Dr. Walter Orenstein just reminded CNN lady that 36,000 people die...

[NNN0LHI]

...every year in America from human flu while she was cranking up the ultra-fear about 60 people dying from avian flu since 2003. She looked dazed and confused and asked the doctor again in disbelief about the "normal 36,000 deaths from the flu here every year"? She acted like that detail completely ruined her show. I don't expect to see Dr. Walter Orenstein back again soon.

Don

Edit: I will post the transcript when it becomes available. CNN is slow on the weekends with transcripts.

[oneighty]

1. Reality bites

hard.

180

[malaise]

2. That's the only way to deal with

these lunatics who are promoting fear non-stop. Expose them up publicly with facts.

[LynzM]

3. Shame on him for using logic....

People don't like numbers that make them look like fear-mongers... yes, bird flu could turn out to be a pandemic, but in the meantime...

[rodeodance]

4. in other words-she did not do any homework.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Typical corporate media wingnut, then

[NNN0LHI]

5. We sure could have another pandemic. I lived though two of them

1918-1919 (Spanish Flu pandemic)------ 500,000 dead in US

1928----------------------------------------- Alexander Fleming Discovers Penicillin

1957-1958 (Asian Flu pandemic)--------- 60,000 dead in US

1968-1969 (Hong Kong Flu pandemic)--- 40,000 dead in US

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Is there an effective vaccine for the bird flu?

Do we have the immune system to fight this off if we don't have a vaccination?

The reason why the bird flu is so scary is because a bird flu killed millions of people in 1918.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Bird flu didn't kill most those people in 1918 though

Most of those people died from secondary infections such as bacterial pneumonia for which there was no treatment in 1918 as there is now. Very important detail.

Don

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6315717/site/newsweek/%20

<snip>The 1918 flu—variant H1N1—spread with terrifying speed; in six days at a single Army base, Barry writes, the hospital census went from 610 to more than 4,000. It killed with devastating swiftness: pedestrians literally collapsed in the street; people woke up healthy and were dead by nightfall. It attacked multiple organs in the body, but always the respiratory system first, laying waste to the defenses by which the body keeps pathogens out of the lungs. Most victims succumbed to a secondary infection of bacterial pneumonia, for which there was no treatment in 1918. But in other cases, the virus was fatal in itself. Multiplying explosively throughout the respiratory tract, it provoked an immune response so furious that it devastated the lung's delicate tissues. And it was those deaths that explained H1N1's unique terror. Influenza typically kills the very young and the old, whose immune systems are too weak to fight it off, but Spanish flu killed young men and women in the prime of life.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Good to know. Thanks.

[annabanana]

13. I don't think there even IS bird flu yet..

It's been transmitted from bird to bird, and from bird to human (where it has a fairly high mortality rate).. But I don't think it's made the person - person leap yet.

Hence, nothing to build vaccinations against yet.

[knitter4democracy]

16. It has.

They have three confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission so far with a few others that look like they might have been but aren't confirmed. That's what my hubby told me last night, and I know he's been following it in his medical journals and websites.

They're in the testing phase of the vaccine now.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. I recall hearing this too. One was from daughter to mother.

The caregivers are most at risk.

[knitter4democracy]

15. They're testing one.

The problem with the vaccine is that we usually use fertilized chicken eggs to make the flu vaccine (and others), but the avian flu (H5N1) has killed all the eggs before they can get anything out of them. They've had to come up with an entirely different way to manufacture the vaccine, so that's slowed down the process.

They're testing what they've got in healthy adults right now. Next, they going to test it on "elderly" patients (whatever that actually means) and then children last.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Thank you,

[BlueEyedSon]

9. Duck, it's some reality-based.... reality!

[DanCa]

10. And I dont personally know anyone who died from regular flu

This whole thing is being mass produced.

[knitter4democracy]

17. So? That's availibility bias.

My husband knows many, but he's an internist and so would be the one treating them in the hospital and in the office. Because he knows many and you know none, maybe the truth lies in the middle.

[DanCa]

24. Well said,

I think the problem is no one trust this administration any more. Thier lesson of the boy who cried wolf is you dont tell the same lie twice.

[ozymandius]

12. I'm surprised he didn't mention the 500k people who die

every year from tobacco-related illnesses.

What's so odd is that normal, annual deaths in the tens of thousands (and hundreds of thousands) are accepted as commonplace. That does not instill the panic media wants to boost ratings.

