FLU and Disabled.. Safe to go out in crowds yet?

[oscar111]

My best epal buddy is in Alabama, fifty nine, inactive and with about five percent normal endurance.. but has had a flu shot.. November first.

Is it safe yet for him to go out, and thru crowds? His state is "sporadic" , according to the CDC map. Four levels,.. sporadic, local, regional and widespread.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

i note that the chart at the Report's top gives no summary statistic. It has two fragmentary ones which are cautioned as not really showing the number of flu sneezers per hundred pedestrians one might walk thru.

Any expert here able to derive a good guess from the CDC's fragments , as to what the sidewalk percent of sneezers might actually be?

And what percent would be a fairly safe level for a disabled person.. like my elderly epal... to venture out amongst? ie, what percent of sneezers out there, create a low risk to my friend, say a risk of catching flu once if he ventures out a thousands times.

I realize there is SOME flu around even in June. I am not asking about total safety.

====================================================
MINOR POINTS, IF YOU HAVE TIME TO READ MORE....
CDC flaws... i note the prose in the Report says "one state did not report", yet the map does not show such.

... CDC map shows mississippi as having no flu activity, yet theory says Katrina's huddled refugees, confused, stressed and oft without usual medicines... should be a hotbed of disease. Ditto La, yet it is shown as just above the no activity level. CDC never rises to explain this glaring oddity, .. nor did it explain, last week, the diverging trends of the bar graph vs. the line graph. And has never given the needed graph, a crossproduct of the bar and line stats. Nor the even more needed stat referred to earlier, a percent of flu spreaders on the sidewalks.

I wonder if Mississippi's folks are now too poor to go to a dr... or if the docs have gone far away to where folks have more money to give them ... and so the "sentinal physician network " of the CDC is shredded.

By not explaining glaring oddities, the CDC invites sharp criticism and distrust.

FOR ALL MY FRIENDS WHO ARE DISABLED.. a good fact to know.. for up to five days before a victim shows symptoms of flu, he can "shed virus", or in other words, spread the flu. That is what i read, correct me please if wrong. Experts, any opinion on this? Did i read that correctly? It is a key fact to know, if one is to survive the season.

TIP .. never touch the eyes, nose, mouth .. some add ear.. with the fingers. Cover the fingers with four layers of kleenex to scratch those areas. Never touch food or the food ends of a fork. Health workers .. some of them.. get several flu shots .. so they are protected by a shot every few months, all thru the year. Comments on this practice? Good for the feeble as well?

Has the CDC always been this snobbish, and unhelpful? Or is it due to the bush gang's cutting the budget?

[Warpy]

1. He can always wear a surgical mask

Seriously, it's a little silly to be housebound for the six months or so that it takes flu season to run its course. Good handwashing for healthy people is generally sufficient to avoid most problems. People who are immunosuppressed (steroid dependent or transplant recipients or HIV positive) may need to wear masks. People at extremely high risk like people with COPD might choose to wear masks when the risk is highest.

Flu is spread by coughed and sneezed droplets, but it's more often spread through contaminated surfaces. You touch a surface and scratch your nose, eyes or mouth, and you're on your way to a nasty infection.

I got the first case in about 10 years when a blonde bimbette cashier coughed into my face. Next year, I may wear a mask, myself. I'm ugly enough that I'm sure everybody will appreciate it.

[oscar111]

3. Thanks warpy, always some good info from you

I see on the news that those masks you mention, are the norm in Japan.. seems many/most wear them over there.

Those blond bimbettes are always nothing but trouble LOL.

[oscar111]

7. good argument for home visits rather than putting the Disab. into nursing

homes.

keeping the frail in their own homes should sharply cut the spread of flu amongst them.

PS a related note.. housecalls by docs are still done in NATIONALIZED healthcare, in Eng. and Germany.
anyone know about other nations? my survey was just a thread at DU. Not some big newspaper article.

[oscar111]

8. TELECOMMUTING.. also a good argument for expanding the no. of jobs

converted to telecommuting form.

Telecommuting BTW, is often a great kind of job for the really disabled who cannot travel easily.

