Fay, that is a darling haircut on you!

There are a lot of people who, if exposed to H1N1, will probably get only mild disease (a few days off work, feel like shit, get better).

That was me, and I didn't interact with ANYONE other than Pete until I knew I was well, because I didn't want to infect anyone.

I guess I'm moderate risk, since I've got mild asthma. But I'm also on a college campus, where stuff tends to spread really quickly. The student health center doesn't even have the seasonal flu vaccine yet, and their website says that they don't know when they will get it.

Okay, so I dropped a table on my foot, I've got some ice on it. Will taking aleve help?

It should help, since it's an antiinflammatory.

No more dropping furniture on body parts. I think this is a good policy for all.

Okay, so I dropped a table on my foot, I've got some ice on it. Will taking aleve help?

Yep.

So will vodka and a steady stream of cursing.

I'm going to Dr. Miracleman.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I am volunteering with a local non-profit for a parent mentoring program. I met my mentoree today. She's very young, no education, no job, no money, an 18 month old daughter and a boyfriend in jail. I really, really hope I can make an impact on her life.

The swine flu vaccine in '76 killed more people than the flu did.

To be fair, it is a general rule that the more successful a public health prevention program is, the more likely it is that people will die or be injured by the prevention than by the disease. That's becuase as the effectiveness of the prevention goes up, the number of people harmed by the disease goes down, so that eventually even very small risks from the prevention will outweigh morbidity from the disease.

That wasn't the case in '76, however. Less than a third of the population was vaccinated and it appears that the flu didn't much spread past the initial Fort Dix infections.

'76 is interesting because a lot of power-plays were involved in the development of that particular vaccine. There was considerable scare-mongering that appears to have been politically motivated. There were drug companies leaning on congress. There was the CDC getting its britches in a twist. It was a clusterfuck. It was the kind of thing that make conspiracy theorists say, "See! Shit goes DOWN!"

So now even some of the not-so-conspiracy inclined see, yet again, a flu that caused school closures and borderline panic in its early stages and then... nothing?

Only this time, its NOT nothing. That time, with that particular flu, it truly was. This time it SEEMS like nothing becauase we aren't getting the early theorized horrors.

I'd love it if public health discussions could have some depth from the start. The initial ITS EBOLA AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO BLEED FROM OUR EYEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!! panic is a big chunk of what causes subsequent laxity or outright resistance. People feel like they've been sold a bill of goods (only because they have) and many become resistant to reason.

Cashmere, I don't remember your talking about the mentoring volunteering before; that's way cool of you!