Swine Fever are we in for an epidemic ???

OK, I admit to a slight conflict of interest here - as an ex-GP, and someone who until last year worked for a vaccine-manufacturing pharma company, I have a little bit of the inside knowledge regarding what's going on. As Midsprincess so comprehensively outlined, the estimate is that 1/3 of the population will have swine flu by the end of summer. It's also been estimated that there will be approximately 100,000 new cases diagnosed per day by then. As it stands, the virus is very contagious, but not particularly virulent - the death rate is similar to what would be expected from a "normal" flu outbreak. In terms of the vaccine, it takes a few months to "grow" the vaccine - it's not a case of simply manufacturing it. The annual flu jab protects against the predicted common strains, and has to be produced months in advance of the vaccination campaign, so sometimes they get it wrong, and people still get the flu. The vaccine CAN NOT cause flu. It causes some flu-like symptoms in some individuals, but it is an inactive vaccine, and therefore cannot possibly cause any illness directly. If people have suffered from full-blown flu, then they've just caught a strain which wasn't in the vaccine.

And as was pointed out earlier in this thread, Tamiflu is NOT a vaccine. They are two very different things - the vaccine will protect people and prevent them getting certain strains of the flu. Tamiflu reduces the severity once you get it.

Apparently the Government have now ordered in enough vaccine to vaccinate the entire population - having said that, I'd be very surprised if we all get it - I suspect it will be kids, the elderly and the unwell, and, if there is any left (it will arrive in batches), anyone willing to pay for it.

Not sure whether that helps or not, but thought I should just set a few things straight.

well it has now hit our household and i have a very ill child here

i havnt read the leaflet .......... yet !! i read the leaflet they gave us bout the flu tho and that was scary enough cus of the possibilites of other problems with health especially when asthmatic
we got the tamiflu tuesday and she is still so poorly now, high temp, aching and awful headache
think id better read the leaflet tomorrow tho as the rest of us will probably come down with it i guess !

hope ur daughter gets better soon xx

my child may well be suffering from another flu other than swine flu however its definetly flu, summer cold and chills (or any time of the year cold and chill) dont make people as ill as she is !!
there are to many cases now for each to be tested

I wonder why a friend of mine whos a gp son has swine flu and he said he will not be having the medication,

It makes you wonder, he said he is fit enough and the antibodies he will gain out weigh the risks of the medication.

I have had normal flu once a few years back, and you are really ill, high temperture aching everywhere with a pounding headache, I could not get out of bed for 4 days if I wanted to.
I really don't know what the flus have that are so different from each other.

Oh, no...........................

Just heard on the radio that some people are taking advantage of the swine flu hysteria and getting themselves diagnosed on the phone and extending their summer holidays. Expected to cost industry billions and raising questions about the integrity of workers.

Well !!! would you fucking believe it !! Who would have thought that??

Well after all the hype and over exageration, Swine flu it seems has just been a load of hot air.

I am not a lover of Mr. Littlejohn but this artical is absolutly bang on the money.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1210359/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-This-swine-flu-hotline--If-fancy-Miss-Piggy-press-.html

100.000 new cases every day eh? What a load of old balloney.....how much are these so called experts on a year? A lot more than they should be.

As I stated much earlier in this thread.....the ammount of people that have died on our roads far far far outweighs the Swine flu " pandemic ".....or did they say " epidemic "? Neither has happened and a typical over reaction which once again has cost millions of pounds of taxpayers money.

This Government could not run a bath properly!

Deaths each year in the uk from hypothermia far exceed road deaths. We're still trying to stop global warming though.
At least we have an nhs under this government, the blue alternative will sell it to their friends, as they always have done. In any case, they're damned if they do anything and damned if they don't.
The forecasts for this current H1N1 virus are based upon past epidemics. The last one had a small flurry of cases and then after another 6 months the "second wave" arrived. Most seasonal flu does exactly that.
In any case, nobody has ever died from influenza. The deaths come from secondary illnesses, mainly pneumonia.

Not wishing to hijack the thread, but this is an interesting theory actually if the OP doesn't mind the intrusion.

I read an article the other day (from the UK HPA) that the EU policy on banning incandescent light bulbs in favour of the new energy saving variety (CFL's) is switching from one hazard (global warming) to another more serious one - ultraviolet radiation. It is suggested the risk is marginal (well, the would, wouldn't they!) but if there is no risk, why spend millions producing public information leaflets about it?

As for Global Warming, this is a huge money earner for Governments (and friends of Governments). If you are a conspiracy theorist, you would remind people that the reverse is happening in the Southern hemisphere as the ice cap is thickening pointing towards the development of a new ice age