Flu rips through University of Michigan, bringing CDC to campus to investigate spread
Did not see this posted earlier, but thought it would be good to post.
Hopefully NO ONE gets this bug/flu.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/flu-rips-university-michigan-bringing-121632947.html
November 16th, 2021 at 6:40 PM ^
You do not want to test positive in these cases.
November 16th, 2021 at 6:49 PM ^
I would start the investigation in Columbus.
November 16th, 2021 at 6:53 PM ^
I know this is a really crappy take, as many are affected, but I sure hope M doesn't lose anyone for The Game next week
November 16th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^
MGoDoc here. Old. Decades of experience.
News flash: if you could sterilize your body of bacteria it would kill you. You need them to survive.
It's called "a symbiotic relationship."
The same is probably true with viruses of all kinds, including the ever present coronas. C19 is not "novel". It's over 95% genetically identical to SARS virus.
Immunological fact: The pediatric population with the most robust immune system are children raised on farms. Animals. Dirt. Foods nor processed and filtered.
"Hopefully NO ONE gets this bug/flu" is based in absolute ignorance.
When you are young, and otherwise healthy, the SCIENCE is that you are best served by being exposed to everything and anything you can handle, including C19, where the odds of fatality from from drowning if you are under 18 are 6 times higher than dying form C19.
Facts.
C19 is now here to stay. Crossover to the animal populations ensured it. You are either already resistant to it, or you will get it. From the onset greater than 20% were never susceptible to it. Fact. Look up the Diamond Princess date. That's the reality. Anyone telling you otherwise is a media shrill, a moron, or both.
November 16th, 2021 at 8:21 PM ^
this is comforting - Immunological fact: The pediatric population with the most robust immune system are children raised on farms. Animals. Dirt. Foods nor processed and filtered.
anecdotally true here.
November 16th, 2021 at 8:24 PM ^
"Hopefully NO ONE gets this bug/flu" is based in absolute ignorance.
I'd not go to a doctor that feels like you do.
November 16th, 2021 at 8:27 PM ^
unless s/he is lying, it's not 'feels', it looks alarmingly like objective statistics.
November 16th, 2021 at 9:04 PM ^
In the age of hyperpartisan everything, statistics have become weaponized. I’m not going to look up the odds of someone under the age of 18 drowning and do the math, but it is absolutely true that people under the age of 18 have a vanishingly small chance of dying from C19 whether or not they are vaccinated. The CDC’s statistics also show that seasonal influenza is at least as deadly as C19 for pediatric cases.
On the other hand, it’s not zero risk, either. Pediatric hospital beds across the U.S. are near or at capacity (though the patient population is obviously not just C19). About half of the pediatric patients had no prior co-morbidities that put them at greater odds of severe disease from SARS-CoV-2.
For parents, the decision whether or not to vaccinate their children comes down to weighing the small but nevertheless real risk of severe disease outcomes from C19 with the possible side effects, some serious, associated with vaccines. In the case of C19, there are countries in the EU, for example, that include warnings about mRNA’s increased risk of myocarditis for young men. Most data is still inconclusive whether one set of odds outweighs the other with respect to the available C19 vaccines because we are talking about very small numbers either way.
This uncertainty is probably why vaccine uptake is still low among the pediatric population relative to older adults. It comes down to “feels” as much as anything else.
November 17th, 2021 at 10:15 PM ^
I'm not sure how or why you took what I wrote the way you did.
The bottom line:
People who think they can and should avoid viral illness at all costs are morons.
The immune system can be thought of as a muscle. Without challenge, it withers to nothing. If it it then needed....
Just spend 30 minutes googling the experience of Native Pacific Islanders upon exposure to European "explorers".
Anyone that tries to live in a bubble must commit to confinement to it.
Humans require immune system challenges to remain healthy. The extent to which that is true is only minutely understood, but irrefutably correct.
"Wishing away" the flu season is idiocy. We cannot now prevent it, and it is quite possible that we NEED IT (SEE SYMBIOSIS IN MY LAST POST).
One thing for certain: Hubris and ignorance are worse that artillery and bullets.
November 16th, 2021 at 9:21 PM ^
My understanding of vaccination efforts among the young is to also protect those who are around them. We know that they aren't as susceptible as older adults to the more serious effects of Covid. But if they spread it to a teacher or grandparent, those people may get a more serious case. I can't comment on the ethics of this -- it's above my pay grade. I guess you could argue that getting the vaccine prevents kids from developing natural immunity to it, but from what I've read, natural immunity wanes just like immunity from the vaccine.
I do think we will all eventually get it and my hope is that the vaccine will help prevent more serious cases in the older population.
November 16th, 2021 at 10:08 PM ^
C19 "vaccine" doesn't prevent transmission.
This is likely true for flu vaccine when i look back now. I got much more serious flu symptom in the past when my kids got the flu vaccine, and they caught it from school but looks fine, but i stay in bed for a week catching their flu from them and without my flu shot.
Some experts explained that's because the antibody mostly stay in blood circulation system, so our throat and naval would have little antibody and allowing C19 duplicates in those areas. I suspect that is likely true for flu.
the ethic part of the debate is always puzzlling me. Pfizer CEO has stated that he doesn't know if that would prevent the transmission in day one of the press release for their vaccine when asked by reporters, nobody pay attention to it. I saw the news pop up from my stock app. :-) He was obviously not lying when we look back now :-)
November 16th, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
Not sure why you put the word vaccine in quotation marks, as if it's not a real vaccine, but the Covid vaccine prevents transmission by preventing infections. Just because it's not 100% effective in doing that doesn't mean it's not significantly effective in doing it. The question that remains is with breakthrough infections and how the vaccine affects the transmission in those cases.
November 16th, 2021 at 11:24 PM ^
Did you know that CDC just change their definition of vaccine recently? That's because the current C19 vaccine no longer apply to the old definition.
I am not talking about effectiveness to prevent serious illness. I am talking about effectiveness to prevent the virus stay in the upper respiratory and transmits to others. There has been paper reported that vaccinated people can still have very high density of C19 in throat and nasal areas. There is scientific explanation for that. I would like to see more data to show the % of such case per millions. Before then, i would put a ? mark on the debate on ethics. If US spent 50% of effort or money on early treatment, the whole package would have been much better. Right now, it's like a football team with only running attack, no passing attack. We just call all the players to keep pounding the ball like no tomorrow. I think at some point CDC will fumble the ball. :-)
November 16th, 2021 at 11:45 PM ^
Yeah, I know about the expanding "definition" of vaccines. I attribute that to progress and expanding our knowledge about vaccines. It's no different than other medical innovations -- like gene therapy or antibiotics. We expand our vocabulary to accommodate new ideas and inventions.
I'll withhold judgment on the rate of transmission of the virus in vaccinated people because there are a number of conflicting studies at this point and no consensus.
November 17th, 2021 at 3:45 AM ^
Gee doc. Great advice. I wonder if there's a way to be exposed to C19 without getting a large viral load from being close to an infected person given that while most people end up fine, you really don't know how your immune system will deal with it. Perhaps, just spitballing here, people could be exposed to a weakened form of the virus. Or, maybe it's even possible we could somehow teach our immune system how to deal with the virus, say, through it's mRNA. What do you think?
November 16th, 2021 at 8:44 PM ^
Could the fact we have the largest gathering in the country every other weekend, be a contributing factor? I'd imagine this is the reason, 110k packed sitting shoulder to shoulder in the cold.
November 17th, 2021 at 2:37 AM ^
Big flu outbreak at Northwestern Univ. too. I would imagine this is true on many college campuses.