Health Officials Say 40 Percent of Americans Could Get Swine Flu This Year

ATLANTA — In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.

The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season.

Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place.

The CDC came up with the new projections for the virus' spread last month, but it was first disclosed in an interview this week with The Associated Press.

The estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the United States but was not as severe as the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. The number of deaths and illnesses from the new swine flu virus would drop if the pandemic peters out or if efforts to slow its spread are successful, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

Because so many more people are expected to catch the new flu, the number of deaths over two years could range from 90,000 to several hundred thousand, the CDC calculated. Again, that is if a new vaccine and other efforts fail.

Full article here: www.foxnews.com...

i believe that everyone in the US will get swine flu within 16 weeks . No big deal, better get it now and get immune to it, than getting it after it mutates!

Originally posted by Romanian
No big deal, better get it now and get immune to it, than getting it after it mutates!

It doesn't work that way.

If you get it now and then it mutates, then the new and stronger virus will be something that you don't have immunity for because ... it will be a new virus.

Also ... if you get it and you die then it IS a big deal, isn't it?

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by Romanian
No big deal, better get it now and get immune to it, than getting it after it mutates!

It doesn't work that way.

If you get it now and then it mutates, then the new and stronger virus will be something that you don't have immunity for because ... it will be a new virus.

Also ... if you get it and you die then it IS a big deal, isn't it?

Then why get the vaccine? It is not for the mutated form. It couldn't be, because it hasn't mutated yet. And once it does, there will be a 6 -18 month wait for the drug companies to manufacter THAT vaccine! So getting the vaccine now is pointless, and you're running less of a risk getting the flu now, than trying an untested, untried vaccine.

Originally posted by mikerussellus
Then why get the vaccine?

Exactly.

And the same goes for the seasonal flu vaccination. The vaccination makers pick three flu virus strains that they think will be the most active for the season and they put those into the flu vaccination. If they don't get just the right strain .. the vaccination is worthless. This happens more times then not.

You take a chance on getting the flu vaccination.
You take a chance on if it mutates out of what the vaccination carries.

We've gotten the seasonal vaccination three times. Each time, my daughter and I got sick after the vaccination and had a horrid time for about 6 weeks with our asthma. The seasons that we didn't get the shot ... we didn't get sick and our asthma was fine.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Last year was the first year I went without the vaccination. And I didn't get sick! I'm slow when it comes to the "issues" with this stuff. For years, I thought the government had our best interests at heart and I trusted what they said. -I was sooo cute then-

It was my wife that opened my eyes to much of this. She hasn't had the vaccine, ever, and doesn't get sick. And, here's irony, she's a nurse who is around these sick folks constantly.

There is a total of 45381 infected in the U.S ALONE there have been 312 deaths in the U.S ALONE you can't ignore those numbers swine flu probably will mutate and kill a ton more people.

flutracker.rhizalabs.com...

I think a lot of these numbers are inflated for the purpose of the WHO. Another thing that should be known is that the regular human flu kills 500,000 people annually, a fact often not mentioned. Another fact not mentioned is the fact that the swine flu was manfactured in a laboratory. I'm sure our government has our best interest at heart here though.

[edit on 25-7-2009 by prepare4it777]

I just got over the swine flu, no big deal..