Health care reform under protest — I give up

I don’t know whether to be proud of all those citizens showing up at the town hall meetings, many to voice their protest over proposed health care laws, or whether to be disgusted with all the demagoguery going on, such as that from those Republican lawmakers who voted for a provision in 2003 they now claim to be against and further claim is a measure promoting euthanasia.

I know there is legitimate concern over proposed revisions to our health care laws but there is so much lying on all sides concerned that it is depressing.

Facing my own health care insurance problems, I feel nearly helpless and hopeless – although not quite.

But I know I am not in a unique position, and that only further confuses me. Surely so many others must be facing the bewildering position of being between insurances and knowing that if you let one lapse a new plan may not accept pre-existing conditions. I might be going on Medicare if due to my medical condition (cancer) I cannot work, but that would put me into poverty,that is not being able to work,  but without help I can’t possibly pay private insurance on my own. And reading over all of the terms and restrictions of private insurance is bewildering. One would have to be the proverbial Philadelphia lawyer to understand it all, and even that would not help, unless one specialized in health care law.

While I fully appreciate anyone taking part in the protests if they know what they are talking about or at least have legitimate concerns based on some semblance of fact, I have nothing but contempt for the know-nothings who simply spout off FOX News or right-wing Republican talking (propaganda) points.

And I am not afraid to say something else about all of this: there is a lot of greed among the health care providers, to include doctors, and insurance companies.

It’s hard for me to criticize doctors because I have needed them so much and I know that taken as a group they do so much good for society and I know that to be a good doctor is a rare enough skill and talent that it has to be or should be well rewarded. But it also seems to me that doctors are the ones who could do more than most to help straighten out the health care crisis. But the doctors whom I have spoken with seem to feel they are too busy and someone else needs to handle reform and that in so doing whatever way it comes out they have to be compensated at the level to which they are accustomed. I have not had long and detailed discussions with doctors, but I have mentioned my concerns. And although they indicate concern and sympathy they also convey the attitude that they must be rather well compensated otherwise it is just not doable or worth the bother.

As to the issue of abuse in malpractice litigation adding to high medical costs, while I am sure there needs to be reform there, I imagine it is more of a red herring used by opponets of health care reform who prefer the status quo.

But at some point on an individual basis one has to face reality and go along with the program, such as it is.

And one more thing: I think a vast majority of the public wants FREE health care or at least health care that seems free, such as employer-provided. They do not want to think that they have to pay for it and they for sure do not want to be taxed for it. A big concern among many – and perhaps somewhat legitimate – is that their tax dollars will go to health care for others and not themselves.

It is true, I believe, that there is a class of people in our society who take public assistance for granted. They along with greedy drug companies and others in the health care industry are adding to the poison in the atmosphere against health care reform. Many are concerned that too much government involvement will throw us all into the government free clinic zoo. Many working people work simply to not have to live in that nether world of the “sick”, “lame” and lazy. They fear that Obamacare (and actually there is no identifiable program) would throw them into the community clinic.

And there most likely would have to be some type of health care rationing under a government program — how else to control the costs? There already is rationing in the private system anyway — it’s called cost, availability, exclusions and so on.

While President Obama may believe what he says, that he does not want to take away anyone’s insurance, I have to admit it does seem that a so-called government option would overpower what the marketplace could offer and would offer employers a way out of providing for their employees. And actually employer provided insurance is probably where we went wrong in the first place. When it really was free (to the patient) the medical community had a bonanza, they could and did, and heck, still do, charge anything they want. And they want a lot.

I give up already – I’ll go along with the program to the extent I can.

How do we in good conscience deny health care to millions???

It seems that lawmakers and perhaps large numbers of voters who chose Barack Obama are getting cold feet about the cost of health care reform (a trillion dollars, yikes! But then again, doesn’t the government just print money? Yes, I’m being sarcastic).

Maybe some are rethinking the issue, wondering if we should just not leave well enough alone.

Well to anyone who thinks the present health care system works just fine, I offer this localized version of what is going on (or part of what is going on).

