How's the Flu Hitting You?

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 13:16:25 GMT, "Gary L. Drescher"
wrote:

I don't know about you, but my new FBO doesn't permit rental of
aircraft if the PIC is sick.

How sick? Are you allowed to fly if you have a slight cold?

It's in the terms of the rental contract, which doesn't specify how
sick. I'd guess the determination is a combination of personal
assessment and what the FBO desk guy can see when he hands you the key
to the airplane.

Rob

"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
y.com...
It all seems pretty binary to me. Either the vaccine prevents the flu for
a
high percentage of people or not.

lol...

I'm the one using wishy-washy words, while you write something like "Either
the vaccine prevents the flu FOR A HIGH PERCENTAGE [emphasis mine] of people
or not"? Yeah, right.

In any case, no one originally said anything about the vaccine working on a
"high percentage of people". That's your own straw man, and you should feel
free to knock it down if you like.

Jay's post said "you're pretty much [on your] own with this particular
strain", and that's simply not true. The vaccine IS helpful for some
percentage of people. That percentage is likely to be lower than compared
to previous years, but to say that the vaccine is useless is just plain
wrong. That's what Jay said, and since you're "with Jay", that's what you
said too. You're both wrong.

From what I have heard and based the
number of people getting sick it looks mostly like a _not_ situation.

First you say it's a binary question to you, then you say "it looks mostly
like a _not_ situation"?

Get your story straight. Is it a binary or isn't it? It's a simple yes or
no question. To help you out, here's a hint: when it's a binary question,
the situation won't be "mostly not". Either it IS or it ISN'T. There's no
"mostly on" or "mostly off" when you're talking about a binary question.

The rest of your rant about the medical industries fault in the current
situation is just absurd. I won't even bother to comment on it.

Pete

Jay's post said "you're pretty much [on your] own with this particular
strain", and that's simply not true. The vaccine IS helpful for some
percentage of people.

The basic misunderstanding driving this particular argumentative string seems
to be the idea that there's one flu germ, or shot.

It's a prevalent bug, and a particularly evil one -- it evolves all the time.
Like many of the most "successful" viruses, influenza can ride around in people
who are only kind of sick, and jump from that reservoir to lots of other new
victims, unlike ebola which kills you fast and burns its own bridges,
infectively speaking.

(incidentally, it's also a zoonosis -- a germ that can infect both people and
several kinds of animals, and often being able to jump that species barrier
helps it spread and evolve even more)

New variants appear all the time, and there's a recognized pattern to its
winter spread across the globe, so health organizations each year try to scout
out the most likely ones and make up a new vaccine that includes them all. You
can't put dozens of different strains into one shot, so you try for the few
that are most likely to be the major culprits. This year, for reasons already
explained, they included several in the new vaccine but missed one variety, and
that's turned out to be a big bad one.

Just as a doc might give you a shot of antibiotic to prevent secondary
infections like pneumonia if your immune system's pretty wiped out, (you DO
know that antibiotics don't work against a virus) the vaccine could protect
even those who get flu from getting other varieties...wouldn't it bite to get
bit all over again?

And the more people who develop their own immunity to the latest strain of flu,
the most likely the darn thing is to go out and evolve:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-rme032503.php

"Strains of flu virus differ from one another largely in the genes that code
for surface molecules called glycoproteins, which are the primary targets of
the body's immune system in defending against flu viruses.... Evolutionary
changes in immune response against such "antigen" molecules are the reason that
new vaccines must be developed against emerging strains of virus."

Me, I'm livin' dangerously -- no shot, just Vitamin C, warm clothes, and
occasional applications of medicinal barley water.

("StellaStar" wrote)
snip
Me, I'm livin' dangerously -- no shot, just Vitamin C, warm clothes, and
occasional applications of medicinal barley water.


People getting their flu shots in mid December is like - I don't know
what????

One word folks: October.

We've been getting something shot into our arms for about 3 years now. So
far, so good. We even pay for the darn thing, out-of-pocket, when we're at
the grocery store - Cub Foods.

My don't get sick tip:
I generally drink almost 2 gallons of water per day, especially in the
winter (1 gal per day is my minimum).

Empty 32 oz PowerAde bottles are *great* for helping me keep track of my
water intake. 4 refills = one gallon. (Plus, they don't tip over easily)

Kidneys seem to be a pretty good Doc.

--
Montblack
http://lumma.de/mt/archives/bart.gif

Me, I'm livin' dangerously -- no shot, just Vitamin C, warm clothes, and
occasional applications of medicinal barley water.

I've been taking multi-vitamins and 500 mg of Vitamin C every day (plus,
more recently, an aspirin) for over 20 years. I'm rarely sick, and have
never missed a day of work, at any job I've ever had -- ever.

Medicinal barley water (with a dash of hops) works for me! :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I cite as reference the front page story from the Denver Post, dated
Sunday, Dec 14 (you can check its website for the details). Briefly,
the article explains 2 issues involved with the current flu problems.

But before we launch into this, a short explanation how the
vaccine is produced. By Federal law, it can only be manufactured
using chicken eggs to ensure consistency and avoid impurities or
contamination. More on this later.

First, there are only 2 vaccine manufacturers left in the USA and they
produce vaccine in quantities defined by health professionals plus about
a 20% reserve. Last year 40 M doses were produced, we had a relativelys
mild flu season and 8M doses were destroyed. The past 3 years have
been moderately mild, so production was lower than ususal.

Second, at the time of the "definition" or composition of the vaccine
(which must be signed off by the FDA) there was concern about the
Fujian strain. In fact you might even go so far as to say there was
major concern by some members of the panel. However, at the time,
there was no way to get a sample of the virus from a human source.
It had been detected in canine livers (which, according to the article,
is a common way to detect and analyze). The opinion was that taking
the virus from the canine and incubating and producing within the
chicken eggs might have included other contaminants. Only after
the vaccine forumula was approved and produce began that the Japanese
were able to isolate a human sample.

Go read the entire article. Fascinating!