Hockey
Quackers
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I just hope that the Swineys don't callf or an ambulance to take em to the hospital.
Swine flu
- Thread starter hellofirstresponders
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Mountain Res-Q
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PANCIC! PANIC!! PANIC!!!
For about 2 weeks and then we will all forget about it because the media will have found something else with which to terrify the masses.
On the other hand, consider the cell phone message and e-mail I just got from the State of California:
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THIS IS A TEST OF THE DISASTER HEALTHCARE VOLUNEERS (DHV) NOTIFICATION SYSTEM. No deployments are requested at this time.
This test has been initiated in conjunction with recent Public Health and medical activities in response to the Swine Flu.
We are requesting that all volunteers take this opportunity to review and update their contact information within DHV. You can review your contact information by logging into the website at: www.healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov. If you are unable to log into the system, please contact us at calmed@ca.gov for assistance.
Again, THERE IS NO ACTION or PENDING DEPLOYMENT ACTIVATIONS at this time.
Should an actual request for healthcare volunteers be initiated through DHV, such request would follow the State Emergency Management Plan and would be initiated by local and state officials.
Thank you for your participation in your county or Medical Reserve Corps program and the Disaster Healthcare Volunteers system.
THIS HAS BEEN A TEST OF THE DISASTER HEALTHCARE VOLUNTEERS (DHV) NOTIFICATION SYSTEM. No deployments are requested at this time.
For about 2 weeks and then we will all forget about it because the media will have found something else with which to terrify the masses.
On the other hand, consider the cell phone message and e-mail I just got from the State of California:
----------------
THIS IS A TEST OF THE DISASTER HEALTHCARE VOLUNEERS (DHV) NOTIFICATION SYSTEM. No deployments are requested at this time.
This test has been initiated in conjunction with recent Public Health and medical activities in response to the Swine Flu.
We are requesting that all volunteers take this opportunity to review and update their contact information within DHV. You can review your contact information by logging into the website at: www.healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov. If you are unable to log into the system, please contact us at calmed@ca.gov for assistance.
Again, THERE IS NO ACTION or PENDING DEPLOYMENT ACTIVATIONS at this time.
Should an actual request for healthcare volunteers be initiated through DHV, such request would follow the State Emergency Management Plan and would be initiated by local and state officials.
Thank you for your participation in your county or Medical Reserve Corps program and the Disaster Healthcare Volunteers system.
THIS HAS BEEN A TEST OF THE DISASTER HEALTHCARE VOLUNTEERS (DHV) NOTIFICATION SYSTEM. No deployments are requested at this time.
We dread flu season anyway at the hospitals or any LTC facility and the quicker it can pass the better. It just takes one outbreak at a LTC with a less potent strain to make it bad for the patients, staff and the hospitals.
From the Swine Flu outbreak in the U.S. during 1976, five years later I was still transporting patients residing in LTC facilities that had been affected with Gullian Barre or some other disabling result of that outbreak and the vaccine. That was a hard thing to forget for some. Since I was quite young, it was hard for me to imagine that "just the flu" could wreak such havoc. Now that I am older and almost the same age as those patients were at that time, I too now realize I could be very vulnerable. I have patients alot younger then me on ventilators from illnesses that just hit them while they were in excellent health.
RotorFib
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nice how the medicine can be worse than the illness... I have never taken a flu vaccine (paramedic for 17 years), and I am more reluctant than ever to take one (see Baxter)
Also, it is interesting that this kills young people (like the 1918 flu), but that is not the only thing that makes this very unique..
This flu is a combination of 2 swine, an avian AND a human flu! All packed into one neat little package.
If this virus itself doesn't end up being the big bad monster...the fact that it has spread all over the world now, and what it could later mutate into is what concerns me. I think I read that this particular virus (despite being a swine flu) cannot infect pigs, but it can infect other animals...if so, that is pretty scary.
Also, it is interesting that this kills young people (like the 1918 flu), but that is not the only thing that makes this very unique..
This flu is a combination of 2 swine, an avian AND a human flu! All packed into one neat little package.
If this virus itself doesn't end up being the big bad monster...the fact that it has spread all over the world now, and what it could later mutate into is what concerns me. I think I read that this particular virus (despite being a swine flu) cannot infect pigs, but it can infect other animals...if so, that is pretty scary.
