Tamcouple wrote:
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.
mmmm, dont know which med shool you went to ? perhaps it was baxters or smith kline glaxo ?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.
