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.

[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* ;)

[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. ;)

[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. :(

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[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 ;)

[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.