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PapaBear434
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My experiences so far:
-I worked a 24 hour shift Sunday Night/Monday Day. 8 of the 18 patients I had were absolutely CONVINCED that they had swine flu. Out of those 8, only one had a fever. None had vomiting, diarrhea, or any other symptoms.
-Monday, around 1300, we were bringing in a possible stroke patient through the ambulance bay. The bay, of course, has a passcode to get in. We didn't see three people around the side of the building that tried to rush in with us. I had my partner and trainee take the patient while I stopped them and tried to figure out what was going on with them. They claimed that they really DID have the swine flu, and didn't want to wait around in triage with "...all those other people who just THINK they're sick!"
-Took a patient with a boil on his butt (honest) to triage. We sat there and listened to at least three people talking about how they might have it, while everyone else casually slid away from them and covered their faces. Then one person asked me and my partner if we could pull some strings to get them in sooner, because she thought she might have caught it from one of those people (she was old and vulnerable, she said.)
-One guy who was going in for chest pain, but was asking if it was possible he might be carrying something. I asked if he's ever been to Mexico (this was before any reported cases here in the States.) He began to quietly cry, and nodded his head while wiping his eyes. I asked him where he was. He said Mexico City. Now, even I am starting to get a little worried. Then I asked him when he was last there.
"June of 1998."
"Well, Sir, I am pretty sure you're safe."
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I wasn't in EMS for SARS, West Nile, or even Bird Flu. But if every public health, media created scare is like this, I think I am going to become a VERY cynical person.
-I worked a 24 hour shift Sunday Night/Monday Day. 8 of the 18 patients I had were absolutely CONVINCED that they had swine flu. Out of those 8, only one had a fever. None had vomiting, diarrhea, or any other symptoms.
-Monday, around 1300, we were bringing in a possible stroke patient through the ambulance bay. The bay, of course, has a passcode to get in. We didn't see three people around the side of the building that tried to rush in with us. I had my partner and trainee take the patient while I stopped them and tried to figure out what was going on with them. They claimed that they really DID have the swine flu, and didn't want to wait around in triage with "...all those other people who just THINK they're sick!"
-Took a patient with a boil on his butt (honest) to triage. We sat there and listened to at least three people talking about how they might have it, while everyone else casually slid away from them and covered their faces. Then one person asked me and my partner if we could pull some strings to get them in sooner, because she thought she might have caught it from one of those people (she was old and vulnerable, she said.)
-One guy who was going in for chest pain, but was asking if it was possible he might be carrying something. I asked if he's ever been to Mexico (this was before any reported cases here in the States.) He began to quietly cry, and nodded his head while wiping his eyes. I asked him where he was. He said Mexico City. Now, even I am starting to get a little worried. Then I asked him when he was last there.
"June of 1998."
"Well, Sir, I am pretty sure you're safe."
-----------------------------------------------------
I wasn't in EMS for SARS, West Nile, or even Bird Flu. But if every public health, media created scare is like this, I think I am going to become a VERY cynical person.
reaper
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Welcome to the media scare!
Mountain Res-Q
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That was my point above. Yes this health scare is concerning due to the very nature of the illness. Yes a few people will die. But the media has nothing better to scare people with right now, so like sars a few years ago, everyone will panic because the media trys to sell air time and and space by telling everyone that we are all gonna die from this or that. More people probably died today from skin cancer than will die in the next 30 days from the Little Piggy Flu and we are all still going outside and exposing ourselves to the sun! In this regard the media is no longer informing the public, but hindering the ability of public health officials to properly handle this without every wacko thinking that there stubbed toe is the early signs of leporsy!
Scout
Para-Noid
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Genius.
More room for me, next you'll have people getting it to get a private room
minneola24
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More people will die today in car accidents then the swine flu, yet there is a huge hype about it.
Do you realize how many people die each year during flu season just in the U.S.? How does the number 36,000 per year sound? MVCs average about 40,000 deaths. The numbers are not that far from each other. And yes, there is hype for the MVCs which is why safer roads, research spending for auto makers and drunk driving laws keep appearing in the news.
Of course, maybe if EMS providers just learned the basics of infection control it wouldn't be that big of a deal and it is possible a few lives might even be saved. It doesn't take much to kill off a dialysis or nursing home patient. Take notice of at least the basics of infection control if you don't want to believe anything else.
