Who's getting the H1N1 shot?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Where do you get it?

I don't have a regular doctor and can't make an appointment. I also can't go wait for what I assume will be hours at a walk-in clinic with all the other suckers like me who don't have a doctor.

Quoting myself!

http://www4.albertahealthservices.ca/Immunization/

There are places all over town offering this from 8 - 8 (roughly) for the next few weeks.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Charcot

Even if only one person in a thousand in Calgary requires ICU support that is 10,000 people.

Calgary now has 10,000,000 people?

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Fleury2005

Not getting it. Don't really believe the whole pandemic. If people start dropping like flies I might chance my mind. Will just eat healthy and take care of myself for now.

Just realize that it takes 10 days for your body to create antibodies after getting the shot. 10 days may be too late.

[Charcot]

Sorry 1,000 not 10,000. I should double check what I type better before I press enter. Just to put the number 1,000 into perspective. In Calgary adult hospitals I believe we have about 50 ICU beds. I'll edit prior post

Charcot

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Charcot

Sorry 1,000 not 10,000. I should double check what I type better before I press enter. Just to put the number 1,000 into perspective. In Calgary adult hospitals I believe we have about 50 ICU beds. I'll edit prior post

Charcot

I think that is going to be the problem. I've heard in Australia they came very close to not having the resources to treat everyone with the flu, and due to timing they didn't get hit as hard as we're expected to this winter. We all know what the hospital situation is in Calgary (thanks Ralph) - a lot of doctors are apparently worried there won't be enough ICU spaces or ventilators to treat everyone, and they may just have to let some people die for lack of resources. I'm hoping it won't get that bad, but the potential is certainly there.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation: There are about 500 ventilators for the whole province right now, so I'm guessing maybe 200 in Calgary, and the people needing them have needed them for weeks to as much as a couple of months. Let's say one month on average for the sake of argument. It's hard to say what percentage of people with the flu would need them, since no one knows how many people have had 2009 H1N1 (they don't test most people); if the death rate is the same as seasonal flu (about 1 in 1000), which is probably fairly close, and we've had 83 deaths and 312 ICU-admitted cases, that's about 4 in 1000 needing a ventilator. That would mean if 50,000 Calgarians, or about 5% of the population, got influenza in the space of a month, we'd expect to run out of ventilators.

A typical influenza pandemic affects about 30% of the population in 1 year (compared to about 10% in a normal year), with cases usually concentrated in 2 or 3 waves over the winter. It's not hard to imagine running out of ventilators if it gets to the typical pandemic levels (which I'm still hoping it won't, but looking at the stats for the last few weeks combined with the number of people saying they won't get the vaccination I'm getting less optimistic).

[Shazam]

Remember people, if you see a politician, be sure to cough on them.

[Montana Moe]

Call me crazy, but my supervisor has been out since Sept.1 with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, which can be contracted through vaccines.

He has been hospitalized, unable to move anything below his neck since then. There are no signs of him improving any time soon, and there is a chance he might die from it. This 1 in 100,000 odds disease has affected at least 6 people in our community of 100k in the past year.

I'll take my chances with my body fighting the flu on it's own, thanks.

[temple5]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

I think that is going to be the problem. I've heard in Australia they came very close to not having the resources to treat everyone with the flu, and due to timing they didn't get hit as hard as we're expected to this winter. We all know what the hospital situation is in Calgary (thanks Ralph) - a lot of doctors are apparently worried there won't be enough ICU spaces or ventilators to treat everyone, and they may just have to let some people die for lack of resources. I'm hoping it won't get that bad, but the potential is certainly there.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation: There are about 500 ventilators for the whole province right now, so I'm guessing maybe 200 in Calgary, and the people needing them have needed them for weeks to as much as a couple of months. Let's say one month on average for the sake of argument. It's hard to say what percentage of people with the flu would need them, since no one knows how many people have had 2009 H1N1 (they don't test most people); if the death rate is the same as seasonal flu (about 1 in 1000), which is probably fairly close, and we've had 83 deaths and 312 ICU-admitted cases, that's about 4 in 1000 needing a ventilator. That would mean if 50,000 Calgarians, or about 5% of the population, got influenza in the space of a month, we'd expect to run out of ventilators.

A typical influenza pandemic affects about 30% of the population in 1 year (compared to about 10% in a normal year), with cases usually concentrated in 2 or 3 waves over the winter. It's not hard to imagine running out of ventilators if it gets to the typical pandemic levels (which I'm still hoping it won't, but looking at the stats for the last few weeks combined with the number of people saying they won't get the vaccination I'm getting less optimistic).

If the province wasted money on equipment, staff, and rooms that is only used once in say 15 years - I wouldnt be happy. Some times things happen, to blame this on cuts is pathetic. You do realize how much the province pays for health care right?

[Sliver]

It's Monday morning at 9:20 and I just got back home from an aborted mission to the vaccination clinic in avenida. The line is soooooo freakin long...I'm guessing the wait is 8 hours for somebody getting there right now. I'm gonna scope it out later today and I'll take some pics if it's still nuts.

