Another point of view regarding Swine Flu

lamazeteacher · Jun 15, 2009

"swine flu is a weak virus" - the debate rages on...... freesia29's source has no reliable references for the viewpoints it espouses.

if this flu is so weak, how come it's killed so many people world wide?

we have no way of knowing if the "spanish" flu of 1918 was a/h1n1, and as i pointed out in another thread, there were no antibiotics then, to kill bacteria that caused millions of deaths from secondary infections, mostly pneumonia; or inhalers/ventilators or any of the other modern methods of bringing people through that scourge.

those who wish to remain in denial about this stage 6 pandemic have blinders on (like horses pulling wagons in the streets wore, at the beginning of the 20th century, to avoid being spooked by something that might happen in their peripheral vision). speaking of animals, the pigs in egypt that were killed, were found to have a combination of avian (h6n1) and swine (h1n1) flu viruses mutating in their digestive tracts. they were killed because of that, not religious dietary preferences.

each side of this debate contains unknowns. however i believe the scientific side wins. there's really no reason to think that money is behind the figures we do have, as most people who experience the s/s don't see doctors who could report that they have the illness. no commercials have appeared on tv urging everyone to wear masks on the street, or even how to get a good fit with them. in fact they were removed from drug store shelves, to be kept for hospital use, until the supply was adequate. people have been urged to go to their own doctors or urgent care clinics, rather than ers, with s/s of the flu.

only the military is testing everyone who reports in with flu s/s, so there is a microcosm that will hopefully be turning in their figures.

it always surprises me to see the energy behind doubters, who don't wish to be burdened by experts' opinions. for example, the author of the article to which freesia29 referred us, stated that a level 5 pandemic is called when a disease is spread human-human. that's just a part of it, as the geographical spread is the main point in escalating stages. the identification of a common causal agent is another.

then there's another differences of opinion, wherein caregivers announce that without ppe they will not care for isolated patients (as if anyone is asking them to do that!). i'd like you to compare the patients admitted with a diagnosis of r/o tb. are they placed in resp./droplet isolation? a scrupulous hospital administrator would have at least 10 special isolation rooms that whoosh the air outside, in case there was a situation wherein many patients with secondary infections as a result of h1n1 or another wave of it were admitted, requiring that isolation, yet they don't. luckily most patients are staying at home, who have it. i haven't heard that home health nurses are refusing to visit them, without the reverse air flow in homes.

it's late, i'm old and tired; and sick and tired of seeing posts of those who think a caregiver's career is like a cafeteria. "i'll take that, but not this.... " please mature, accept totally your chosen path and do a good job of it!

where on earth are nurses and nursing students getting the idea that they have the option of refusing to give care to any patient? only several times in my 48 year career, have i known that to happen, and it was when nurses took offense when a situation that confronted patients offended their "sensibilities", like abortion.

where in the bible does it say that a nurse, or anyone whose responsibility it is to care for the sick, should take it upon themselves to judge patients and determine whether they are worthy or not to be offered their services? righteousness is very unattractive to me, as it denotes superiority of one person to another. we are the same! whatever color skin we have, whatever religion is ours, however many dollars we claim as ours, how many good or bad deeds have been done by an individual, a patient is a patient, is a patient.

it is our responsibility to care for them well with compassion, using approved protocols to protect ourselves from becoming ill, of course. with h1n1 the exception is pregnant nurses, as some pregnant women have died due to their vulnerability to complications from this particular novel flu.