Here where I live at the Northern end of California’s Sacramento Valley we have two major hospitals in town. The biggest is a non-profit (and that has nothing to do with how much patients are charged – it’s still an arm and a leg and more) and a for-profit that changes ownership somewhat frequently, one that was in the national news some time back because two heart surgeons, with the blessing of the management at the time, made quite a business out of performing unneeded surgery. But that does not mean it is not a good hospital, necessarily. Both my wife and I have spent time there and had excellent care, even though there is really no way to make it enjoyable to be in a hospital.

Anyway, that for-profit hospital recently changed hands and is now run by a controversial doctor from Southern California. He began by firing virtually all of the nurses and other staff and allowing them to reapply for jobs. One of the nurses’ unions has been voted out. It couldn’t get anywhere with the new management, so apparently the nurses decided they would be better off fighting their own battles or at least keeping their jobs.

He also cancelled an insurance contract with Blue Cross. As I understand it (and I may not), the hospital says it will still honor Blue Cross and will in fact waive your deductible. I think the catch is that unlike when you have contracted insurance the hospital retains the right to go after you for the part insurance does not pay (beyond the expected deductible). Kind of a double-edged sword there. Blue Cross has advised its customers not to deal with that hospital.

As a result, apparently, the non-profit (Catholic, did I mention?) hospital has been inundated, especially in its emergency room.

Now in my local newspaper I read that the non-profit hospital is being investigated by the feds for what is called “patient dumping”, that is to say they may be releasing patients too soon or denying proper treatment because they lack insurance.

So it occurs to me that not only is the non-profit getting patients steered their way by the insurance company, but could be getting ones without insurance that the for-profit one does not want to handle (although that is not included in the current investigation by the feds as far as I know).

The story indicates that the non-profit was flooded with emergency room patients because of doubts created about the other hospital over the insurance hassle and the fact that Blue Cross sent letters to its customers telling them not to go there.

There is actually a question as to what specifically the non-profit hospital is under suspicion of doing since neither the authorities nor the hospital will say precisely, except for the feds indicating it has something to do with patient dumping.

What I am trying to point out is that private health insurance is not a panacea. The reason the for-profit hospital had a beef with the private insurance is that it does not pay them what they think they should get – and isn’t that the same beef the medical community has with public insurance – too low of payments? (And why do we patients not feel the hospitals are not getting enough money? They demand you buy everything from your pillow to the toothbrush you didn’t ask for at high retail – not even Walmart prices.)

And what is this I hear about public insurance will mean health care rationing? Probably it will, but that is already in place, both through private insurance and public insurance. Private insurance is quite picky over what it will pay for. A doctor may use his or her own best medical judgment with the concern for the patient uppermost in mind, but in the end it all has to be paid for and the insurance bureaucracy is who decides.

Doctors and hospitals have to hire whole staffs of people just to work with the private (and public) insurance bureaucracy – billions of dollars are spent each year not for patient care but instead in an effort to maximize profits for private insurance and for the medical providers to get as much out of the government programs as they can.

Some of the ways private insurance maximizes profits besides denying certain types of procedures include delaying payments by bureaucratically denying them only to later pay, but in the meantime getting more interest on they money they temporarily withhold from you. Also, you might give up and not get your entitled full claim due to the bureaucracy (and I am not making this up; I have personal experience with this routine). I’m sure there are many tricks, such as bureaucratically demanding certain codes be used and requiring forms in triplicate and so on.

I hear and read about public opinion both ways. The public is demanding health care reform and in fact supports a public option. I also hear that there is a strong resistance now in the congress to the cost of a public plan, and one has to assume that they (the congress) are at least in part reflecting the concern of their constituents.

I am holding to the opinion of my most recent blog on the subject, people who have private insurance are reluctant to put it into possible jeopardy by monkeying with the system (and I understand this).

It is often noted that every other industrialized nation in the world has universal, government-sponsored health care.

Okay, forget the rest of the world if we must. But I think that it is only right and it is only practical that all U.S. citizens should have basically equal access to health care. As for illegal aliens, it would seem we only owe them initial emergency care.

Since there does not seem to be overwhelming support, to say the least, for government universal care, then I think that the only thing we can do is say if you can afford (and who decides that, I don’t know) health insurance, you must buy it (because otherwise the taxpayer gets stuck with the bill in the emergency room where it all starts out, and caring for the uninsured also adds to the cost of private insurance). If you can’t afford it, you should have a publicly-supported option. And that public option could be one that is 100 percent taxpayer funded or one that is simply backed by the government but run by a non-profit co-op or even a quasi-private entity.

