Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagor
But answer me honestly? Has this thing been overhyped or not?
When the most high risk population in any given year is the elderly why hasn't there been the same hype for so called herd immunity?
I get it's infectious. I get it affects younger than average individuals. I don't get the risk that was communicated from the WHO down when there was a season already passed (albiet a smaller but significant % of the globe).
Why isn't there the same risk communicated every year re the seasonal flu and its vulnerability to the elderly popn.?
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Yes, it's been overhyped - few would disagree (though that doesn't mean it wasn't potentially serious).
There have been calls for herd immunity before - that's the whole reason why seasonal flu shots are offered to the general public and not just the elderly. The elderly are most likely to die, but vaccines also don't work that well for them so health authorities want people around them to be vaccinated. A lot of people just didn't pay attention until a strain hitting younger people pretty hard came along.
I'm not sure I understand your 3rd question - are you asking why WHO still communicated risks after the southern hemisphere flu season? Probably because timing/transmission patterns indicated it would be worse here than there (which it has been so far). It was still relatively bad in the southern hemisphere - medical facilities were relatively strained - but the total deaths weren't any worse than usual.
I think I got your 4th question with the 2nd one.
Responding to your previous post - the data do actually show it is a pandemic, just not a highly lethal one. Even with the plateau, influenza rates are way above normal for this time of year over most of the northern hemisphere, which is by definition a pandemic. There have been some concerns it could mutate into something nastier, but no real evidence of that happening. Whether you're a "selfish dog" if you don't get stuck every year (I'm presuming you mean for seasonal flu vaccine) - I guess that depends on whether you spend time around the elderly or people with compromised immune systems.