Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
Well lets say that .005% of people need hospitalization; now there's only 150 people in the hospital. Dressing up a WAG and basing your behaviour upon it is not logic.
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I am taking my best guess, look at the stats right now over 500 people have been hospitalized and its still early. Will we hit the 15000 mark who knows, maybe not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
The *shot* might relieve stress, but the campaign to get people to *have* the shot has added stress. Overloaded ERs can kill people just as easily as the flu; clinics not open for normal business due to being converted to flu shot centres are clinics that aren't available to sick people; crowds waiting to get their shots are ideal venues from transmission of the disease.
Looking at this from the narrow viewpoint of "shot is good! get shot!" is far too simplistic. Health care costs outrun inflation every year precisely because there is a (natural) reluctance to overstate the benefits of treatments vis a vis the cost to provide those treatments.
In theory, yes, if everyone had the shot it would save money, not cost it - but that is assuming that there is the infrastructure and organization already in place to ensure the distribution of the vaccine is timely, efficient, and low in impact upon available health care resources. Applying that same logic to a system that is not timely, is inefficient, and is high in impact upon available resources does not lead to the same certainty of saving money, or of slowing the spread of the disease sufficiently to warrant the cost.
Although, to be fair, I would assume that much will be learned about how NOT to go about a massive vaccination campaign in the future, which could eventually pay back the investment now. No guarantees, though, as it's easier to blame hockey teams and "selfish" individuals for the failings of a poorly run campaign than to question the assumptions behind the campaign in the first place.
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I totally agree that the vaccination campain and the media attention is all wrong. But I still think that when the time comes for everyone to get the shot, if you haven't got sick with H1N1, a person should do there part and get the shot.