Forty seven to fifty million seems to be the oft-quoted figures for the number without health insurance. But as has been pointed out, especially by foes of universal care, that figure may be both inaccurate and misleading. A certain percentage of the total uninsured, as much as 10 percent I think I’ve heard, are illegal aliens, and a certain percentage are young people and others who simply can’t be bothered but run to the emergency room when something happens and demand their right to care on the taxpayer dime. And a certain percentage may actually be entitled to some form of public care and don’t realize it.

What we do know is that there are a sizable number of people, and a large percentage of them are children, who for whatever reason are denied health care.

How anyone in good conscience could be comfortable with that continuing is beyond me.

The reason we don’t have universal care (even the kind that has extreme flexibility, allowing the continuance of private insurance) is the lack of guts on the part of so many politicians. Politicians are often people who have apparently convinced themselves that they could not make their living any other way and therefore are scared to death that if they vote against vested interests in the status quo they will lose their job. They fear the money powers who can spread propaganda and deny them campaign funds if they don’t do their bidding.

I say to all the senators and representatives:

“Try voting your conscience for once.”

 

P.s.

The line now is that any type of public option on health care will run private insurance out of business. Yes, if everyone, to include employers, was offered essentially a free plan versus a paid one, it would. So any public option has to be tightly restricted by actual need, perhaps. And once we get there, I don’t see why we didn’t just expand Medicare.

A serious question over religion vs. medicine…

Sleepy Eye, Minnesota I think was mentioned in Little House on The Prairie as being a trading post some distance from Walnut Grove, but whatever, this is not about a family that had a problem, consulted a higher authority, and they all lived happily ever after, and there’s no Laura Ingalls, as in the book or TV story.

The mother of a 13-year-old boy, one Daniel Hauser, has fled with her son from their hometown in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota to avoid a court order that he be given chemotherapy treatments. He has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer.

The boy’s parents supposedly belong to a faith called Nemanhah (never heard of it) and do not believe in conventional medical practices. Their faith, reportedly based on American Indian beliefs, calls for using natural herbal remedies, as I understand it. Freedom of Religion is guaranteed by our First Amendment.

Reportedly, they may be on their way to Mexico, of all places, to get some type of alternative treatment. That seems like a strange place to go to me if the mother is truly concerned for her son. I mean Mexico right now is not a safe place to go in my estimation. Not only is there a swine flu epidemic still going on there (it has of course spread from there worldwide), but more importantly there is major drug cartel violence there that has threatened the safety of that whole nation.

But I do sympathize and empathize with anyone who fears chemo, whether it be for themselves or for their loved ones. A couple of years ago I was in an oncologist’s office and was told I needed to begin chemo immediately, preferably that day, as soon as I left the examining room. I did. I did not know what else to do. In my case it most probably was the right decision. But to be honest I was ignorant of what chemo was all about. Even though I was probably warned, only later did it really sink in that I had let them inject extremely toxic poisons into my system. Those poisons went after my cancer, but, as is unavoidable in virtually all cases, they also did damage to my body, specifically in my case to my immune system. At one point I was led to believe they may have done irreversible damage. I’m not so sure about that now, but the point is, chemo is a bit terrifying and it is a bit of a risk, to say the least.

But as I understand it, in general, current law (as settled by various cases over the years) holds that the religious beliefs of parents cannot stand in the way of giving medical treatment to their minor children in situations deemed life and death and where the treatment is deemed a medically-accepted procedure, not just some experiment. I know that is not an uptown interpretation of the law, but I think it’s close (and I would suppose there may be exceptions in various jurisdictions, and as is always the case, laws are subject to change with new court decisions).

There is a serious conflict here. On the one hand we go to great lengths in the USA to protect the right of individuals to hold and practice their religious beliefs. And I hate to bring abortion into this discussion, but the Roe vs. Wade decision, which makes abortion legal in this country, I also think says a lot about the law’s attitude that where possible people ought to have control over their own bodies.

In this case there is an argument over whether Daniel, who reportedly does not want chemo himself, is capable of making that decision. Strictly under the law, apparently he is not.

