Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

About the massive killer flu pandemic

From the CDC weekly report.



When I made this small enough to fit on the blog it got hard to read. (Click it for a larger view.) Each wave is one year -- the little spike above normal was in 2008. This year, nothing unusual is happening.

Res ipsa loquitur.

2 comments:

Daniel said...

This is the first day I've felt half normal in several days. I suspect I've had a case of swine flu and it hasn't been too bad. I can only remember two bouts with the flu (as an adult) in 1980 and 1986 and this is the mildest event.

Nevertheless, hanging out with a fever of 102.5 isn't any way to enjoy the day and I'll have lost a week of work which I can ill afford to do.

I really wanted to be vaccinated, but it isn't available. That's what bothers me. As one of the whatever lay people you refer to I have these concerns. We are fast approaching a population of 9 billion in a globalized community. The public health infrastructure appears to be completely inadequate to respond to a pandemic virus. When a more lethal virus appears I guess we just suck it up. At the same time we spend billions on drugs like Lunesta (what a cute name).

At times, these things drive me up a wall, even when I'm feeling well.

Cervantes said...

You might have had flu, you might have had something else. Most influenza like illnesses are not influenza, in fact. But, if you've had it, you won't get it again. Take comfort in that, anyway.