[wooohooo]

I have a cold (coughing, phlegm)... no fever yet so hopefully no H1N1. Can I still get the shot? Or am I supposed to wait until I'm fully recovered?

[icarus]

Nope, don't need it. I survived my girlfriend's swine flu without so much as a sneeze, so I figure I must be naturally resistant.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

Call me crazy, but my supervisor has been out since Sept.1 with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, which can be contracted through vaccines.

This is controversial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillai...C3%A9_syndrome

GBS may be a rare side-effect of influenzavaccines, with an incidence of about one case per million vaccinations.[10] Other estimates suggest the incidence of GBS among those receiving the vaccine was one case per 105,000 and that the GBS was not directly due to the vaccine but to a bacterial contamination of the vaccine that triggered GBS.[11]

There were reports of GBS affecting some people who had received swine flu immunizations in the 1976 U.S. outbreak of swine flu. Overall, there were about 500 cases of GBS—25 of which resulted in death from severe pulmonary complications— which, according to Dr. P. Haber, were probably caused by an immunopathological reaction to the 1976 swine flu vaccine. Other influenza vaccines have not been linked to GBS, though caution is advised for certain individuals, particularly those with a history of GBS.[12][13]

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Drury18

Okay, so if I connect the dots from Reply 1 to Reply 2, I believe you actually help my case. If not completely prove it. They realistically have evidence of it being unsafe and yet the rest of the population would rather sit around with fingers in their ears singing and refusing to look into it.

Like you said yourself "They thinking him crazy was based on their rejection of the notion based on their religious beliefs, or just based on inertia and their refusal to look at his evidence, not his idea"

No one wants to look into it because it doesn't support the general thoughts of the here and now, therefore its wrong. Or because there is belief we have to act fast or else? Or else what? If these people are right, you just incited mass panic. And if we can get a flu vaccine so quick, how come cancer and other diseases that have been around much longer are still an issue? 10+ years to work on a lung cancer drug but what 6 months for a flu vaccine for a brand new, super dangerous flu? BS. Total BS. This alone shows how untested and unresearched this thing is.

And don't even hand me that media attention stuff. Really, whose playing the better game. The doom and gloomers or the naysayers. Judging by several media outlets, its easily 10-1 doom and gloomers. No one wants to hear from anyone saying anything outside of get your shot to stay alive.

[Lucifer]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I just don't understand how anyone can become a heroin addict. I mean, voluntarily sticking needles in your arm. WTF?
I used to roll with a diabetic chick. She had to give herself injections regularly (huh huh, insert joke here). Every time I saw her give herself an injection, I silently prayed that I would never have to do that, lest I meet Him early.
Any of you out in CP land that has to do this, I tip my hat to you for having 10x the balls I do.

Put me down as one of the CPers that have to inject myself with insulin 3-4 times a day.

That's probably why I'll be getting this H1N1 shot. I'm going to my doctor's today to get the regular flu shot, so hopefully I can go there and get the swine flu shot as well.

[Merlot]

No way, I don't think they have done enough research on the vaccine.

[troutman]

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience

This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma’s blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information. The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none.

Perceived risk — our changing relationship to it and our increasing intolerance of it — is at the crux of vaccine safety concerns, not to mention related fears of pesticides, genetically modified food, and cloning. Sharon Kaufman, a medical anthropologist at UC San Francisco, observes that our concept of risk has evolved from an external threat that’s out of our control (think: statistical probability of a plane crash) to something that can be managed and controlled if we just make the right decisions (eat less fat and you’ll live longer). Improved diagnostic tests, a change in consumer awareness, an aging society determined to stay youthful — all have contributed to the growing perception that risk (of death, illness, accident) is our responsibility to reduce or eliminate. In the old order, risk management was in the hands of your doctor — or God. Under the new dispensation, it’s all up to you. What are the odds that your child will be autistic? It’s your job to manage them, so get thee to the Internet, and fast.

The result is that science must somehow prove a negative — that vaccines don’t cause autism — which is not how science typically works. Edward Jenner invented vaccination in 1796 with his smallpox inoculation; it would be 100 years before science, such as it was, understood why the vaccine worked, and it would be even longer before the specific cause of smallpox could be singled out. Until the cause of autism is discovered, scientists can establish only that vaccines are safe — and that threshold has already been met.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Pictures...for those who just keep blindly following what they are told, scared of having an opposite or opposing view and may subsequently drink the Green Kool-Aid if that's what the medical community tells them is the healthy thing to do one day.

[macker]

GlaxoSmithKline is expected to report a 2.4 billion third quarter profit. Pandemrix and Relenza will likely give this company some sick numbers for Q4.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/33481565
http://www.medicalvoices.org/en/vacc...on-a-year.html#

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Drury18

Pictures...for those who just keep blindly following what they are told, scared of having an opposite or opposing view and may subsequently drink the Green Kool-Aid if that's what the medical community tells them is the healthy thing to do one day.

You didn't by any chance happen to watch the movie "I am Legend" last night?
This would certainly explain your distrust in the medical community.

[Knut]

I am getting it. Not because of the risk to me, but the risk to my patients. I have a lot of Senior and Kid patients. I want to ensure I do not pass this onto someone else and put them in the hospital.