[knitter4democracy]

14. How could she not know that?

Oh, wait, yeah . . . another idiot at the desk. :eyes:

I hate flu season every year. It's the worst time for my hubby with long office hours and longer rounds in the hospital. It's bad enough in a normal year, but last year, with almost no vaccine in our area, was awful. I'm hoping they get enough vaccine this year.

[pretzel4gore]

18. mediawhore flu!

nothing seen anything like it! wow! zap! powie! umfph! millions clueless!
there are 300 thousand mediawhores in usa alone...each needs day in court and night on deathrow....CNNT needs it the worst! lol
:shrug:

a big laugh- the pigmedia were all excited about the 'strange' deaths in a canadian hospital, suggesting evil aliens (maybe, hopefully) had somehow infested the great white north, but unfortunately the disease was from labs of the american NSA and had a couple short runs in the states ie 'legionaires disease' thus killed the story dead! all those mediapigs are oinking furiously at each other....fuxnews and cnnt etc were sorta messed up by FUKKING scientific fact, the poor benighted monsters...the hate festers in their cold dead hearts and the ravenous pig squeals we hear are just the mediawhores missing a meal... imho
:)

[truthout]

21. Ooops... 36,000 overblown

Just found this...

http://www.mercola.com/2004/oct/30/flu_deaths.htm

"Upon further investigation of the CDC Web site, the actual number of deaths caused by the flu came to 257, with pneumonia accounting for the remaining number of deaths."

Pneumonia, not the 'flu' or Influenza, was the cause of the nearly 36,000 people dying last year.

Dr. Orenstein should have had his facts right.

[NNN0LHI]

22. Kind of gives you a hint as to how many people actually died from...

...influenza in 1918 doesn't it? With more than 200,000 people in the United States hospitalized each year for respiratory and heart conditions illnesses associated with influenza virus infections and only 257 actually dying from the flu it appears there is not a whole lot to worry about. The 500,000 number of dead they give for the 1918 pandemic also includes those who died from complications such as bacterial pneumonia rather than the flu, just like they do now. Wonder how many people would have not died from flu complications in 1918 had antibiotics been available back then?

Don

[KharmaTrain]

23. CNN Breaking Snooze: Saliva Is Fatal...

...when ingested in small doses over a period of decades. So says Dr. George Carlin.

:rofl:

[NNN0LHI]

25. The transcript is up

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0510/08/smn.01.html

<snip>DR. WALTER ORENSTEIN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Well, we really don't know how serious it will be. There are several things that make us concerned -- the spread in Asia, the numbers of people who have been infected so far and the fact that the virus is mutating and becoming more virulent.

On the other hand, we've seen no evidence of human to human transmission, which is necessary for a severe pandemic. So I think a much more likely scenario this season will be our traditional influenza outbreaks, where 36,000 people die, on average, and over 200,000 are hospitalized. So I hope everybody listening in who needs influenza...

NGUYEN: That's a traditional outbreak?

ORENSTEIN: That is a traditional annual outbreak.

NGUYEN: Goodness.

ORENSTEIN: It's under appreciated. And my hope would be is for people who need the current vaccine, they get it, that there's two things. One, it protects them from this year's flu, most likely flu; and, two, it helps to build our manufacturing capacity to gear up for a pandemic strain should it happen. snip

NGUYEN: So what do Americans do? Do they just get a regular flu vaccine and hope for the best?

ORENSTEIN: I think at the moment there's two things. One is they ought to get a flu vaccine if it's recommended for them. That's particularly the high risk -- people at high risk of complications for influenza. Again, that will help protect them from the most likely strains. And, two, it helps to build manufacturing capacity.

The second is to keep tuned. There will be more information that comes out and more guidance and more directions as we learn more about what happens with the avian influenza virus.

NGUYEN: So get your vaccine, your regular flu vaccine, that is.

ORENSTEIN: That's correct.

NGUYEN: And then stay on top of the daily reports about this.

ORENSTEIN: Exactly. I think that, again, the most likely influenza will be what we've seen before and what we tend to ignore, but is a serious illness.

NGUYEN: Absolutely.

[KittyWampus]

26. Thanks, Would Like The Closure Of Hospitals & Clinics To Become An Issue

here as well.

It's a National Security issue. Having enough hospitals and clinics open around the country to deal with any disease outbreak early on.

[NNN0LHI]

27. I agree. I know we had a hell of a nursing shortage not too long ago also

I am not sure if that has improved or not? I hope it gets resolved.

Don