A sane politician!

[blamebrampton]

Imagine my surprise!

Nicola Roxon is the Australian Minister for Health and Ageing. She is currently being interviewed on the ABC about swine flu and Australia, and has been a voice of calm and reason.

'We have 89 suspected cases of swine flu,' said the host of the news program.

'No,' she corrected, 'we have 89 people who have been travelling in affected areas who are experiencing flu-like symptoms that warrant further investigation. Of that there are only two who we have suggested be quarantined and they are being tested.'

It's the sort of nicety you'd expect from the daughter of scientists.

The Australian government has just declared it a quarantineable disease, a measure that is usually not needed as Australians, like New Zealanders, are generally very good about public health. It's the third major epidemic threatening the region in the last decade, after SARS and Bird Flu. First likely flu pandemic since I was a toddler, though.

I await the lunacy that will be flooding the internet over the next few weeks. And can I just warn that I will thoroughly ridicule any member of my flist who rants about why weren't vaccines ready and why aren't people being given antibiotics. (I will happily explain why both of these comments are stupid for people who just don't know, wanting knowledge is to be encouraged and there is no reason why you should be interested in the epidemiology of influenza!).

In a moment of irony-like coincidence, I have a mild case of normal influenza picked up in the week before I was booked in for my flu shot. Bloody typical. At least it is one of the feebler strains, I think those are all B this year. Stupid fast-mutating viruses!

Comments

[jamie2109.livejournal.com]

I saw her and was impressed. Mind, I tend to stay away from politics because I am way too cynical, but she seemed very calm and knowledgeable.

And I, too, will join you in putting down explaining to the whingers that complain about a lack of vaccines.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I have decided that because I am so quick to mock, I should also be quick to praise when it is due ;-)

[jamie2109.livejournal.com]

Very magnanimous of you. *nods* ;)

I watched the Four Corners thing on the comp this morning but my d/l speed is crap and so it was really jumpy. I am off to watch it on replay at 11.35. I did see my radio station there :) and the guy in the studio behind the panel was the presenter I was working with during the fires. The other guy was the station manager - one of them - and the other manager is the group controller, Peter Rice they also interviewed. This was why we had unofficial info to broadcast to help people get out.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they commented broadly that the local radio was well ahead of the ABC and other statewide services. Walk away and make a cup of tea if you need it, I found it hard going and am much more distant from the events.

[jamie2109.livejournal.com]

I found it hardest when they were talking to Nic's parents. Nicole was a friend of mine, as was Jamie. I just want to string up the person that started that fire.

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

to get people to leave me alone at work, mentioning swine flu right after sneezing a few times really does the trick. *continues munching on sausage* ;)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Ah you cunning, evil woman! And happy late birthday! I have developed suckitude at actually sending out wishes, but I was thinking of you!

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

that's quite alright! you can make it up to me by writing me h/d political smut. ;)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

all right! Albeit v mild on the smut front.

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

i know how you feel about the smut. just having draco whisper 'penis' to harry is enough for me. :P



you know i'm just kidding, right? you don't have to write me fic!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I'll be happy to! It will just take quite some time ;-)

[sesheta-66.livejournal.com]

And, in related news, I'm not so jealous of my sister any more. She happens to be on a cruise to Mexico & South America right now. Ahem.

So far, there's no sign of any passengers falling ill, and they were nowhere near Mexico City, which is where the worst of it seems to be, but the ship's doctor is working with staff, the passengers, and local officials at their ports of call.

A little disturbing is the fact that the ports of call (in her case, Cartagena) seem ill-equipped to deal with it. They stopped the passengers from disembarking, but after a chat with the ship's doctor, they cleared the vessel, and they all went ashore. Her general take on the matter was that they didn't seem to know what to do. *sighs* Hopefully the doctor and officials actually DO know what they're doing, and are acting accordingly. *fingers crossed*

No comment on the vaccine and antibiotic issue. ;)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, talk about your bad timing! I think that the public health officials in Mexico seem to be a little bit panicked, but are generally dong the right things of quarantine, cleanliness and so on.

And I thank you. I foolishly looked at some of the Twitter comments on the outbreak. It was not conducive to my happiness.

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! You've got swine flu! *covers you with duct tape and injects you with anti-biotics*

If only there had been a vaccine ready. :(

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

You laugh, but you know that's what some of the people out there are thinking (while others are convinced it's a government conspiracy).

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

They should put antibiotics in our drinking water. That would solve all our problems.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

You feel that? That's the smack I just administered to your virtual buttocks :-P

[winnett.livejournal.com]

Did you see the xkcd comic on it? Cracked me up.

I avoid flu shots... Unless people are prone to sickness or are old or have suppressed immune systems, I generally think it better to let your immune system do it's job and then let it get stronger. But then, I'm not a medical expert either.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That was hilarious, especially because it crossed over with Questionable Content!

I used to avoid them, but having had three bad cases of flu in the last three years, I have accepted that I sleep too little and travel too much and therefore should grab the vaccine.

The problem with immune systems and influenza is that exposure to one strain is no use against another, and so you can have several consecutive bouts of different flus. The vaccine is a combination of the strains most likely to be around that year. Alas, when new ones develop out of nowhere, like this, you have to start again from scratch vaccine-wise.

Interestingly, there is new research into a vaccine that looks as though it will deal with some of the basic ways the flu virus works, rather than the virus itself, so it might be able to work against multiple flus. Alas, still on the drawing board.

[old-enough.livejournal.com]

We have at least one person here in Denmark that is in official home quarantine after having come home from a trip to Mexico with flu-like symptoms.

[cinnatart.livejournal.com]

Just a very, very simple note and comment: I love you.

