How many uninsured people will DIE from H1N1 flu this year?

[Hugabear]

Rethugs will bear the blood of every uninsured American who dies from H1N1 this year. How many people will die because they can't afford to go to the doctor, let alone any potential hospitalization that might be required?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

1. The republicans don't have the votes to block anything.

[tkmorris]

True enough, but...

Just because there are a handful of complicit Democrats who are selling out and coming out against meaningful reform does NOT mean Republicans who are doing the same get a free pass. Every Congresscritter who obstructs health care reform owns their vote. The consequences are on all of their heads.

[lapfog_1]

2. Potentially, about 32,000 or so.

40 million uninsured X 28 percent infection rate (could be higher since these people might be more at risk) X .3 percent fatality rate (again, might be more because of lack of immediate attention) = 32,000.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

3. That's how many die every year.

[tkmorris]

5. That's how many die every year TOTAL

His figure was just those who have no insurance.

[Critters2]

6. Right. Usually that's the total who die. This year, that's likely to be the portion of

those who die who are uninsured. Total deaths expected are around 90,000. Not sure if that's just h1n1, or all flu.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. H1N1, regular, is a separate stat

cdc.gov usually a good place to go read up on this.

[lapfog_1]

18. As has been pointed out, this is out of a population of 40 M

since the OP brought up the UNINSURED.

The total dead from H1N1 across the entire population of the US could be much higher, 90,000 is the HHS number, I suspect it could go higher.

The big deal of course is WHO is going to die. With H1N1 it will be much more likely to see young adults fall to the virus, rather than just the elderly.

[Journeyman]

4. More to the point, how many who oppose health care for all will die. . .

because they are exposed to communicable diseases passed on by those without insurance, who cannot get the help they need to arrest the development of their condition and will unwillingly pass their illness on to the rest of those around them.

Just because you have health insurance is no guarantee you won't be exposed to an illness, and even with medical care some of those exposed to communicable diseases will still die -- insurance is not a barrier to death.

The safest course is to keep as many in society as possible healthy and unafraid to see a doctor. Only then is your own health given optimal protection.

[graywarrior]

7. I just saw on the news they estimate 90,000 will die.

30 to 40 percent Americans will get the flu. Flu shots for everyone by November....maybe.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Nobody has said they'll have enough doses for 300 million Americans

and it is NOT mandatory either.

Highly recommended, but not mandatory, even if you are in high risks groups

[graywarrior]

10. Yabut, Boston News said they're gonna have enough and to NOT PANIC!!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. THey are wrong... I trust CDC quite a bit more than the local

news cast.

CDC has NOT said they will produce enough vaccine... and even the POTUS went on record today saying it would NOT be mandatory... and that there will be NOT enough doses for everybody.

Oh that was this morning over NPR news.

[graywarrior]

15. Well, plan on mass panic this fall.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I plan on it regardless

the news media, especially local media, has done such a horrible job that it will be interesting.

I also expect some sections of the country to see things like quarantines if things get really bad, and US Civic Culture is non-existent at this point

[Johonny]

20. you don't need 300 million

Not everyone needs to be vaccinated to prevent rapid outbreak and a pandemic.

What's not clear is if the vaccine is effective enough. Last report I read said they won't know for sure until some time this month...

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. They are still testing the strength of the dose

I know

But the FEAR round these parts is that it will be mandatory. Now from what I have read they don't have enough vaccines for minimum protection either.. for that we need about 100 million doses, and we are not going to be even close to that.

[dflprincess]

8. And how many underinsured people will die because their

deductibles and copays are so high that even with "insurance" they still can't afford medical care?

[BlooInBloo]

11. About the same number that die uninsured from the flu every year.

[moriah]

21. Since 90% of seasonal flu deaths are in the elderly...

... 90% of those who die had at least Medicare.

[lapfog_1]

24. Again, read up on H1N1

it's NOT killing the elderly. It's lethality is aimed more at young adults, 20 to 45. (so far, those with some other medical issue, but not always).

