Ah - thats interesting, so only house call doctors are taking swabs then?
I would imagine that would skew the figures a lot, its very expensive to have a house call.
Nope. It is actually quite simple. The World Health Organisation has a requirement that all cases of Influenza Like Illness are confirmed in the early stages of a pandemic. Once they escalated it to Level 6 (i.e. widespread activity) that requirement is dropped and the recommendation is that there is 10% swabbing to ascertain a percentage of cases confirmed.
As a result, the HSE selected a quota of GPs who would continue to swab when suspected cases arise. That's what is happening and it isn't that difficult, controversial or stupid.
<looks over post>
No it doesn't, it quotes 4th Estate reports that Tamiflu is being combined with other measures to treat Tamiflu-resistant strains of the virus.
In the first case begin by correctly reading what's been posted.
In the second case its the mods call and I'm happy abide by their decision.
Are you suggesting that the "letting off steam" forum is the wrong place for a rant?
Ad-hominem attacks are far less effective than you'd think...
Your comment seems to be based on something other than what I wrote.
This is being done openly, not secretly, and its an issue of incorrect reasoning.
The report came from CBS and the other issues were widely reported in the papers.
I stated that there is limited empirical testing of a cocktail of measures which could do more harm than the virus itself.
I stated that the current evidence of an epidemic rests on limited availablity of hard evidence that there is a significant risk or significant incidence.
I cannot recall hearing one independently verified confirmation that a person who alleged died of swine flu actually died from that disease, as opposed to one of these apparently innumerable and ill-defined "underlying causes".
There are two simple questions to answer.
1. Are these deaths due to swine flu or not?
By all accounts its not an immuno-suppressant, so why can't the cause of death be definitively stated to be swin flu?
2. Are the proposed "cures" or "preventative measures" safe or not?
Nobody seems to know and yet our country has spent millions on them.
FWIW
ONQ.
"it'll probably get pulled anyway under the terms of the site"
- Latrade in post 956922 employing wishful thinking instead of reading and responding to a post
Maybe it was how the post was written, but comments on tamiflu seemed to lead to a conclusion on vaccines. The resistance to tamiflu had nothing to do with the medication nor the health departments nor the governments. It was more thanks to the media harping on about tamiflu as if it were a preventative medication rather than a glorified (though effective) lemsip.
The resistant strains were exactly what the Dept of Health, governments and manufacturers feared because you had people stockpiling on tamiflu and chomping on it like it were sweets.
What wishful thinking is it when medical discussions are regularly stopped? In fact previous discussions on Swine Flu have also been stopped?
I'm more than prepared to discuss an issue, but the irony is you present an argument of scare mongering by countering the alleged scare mongering with even more (and potentially more harmful) scare mongering from the press.
That's where the problem lies, it is not a government conspiracy, the the press' inability to just present some simple information.
Here it is, the stuff they cannot seem to get their heads around.
1. It is a pandemic. End of. But "pandemic" does not mean it is Armageddon and the end of the world. It simply relates to how easily transmitted a virus is between humans and the uptake worldwide. That's what we have, that's where we are.
2. It only has mild symptoms in the majority of cases. At no point have the state or the HSE said anything different. They have gone out their way to say it is a moderate dose not just since April, but every single week in their press releases.
3. It is completely different to other media scares such as SARS, Avian Flu because immediately it spread between humans. Neither Sars nor Avian flu have managed this and while there are still cases (funnily enough they have a much higher mortality rate) of both, they can only be caught through close contact with infected animals.
4. It is a new virus so we really, really do not know what's going to happen down the line. We have some idea based on previous similar pandemics but we don't know whether come March this thing will just go away. There's a chance it will come back stronger in a third wave. But you should not find one educated medical professional making any predictions.
5. It is again different to the seasonal flu because of the age population it is affecting. If you were to plot a graph with age and number of cases, you'd see a "bathtub curve" with the young and elderly affected most by the flu. This is skewed to the young and tailing off around 35 years. That doesn't happen with a normal flu. The thing is yet again the health professionals are quite open in that they have no idea why it does that. All we know is that during the 1918 pandemic, it followed a similar model.
6. The deaths are complications as a result of contracting swine flu. Most were already pretty ill, however the swine flu caused significant complications. They got swine flu and they died, that is all the HSE are saying, not that swine flu is killing everyone. Again, they cannot be more open in saying it is a mild dose and the mortality rate is very low.
Flu is not in itself immuno-suppressant but if you are suffering from a serious illness that is, then you can imagine it's difficult for the system to actually fight the flu which leads to further complications. In fact, the deaths from seasonal flu is not the flu itself doing the killing, but the complications. Why is that difficult to grasp or why is it something to knock the HSE with when they've never contradicted this?
7. The number of cases reported to GPs is exceptionally high. Even in the summer when flu is supposed to be dormant, the number of cases exceeded the usual seasonal flu rate at its peak. Rates now exceed the highest seasonal flu recorded in Ireland by some way and we've still a month or so before the peak season for flu. 3% of the population have been affected by the swine flu. Average numbers are between that and 5% for the total flu season which we've only just hit.
8. The vaccine is not new, has not been made by nazi sympathisers, is not big Pharma trying to introduce mind control and is categorically not governments looking to cull our children. The basis for the flu vaccine is the same every year and every year it is slight altered to account for the new version of the seasonal flu. It was the exact same set up for this flu, why it was processed quicker is because they were already set up to proceed with the seasonal flu so most of the leg work was already done.
9. There has been controversy over whether the vaccine will do more harm than good. However, first to consider is Mrs Latrade and her mother cannot take the vaccine due to allergy to eggs. I'm having it so she doesn't have to. Vaccination is essential to forming a barrier in the population to viruses.
Also, there was suggestion that neurological conditions can be caused by flu vaccines. One report following an outbreak in the States linked the two. The report wasn't covered up, it wasn't hidden, it was released and discussed. However, when every single investigation into the findings and attempts to replicate the study reported back they showed different findings. And this has been the case ever since. It is strongly supported that the condition is caused by the virus (you do not get a dose of the virus in a vaccine) and not the vaccine.
10. However, is the vaccine safe? Well yes it is. But...as with every single medication in the world some people will present side affects or have a reaction. And guess what, the HSE are reporting those! So again no hidden data, no conspiracy. They are telling us exactly what is happening so we can make an informed decision. However listening to the camp who would promote anti-vaccine trash (thus directly causing non-vaccinated children to die) does not make people informed, but scared.
11. Nobody in this state is being forced or is forced to have any vaccine. Even health care workers and doctors aren't forced. It was suggested in the States and I'd guess some have even tried to bring it in there, but that's their problem not ours.
That's it in a nutshell. Are the media playing this up? Yes on slow news days. But that doesn't make a conspiracy, it makes inept journalism. The same journalism that also quotes the nut jobs trying to undermine a vaccination programme, the same journalists who promote the same crack pots as part of a fair and balanced discussion and have nicely helped cause measles to come back and start killing kids again.