I bet the average citizen in many countries now knows more about infection control than some EMT(P)s in the U.S. I am seeing questions on the forums, not just this one, that makes me wonder if any infection control training has ever been done for some.
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I was wondering about that. Do you think that the high numbers of 20-40 year-olds being infected is due to the type of virus? Crowded living conditions? Lack of proper infection control practices? Lack of healthcare resources? Something else?
I had someone tell me that the usual high-risk populations aren't as likely to be affected because it seems to be targeting a lot of "healthy 20-40 year-olds". I think if it's hitting healthy individuals hard, then it's going to be even worse for the old, young, and sick. They still disagreed, so I left them to their thoughts.
in dfw the news is telling everyone that if your kid has a runny nose or cough to take them to the er right away. our pedi er looks like little mexico right now. and the only thing we can do is swap for it and send them home.
oh and no one has so far been complaining of or presenting with fever yet.
oh and no one has so far been complaining of or presenting with fever yet.
RotorFib
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I don't think that media hype has anything to do with WHO raising the pandemic threat level from 4 to 5..
Although the media will def have a field day with it. And it won't help keeping people from panicking.
So, since we ARE at Pandemic Alert level 4, which IS pretty significant for something that is JUST media hype...are any services actually following any of the CDC/WHO guidelines for level 4? OR 3 for that matter.
For example..there are flu pandemic proQA specific cards to be read by dispatch and they are supposed to alert crews of potential cases...any of that going on at all? Probably not.
Which begs a couple of questions. What is really going on (because its not JUST media hype..its government hype..but why?).
AND if this was REALLY a SHTF scenario, would we all not be totally screwed since no one is really following any kind of plan? (except for some places in Canada I guess).
edit to add.. we are not at 5 yet, but per the WHO today they are very close to it
Although the media will def have a field day with it. And it won't help keeping people from panicking.
So, since we ARE at Pandemic Alert level 4, which IS pretty significant for something that is JUST media hype...are any services actually following any of the CDC/WHO guidelines for level 4? OR 3 for that matter.
For example..there are flu pandemic proQA specific cards to be read by dispatch and they are supposed to alert crews of potential cases...any of that going on at all? Probably not.
Which begs a couple of questions. What is really going on (because its not JUST media hype..its government hype..but why?).
AND if this was REALLY a SHTF scenario, would we all not be totally screwed since no one is really following any kind of plan? (except for some places in Canada I guess).
edit to add.. we are not at 5 yet, but per the WHO today they are very close to it
The "media" is now running live statements from Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Secretaries several times a day on TV and their websites to keep people updated.
It is not "media hype" when they directly quote those in these positions whose purpose is to inform the people of the happenings as they seem fit.
The only "hype" is statements made by those who did not read the news articles and are only speaking from some "know it all" or "assuming all is BS" attitude.
It is not "media hype" when they directly quote those in these positions whose purpose is to inform the people of the happenings as they seem fit.
The only "hype" is statements made by those who did not read the news articles and are only speaking from some "know it all" or "assuming all is BS" attitude.
RotorFib
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h34r:We now have several confirmed cases and a death.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/index.html
WHO elevates pandemic threat level
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/29/swine.flu/index.html
WHO elevates pandemic threat level
RotorFib
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I understand the threat of this virus....but even this one death was a mexican national that went to Brownsville, Tx got sick and was transferred to Houston where he died (2 days ago I think?). And he had other health problems as well.
Unless they know a lot more than they are telling us, despite people saying the media is hyping this up...this response from the government, cdc/who, ...is just..spooky.
Unless they know a lot more than they are telling us, despite people saying the media is hyping this up...this response from the government, cdc/who, ...is just..spooky.
Hype? I was watching the annoucement on CNN by the Homeland Security and Health Secretaries. It wasn't Geraldo Rivera on the TV.
Even Influenza A, which was also mentioned, is a big deal and we take isolation precautions seriously for it. In a hospital or nursing home full of immunocompromised and frail people, it can wreak havoc quickly. Ever see C. Diff spread over a course of a few days in a LTC facility that gets lax on infection control or relies on a lot of ambulance transports? A seasonal flu outbreak?
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fma08
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Isn't swine flu a strain of Influenza A?