How Long Before You Die?

The question no one asks on the nightly news (ABC, CBS and NBC) as they speak about giving children, who supposedly are the most vulnerable the swine flu, the vaccination what's the period of infection before death. People have already died of the H1N1 virus (593 in the US with 266 in NY alone). We understand why the networks did the report but no one is asking the questions we think need to be asked.

We argued about this (how can they possibly know for certain) but we found this answer from England. Normally we find all our info from the World Health Organization (WHO) but we couldn't find what we were looking for there. From there here is the question and the answer we got: "What if I don't recover within a week? If your symptoms don't improve after seven days (or five days if you are under 16), contact your local NHS service..."

"How does swine flu cause death? Like any other type of flu, people can die from swine flu if they develop complications, such as pneumonia."

"Will I die from swine flu? For most people, the illness has been mild and self-limiting. The virus has caused severe illness in a minority of people, most of whom had an existing serious condition. NHS staff are well trained in treating people who are in hospital with swine flu. They can provide effective treatment for any secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia."

As we write this and we thought what makes one susceptible to death from the swine flu. We posed the question to the jurisdiction of Virginia. We never quite got an answer from the Department of Health to what were the "pre-existing conditions" that led to the deaths of the child and adults who the state admits died from the H1N1 virus.

Who are at risk we asked. We found: "What are the seasonal flu vaccine at-risk groups? These are people with: chronic respiratory disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic heart disease, such as heart failure, chronic kidney disease, such as kidney failure, chronic liver disease, such as chronic hepatitis, chronic neurological disease, such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes requiring insulin or oral hypoglycaemic drugs, and immunosuppression (a suppressed immune system), due to disease or treatment.

From WHO we learned that children weren't necessarily an at-risk group so what the networks accepted that "the professionals" say about how much is too much, we could not verify. Flu shots are recommended as a good seasonal preventive so the one (1) not two (2) shots makes sense in that vein. What we object to is the focus on the kids when they aren't at risk.

The socialized British National Health Service (NHS) gave us this info: "Why are healthy people over 65 and children not a priority for the swine flu vaccine? Healthy people aged over 65 appear to have some natural immunity to the swine flu virus. And while children are disproportionately affected by swine flu, the vast majority make a full recovery - therefore the experts do not advise that children (other than those in at-risk groups) should be vaccinated initially."

So you say who are we going to believe the good ole USA or those socialist limeys. Again we trust and verify. We went to California, our honeymooned state - specifically Calstate Fullerton, to get the answer to the question: "Why is this flu strain considered more dangerous? It’s a new strain and so our bodies have not built up immunity to it. However, keep in mind that during a normal flu season, about 0.1 percent of the population will die from a seasonal flu. So far, swine flue is causing at least a one percent death rate among those infected with the virus. So, if you’re looking at 300 million people, about 10 to 20 percent — or a minimum of 30 million people — will develop the flu. Of these, one percent or 300,000 people will die."