work back in the summer, but while a large number came down with the flu (or at least said they did), all I got was tonsillitis.

Exactly this is why having 24 hour news sucks they have to blow everything out of proportion to fill the day. I remember one summer there were tons of reports of shark attacks. There weren't any more than any other year some reporter just picked up on it that year.

I think the H1N1 hysteria has kinda died I mostly hear people making jokes about the hype.

I totally hear the "DOUBLE FIIIIINNNNNNE!" voice when I see your avatar icon.

So how's the game ? I haven't gotten it yet.

This graph clearly shows ...:



...

Uh, that graph doesn't clearly show anything.

Still, I went to the effort of collecting the data. Seemed silly to waste the effort. Feel free to play with the numbers.

It's clear that the most deaths occur during "flu season" and that 2008's numbers are higher than 2009's for at least a significant portion of the year. It gets harder to tell in the middle there where too many lines overlap.

Still, the numbers don't really say too much without factoring in other information. Maybe more people died in the past couple of years because there were more flu shots given. Or less. Or because more people were depressed at their financial situation, lowering their immune system.

When the zombie population dies off, those of us who survive will be able to start tracking statistics again, but I suspect there will be a few blank years...

As funny as you'd expect it to be. And fun as hell to play through.

There have been some valid criticisms leveled at the RTS sections. So, to mitigate that... You'll enjoy it more if you're given this hint ahead of time: When it comes to the RTS sections, remember that you're expected to get down on the ground and kick some ass once in a while, especially with combos and such. Also, you can summon the Deuce during RTS sections, something that doesn't occur to most folk.

Uh, that last link doesn't clearly show anything.

(other than a link to install Google Apps, after first logging into Bitt's Google account).

Works for me with Firefox. I don't believe I've installed any Google specific stuff.

That's good to hear, the videogame critics make it sound like a piece of crap. I planed on getting it anyway just because I really liked Psychonauts.

Apparently the big concern around here is that doctors say H1N1 hits young-middle aged adults harder than the young and old. No idea if that is true but one of the guys here said they lost a 26 year old member of their church last weekend from it.

No clue if H1N1 is going around here, but we have had several people come down sick. A large part of that is because we had a customer in town for an experiment so there were about 40 people all working close together and sharing computers. Even with hand sanitizers at every station, about one-third of us became sick (one of the folks' kids got sick at school, that weekend she had it, next week three more of us caught whatever it was and it exploded from there). Not sure what it was, but the fatigue fucking sucks. I haven't had a full day in the past week and a half that I didn't need to take a nap around lunch. That could be considered a perk, though.

So many people seem to be tricked by the massive marketing campaign into somehow thinking that this one specific vaccine will somehow keep them from catching any of the 20-30 other viruses that are common in the fall.

Note that the H1N1 vaccines help only with H1N1. Not with any of the more common colds, mild fevers, and oddball flu cases that are all normal for this time of year, in this climate.

Now, every case of "fatigue" is being self-diagnosed as H1N1. Ha. Once you finally get a flu for real, you'll never make that mistake again.

Cheers

Nobody at work was diagnosed with anything. That is why I said I had no idea what came through here. There have been at least three different things that hit us. I was commenting on that whatever it was, the fatigue part sucks and it sucks bad.

Kids apparently do get it bad. The three year old had H1N1 and was pretty sick. It’s sad to see a three year old vomit for 12 hours.

I believe the wife and I had it in August although we never went to the doc. We must have had it because the kid was spewing all kinds of fluids on us. It seemed like just another crappie cold. Not the high fever and vomiting. We had the same symptoms as a guy at work who has it now.

At least I don't have to take the zombie shot.

The critics I read didn't pan it. They said it was good but could have been just a bit better. Generally, they were of the same opinion I was: A pretty good game overall, but that its attempt to straddle the RTS and action genres simultaneously wasn't the best implementation. Everyone universally agrees that the writing is hilarious.

I love side-tracking threads.

Some people are infected with a random stomach bug/virus with bad symptoms that only last one or two days. This is the type of infection that usually results in vomiting or general nausea and possibly the squirts. Not to be confused with an influenza which can put you in bed for a week or more.

(medical term)

Yeah. People always think they've got flu when they've just got some random bug or a common cold. If you weren't stuck in bed for a week where you just didn't want to get up at all then you quite likely got something else.

Similar to how lots of people says they've had a migraine when they've actually had some sort of headache. I've never personally had a migraine and from what I've been told, I'm pretty glad I've never had one.

Squits?

Nausea and vomiting are generally not symptomatic of influenza. It's possible, especially when it kicks your body's immune system into overdrive, but, generally speaking, influenza is a respiratory infection, not a gastrointestinal one.

Yeah, that's what I said. :p

You didn't exclude the symptoms of gastroenteritis from the symptoms of the flu, nor did you provide what symptoms the flu did have, nor even say that the symptoms were different beyond the time interval involved.

Now it's my turn to nit-pick. I said:



Which says precisely what you wrote, that this type of virus (1 or 2 days of explosions out both ends) is not influenza. I didn't add that a flu is primarily a respiratory illness, but that's somewhat irrelevant (to this point) because it doesn't describe symptoms.

Anyway, I only mentioned it because your post made it seem that I was saying something that was the opposite or different than what you wrote.