I would like to see the dems, when we take the Congress etc.. create a telecommuting federal job for every disabled person who needs a job. As part of a Jobs for All .. JFA.. program. See the link in my sig... site advised by Galbraith, Clinton's SOL robert Reich, and many other bigwigs.

[havocmom]

2. Not safe yet where I live in MT

Even the young and strong are still battling crud that is just horrible this year.

[oscar111]

4. MT.. right, "regional" or level three of four, four worst

you are right... the map agrees..

[oscar111]

6. States themselves may have detailed info for you folks

try googoling "health department" or dept of health"

one i tried, had some info at the county level.

BE AWARE, that there is tremendous variance in the flu level at one day, across the states.

Like, in CA, a tenth of a percent of samples show flu, while in TN, about thirty times that.. IIRC. Forgive me if i am off in recalling the chart data, just pick up on the idea of tremendous variability.I am also recalling stuff from last month, so it is out of date for these states.

dont go by the prose in the Report's first para about the national trend. Go by your own state's level on the map. Crude a measure as it is, it is more accurate for you than any national overview.

[havocmom]

10. Maps only show what doctors report

Lots of places don't have doctors anymore. Lots and lots of people can't afford to go to one. Many who have insurance or funds can't even get an appointment within the time they actually are sick.

Maps are fine, but tell only a tiny bit of the tale; that which is officially reported.

[oscar111]

11. great points! thanks! I had not heard of that outrage.. slow apointments

tho i once had to wait three weeks to see a private dentist, even with years of paying him right at leaving the office, never short never late.

so many scandals in our horrid health system.

twenty five nations outlive us.

Sweden , last info i read, ten years ago, paid docs one sixth what we do... then it was twenty K in sweden, and onehundred and twenty here.

we must chop dr wages down, as the only way to drive greedheads out of the system. They are the real problem. Frist types... he had a zero ADA vote rating one year. ZERO. Not what a healer would score.

[havocmom]

12. Three weeks for a dentist? I'd LOVE that!

I couldn't get an appointment for a pair of crumbling fillings for over 6 months in a decent sized city! By that time, I had moved and had no access at all.

I am down two teeth because of it. Trouble with raw veggies now and that, of course, affects overall health.

[oscar111]

15. raw veggies.. what was the problem? i see them as risky for bacteria

so that was the problem?

[havocmom]

13. 'Greed heads' are not the problem. The whole health care delivery

is the problem. I know many good doctors who are barely keeping their kids in college and have dropped treating pregnant women as they can no longer afford malpractice insurance if they provide total care and deliver babies. This in small towns where there are no specialties like OB/GYNs!

The whole system is broken. Bean counters are deciding who gets what treatment for those who think they are insured. Pharmacists are deciding who gets what legally prescribed medicines based on their personal religious code instead of what the attending physician and patient decides. HMO and Insurance company execs enjoy lovely lifestyles and perks while fewer and fewer people are getting decent care from doctors who have to see more and more patients just to keep their doors open.

I had to threat hen to camp out in the lobby of my HMO to get surgery I needed to save my right hand! After months of being told by every specialist they insisted I be seen by, for the growing tumor that it HAD TO COME OUT, the only reason they finally said OK was my threat to stink up their building with my unwashed body camping there! Had a pal who worked for the local paper call and ask them if they could send a reporter and photographer when I set up my camp! ;)

The problem is the delivery system. There are too many ways to keep people from actually getting basic care.

[oscar111]

14. doctors are the problem

along with, true, all those you listed.

a very few docs are like you discribed. Most are rude, sloppy, dont keep up to date, and use bill collectors with horrific tactics. Just read the surveys about doc incomes... huge incomes.. and notice how they have ended housecalls... and how very few take any charity patients... HMO's dont force them to do rapid office visits, those visits can be long.. that just drops income for the doc to reasonable levels... the average income now , last i heard, was around two hundred thou... more for specialists. Much more. If they were mostly kind, they would have organized on their own to all take a quota of free poor patients, whch would drop income to one thirty thousand. Very doable. Their inaction is the proof of no kindness.

[madrchsod]

5. "crud"- yup that describes it

about two weeks in december while i was on medical leave and then went back to work and got it again. going on two weeks now..yup "the crud". northern illinois

[oscar111]

9. kick nt

nt