by Hal Newman<\/p>\n
Despite the recent \t\trah-rah session aka the Flu Summit in DC and all the good tidings that \t\tflowed forth from that ‘rather vacuous’ gathering, I have serious \t\tconcerns about what awaits us as H1N1 circles the globe and comes \t\tstreaming back towards us as a virulent mo-fo capable of creating the \t\ttipping point that sends healthcare systems well over the edge and into \t\tsemi-permanent surge status.<\/p>\n
WHO has recently \t\trecommended that all nations should immunize their healthcare providers \t\tas a screaming priority in order to protect the health infrastructure. \t\tRemember, folks, that\u2019s the same health infrastructure that\u2019s currently \t\toperating well beyond normal capacity on an ongoing basis despite the \t\tfact real life has been in the fat dumb and happy zone in between \t\tnatural disasters and man-made catastrophes for years.<\/p>\n
There are problems \t\twith the production of a workable flu vax [perhaps as far down the road \t\tas 10+ months] and there are rationing schemes afoot with \t\tcountry-specific customizations on order of priority of the following \t\tgroups: pregnant women; those aged above 6 months with one of several \t\tchronic medical conditions; healthy young adults of 15 to 49 years of \t\tage; healthy children; healthy adults of 50 to 64 years of age; and \t\thealthy adults of 65 years of age and above.<\/p>\n
And so, as my pal \t\tRoy says, even mid-2010 does not mean global coverage, just those that \t\tcan afford it or have special arrangements. Perhaps it\u2019s time we \t\tconsidered home schooling..<\/p>\n
Do not take the \t\tmainstream media\u2019s inability to deal with its own Attention Deficit \t\tDisorder lightly. While it\u2019s somehow amusing to watch CNN\u2019s Situation \t\tRoom monitors flicker with images ranging from Jocko\u2019s funeral services \t\tto the uprising in the streets of Tehran, keep in mind these are the \t\ttimes we need to be looking at our emergency services\u2019 capabilities with \t\tthe eyes of a malevolent red team because the wicked things that are \t\tinbound will surely stretch the anticipated limits and then some.<\/p>\n
There are \t\tchallenging times ahead. Just my two vicious bits.<\/p>\n
Be well. Practice big medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Hal Newman Despite the recent rah-rah session aka the Flu Summit in DC and all the good tidings that flowed forth from that ‘rather vacuous’ gathering, I have serious concerns about what awaits us as H1N1 circles the globe and comes streaming back towards us as a virulent mo-fo capable of creating the tipping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[6,27,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}