SRSLY.

[fourth_rose]

Just when a colleague of mine is fretting about having to travel to the south of the US tomorrow, in come the news that we've got the first confirmed case here in our very city. I wonder whether that's going to make her feel better or worse...

Antibiotics? As in, the stuff that works against bacteria? *facepalm*

[faynia.livejournal.com]

My school campus just put out a notice. Unsurprisingly, I doubt anyone's going to care. College's seem to be the last place to find people who care at all about the world's health problems. Seriously. I don't even understand it.

Ah well. It's better than being surrounded by the crazies, right?

[eanelinea77.livejournal.com]

Most flus, including swine flu, bird flu or regular flu, if one is fairly healthy and takes care of themselves, even if they do contract whichever flu, most cases it's not life threatening. This is one reason why they recommend children and the elderly to get their flu shots before John Q Public. Even if you're 40 or even 50, if you don't have anything really medically wrong, it'll feel like the typical flu or even a cold and you just do what you'd usually do.

And these cases of swine, bird, regular, etc are always floating around the air. They don't disappear just because the majority of people don't get sick. Hell, you could be alone in your house without people near you at all and you can get a cold or flu.

Forgot to mention, if you hear of a say 90 year old dying of the swine flu that's normal, or say a 2 year dying, that's normal. Now if they said a perfectly healthy person in their 20s with no known medical problems, ran 500 miles a day, etc. Then I'd worry. Children and the elderly have lower immune systems.

[winterthunder.livejournal.com]

Now if they said a perfectly healthy person in their 20s with no known medical problems, ran 500 miles a day, etc. Then I'd worry.

The young adults are dying down in Mexico, to my understanding. Still, the time to worry is when one cycle of incubation and infection has passed and the number infected keeps going up. That would mean that most existing cases have been discovered and the new ones are new spread. Therefore, the time to decide whether to worry will be sometime early next week.

[spark-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

why aren't people being given antibiotics.
Ahahahahha, don't. Please. Don't even go there because I swear I'll breathe better if I think there are no people who would say that. Let me leave in denial.

It's curious, though, how cases outside of Mexico seem to have taken a mild to moderate course. No one is panicking here yet, but then again, we are not exactly a panicky sort of nation ;)

[glass-violet.livejournal.com]

Of course there are people who will say that! Every year when my daughter gets a cold people tell me take her to the doctor for antibiotics. Now I carry a sharp stick with which to poke them, because I'm tired of explaining.

[spark-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, I just feel better about humanity on the whole if I live in denial... :g:

[brinian.livejournal.com]

'No,' she corrected, 'we have 89 people who have been travelling in affected areas who are experiencing flu-like symptoms that warrant further investigation. Of that there are only two who we have suggested be quarantined and they are being tested.'

I love this! One of my pet peeves is inaccurate blather. I spend most of the day at work gritting my teeth as people all around me spew generalities and inaccuracies. Oh, to work with engineers again...

[glass-violet.livejournal.com]

Ah, 'flu season! Time to reread 'The Stand' again...

[pinque.livejournal.com]

Ah, sounds like my kind of politician :) Can she be a news producer too?

As for ABs, in this instance it might be a wise precaution for those of us immunologically challenged and get the major symptoms of flu. Generally because a secondary bacterial infection will be the next logical step (always has been for me, sigh) and that's when most of the deaths occur.

But yeah.. ABs will not cure the cold/flu.

Now I will have to be careful though the Auckland domestic terminal is seperate from International. Care and not panic is the aim.

[feralcheryl.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I have this unreal expectation that the ABC are above scare mongering, especially Kerry.
Not so. It was his most atrocious interview I can recall.
He looked particularly stupid in the face of Nicola's calm withdrawal from his more inflammatory questions.
Maybe he can put it on his show reel when he applies for a job at channel 9.

[daybreaq.livejournal.com]

An article I read today stated of the 50 confirmed cases of swine flu in the US only one person had to be hospitalized. As to why so many deaths in Mexico, they are not quite sure. One thing that surprised me is they have not actually confirmed that all the Mexico deaths that have been so widely reported are *really* from the swine flu and that a number of cases could be something else. The other thing is this strain of swine flu *is* responding to Tamiflu. That may be a good part of the explanation. My suspicion is Tamiflu may not be quite as readily available in Mexico. They also need to exercise care in reporting this because they don't want loads of people to start taking Tamiflu in a panic when they don't actually have influenza at all because this could lead to viral resistance. In general, I think responsible reported should stress taking the virus seriously but not to panic either. If you develop a fever, see a physician which is a good idea in any circumstance.

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

why aren't people being given antibiotics
...please tell me you're joking. Pretty please? With whipped cream? And cherries?

[angela-snape.livejournal.com]

Wow, sanity and a politician? I didn't think that combination existed. =)

[ms-kilian.livejournal.com]

This week my very intelligent workmate asked me, in all seriousness: "It doens't really comes from pigs does it?" which she then followed up with "Can you get it from eating pork?". Luckily, she doesn't eat pork for religious/cultural reasons so she's safe ;)

[shadowclub.livejournal.com]

Oh... Swine flu. At least the hype is dying down now. At college for a while I was getting three emails a day about how I can/cannot contract swine flu.

Pig-flu Panic?

[ms-kilian.livejournal.com]

My colleague was telling me today about her sister (a lawyer) who is right now en route to the USA for a work conference. Before jetting off she wanted to make sure she had a course of tamiflu to take with her. She had to call around several chemists! Finally she found one in the outer suburbs where their mum lives that had some in stock! Goodness, not every chemist in Melbourne stocks tamiflu for me to take "just in case"! I remained silent. It jsut was not worth it.