It is THOUGHT right now that the elderly have a natural immunity to H1N1, most likely because they were exposed to a similar strain in their childhood.

The same 90,000 plus might die this year, but the shock will be that someone who has the office down the hall from yours will be one of the ones (or their kids).

And that will cause more of a panic (sadly, when someone at the nursing home dies off, it doesn't make the news, but when a thirty two year old mother of three kicks it... well, that's news).

[moriah]

25. You missed my point....

... the person said that the same amount of people would die from H1N1 uninsured that die of seasonal flu uninsured.

And so I pointed out that since 90% of seasonal flu deaths occur in the elderly, they were already insured. I'm very well aware of what you mentioned about the elderly seeming to have some more immunity to it. Younger people are much less likely to have health insurance.

[old mark]

29. ...so it will kill more Democrats than Republicans?

Swine flu indeed.....


mark

[notesdev]

14. Probably fewer

than will die of H1N1 hysteria

[moriah]

22. And how, pray tell, will people die from H1N1 hysteria?

Unless they avoid going to the doctor for a fatal condition because they're afraid to catch H1N1 at the doctor's office?

That's about the only way I can think of ...

[notesdev]

23. I can think of one scenario

right out of the last swine flu scare... an untested vaccine, rushed out the door, resulting in side effects for a significant number of those who get it.

Check out the scare of 1976, it will be eerily familiar to you.


If you want to know why there is so much hype about H1N1, I say... follow the money.

[moriah]

26. We've been making flu vaccines for more than 30 years longer than we were then.

... you honestly expect that the process is going to differ so dramatically from the standard flu shots?

We base our yearly flu shots on the flu strains found in the Southern Hemisphere during their flu seasons anyway. The big concern about the yearly flu shot not having the vaccine was the flu shot from the 2008-2009 flu season, not for the 2009-2010 flu season -- the shot will be available about the time the normal flu shot would be available, with similar testing as is done in every year's flu shot. The concern is going to be making enough of it, not the procedures used. If you'd like to see an article regarding normal flu season timelines for development of shots, here ya go: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1098145656060_98

Yes, there probably will be more people who experience side effects from the flu shot this year -- because more people will be getting the shot. Many people who get the flu shot experience flu-like symptoms for a few days. Just as people who receive the chicken pox shot may break out in one or two spots. But it's not like the process is going to be so different than the normal flu vaccine that you have anything more to fear from it than you do from the standard flu shot.

[notesdev]

28. It's not the medicine...

... it's the politics. Go back through the archives on the 1976 scare, you'll see how much of it was driven by the ambition of bureaucrats in the health agencies, and how little was based on having actual evidence of a threat. Read about how one vaccine was promoted as perfectly safe, but millions of people were given a different vaccine that was NOT tested.

Those kinds of errors are not mitigated by advances in medicine.

[moriah]

30. And more people have died of H1N1 here in the US than...

.... the CDC officially acknowledges as having developed GBS from the shot that was administered to 48 million people.

I hope you aren't comparing the 34 people here in the US who died from H1N1 last week to the one soldier who died then when it comes to evidence of a threat. And this is summer here -- people are outside.

Now, I admit the propaganda from that time was based on bad science -- most people get just one or two other people sick, not the three or four or five shown in some of those commercials. If we had a virus with that kind of communicability we'd be looking at The Stand for guidance, not the experiences in the Southern Hemisphere during their flu outbreaks. But the point one of those PSAs made -- "But she had a heart condition, so she died from it" is a valid one. Herd immunity does help protect those who cannot or do not take the shot. Perhaps the reason the 1976 strain did not take hold in the US was because 48 million people were immune to it?

[DireStrike]

16. About as many as die from the regular flu

Why specify H1N1?

[emilyg]

19. Cvs and Walgreens to give free shots.

To unemployed and uninsured.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

27. Not enough

for the orchestrators of a failed health care plan.

The top 1% are pissed, too!