The father has reportedly had second thoughts about the whole thing (actually I don’t know for sure what his original thoughts were) and is begging his wife and son to come back from wherever they are and saying it can all be rethought and worked out. At last word, the Sheriff of Minnesota’s Brown County, the jurisdiction of this incident, has said that if Mrs. Hauser brings her son back now and cooperates he will not seek charges, which include child endangerment.

It’s quite a compelling story. The photos I have seen depict a family living on what appears to be a dairy farm in rural Minnesota. They appear simple folks with their faith. They have a German surname, but they are not Pennsylvania Dutch or Amish or Mennonites, or even Christian Scientists, as far as I know.

But folks should be able to live and believe as they please. And Chemo is a risky thing. But so is alternative medicine. And probably society should have a duty to look out for minors, especially on life and death matters where there is no guarantee that their guardians are following a societal-accepted practice for their care and safety. It is not a matter to be taken lightly, no matter whether you say it is society’s call or a family’s or a mother’s.

National Geographic gives me links to stories that help in understanding flu outbreak implications…

Since first posting this blog I have received a comment that will give the readers two direct links to National Geographic articles on the subject at hand. The comment and links are at the end of this blog.

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Sometimes when I have a lot of time on my hands, which is quite often these days, I actually read articles in National Geographic as opposed to just thumbing through the photographs.

Quite by accident I ran across an article in the October 2005 issue of National Geographic that questioned when the next flu pandemic would arrive. What with the current swine flu, or Influenza A, H1N1, I thought that was certainly prescient. At the time, the big concern was the avian flu in Asia. I recall that there was great worry that migratory birds might spread it across the ocean to here in the good old USA. I guess the avian flu is still a concern, but I found what the article said about flu in general and its references to the great pandemic in 1918 and the outbreaks in 1957, and ‘68 enormously interesting.

One item that caught my eye was that pigs can catch avian flu from birds and can catch flu from humans and that a new strain could result. Could that be what has happened this time around? I also heard the rumor that the current swine flu might have been the result of a flu strain escaping from a laboratory. I heard that on the Dr. Dean Ewell radio program yesterday (that was probably a taped repeat from last week) . He seemed to doubt it, but did not totally discredit it.

There has been some accusations that health officials and the news media overreacted in this current outbreak that first came into the news in April, which so far, although it has spread throughout the world and is blamed for many deaths, does not seem to be as bad as might have been feared. But after reading the National Geographic article I referred to, I can see why there is concern. The truth is scientists and doctors don’t know the potential of this flu or future flu outbreaks and can only go by what they have learned so far. And if a new strain was to get away from containment efforts in the early stages there might be no stopping it. This current strain I think did get away, but so far is not as virulent or as survivable itself, as might have been feared (it seems so far).

I did read about the 55-year-old assistant principal dying over the weekend in New York. The flu is going through the school system there. His death was attributed at least partly to the swine flu. It was also reported he may have had another underlying condition.

I suffered from an upset stomach last night and some other intestinal problems, shall we say. I think it may be due to eating too many oranges on Sunday or even a restaurant meal I ate going out to lunch with my mother. But the thoughts of swine flu were on my mind. But I don’t seem to have flu symptoms at this time (headache and extreme body ache or fever).

———–Update:

Feeling much better today, May 19. I think it was the oranges. I swallowed a couple of seeds. They were Valencias.

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A few days ago I blogged that the swine flu had come to the city and the county where I live (at the top of California’s Sacramento Valley). The count of flu cases here, as I said, so far is 1 and the victim has recovered. A day or two ago I read that there was a case in the next county south of here, same result.

And I sure hope that was the oranges that made my stomach ache.

Swine flu statistics still hard to follow, but my local count is 1 case, 0 deaths…

It seems difficult to get accurate swine flu statistics off the web. The numbers don’t always add up and each story or each site seems to list things differently. But I think I have a handle so far on the statistics in the town and county in which I live, at the north end of California’s Sacramento Valley: Cases, 1 reported and one confirmed (the same case, so the number is 1); Deaths, 0. (This local case was just officially confirmed today.)

Worldwide, I’ll just go with the current Wikipedia count of 6,042 cases and 63 deaths, with 58 of them reported out of Mexico, 3 in the U.S. and 1 in Canada and 1 in Costa Rica (and as I have previously noted, statistics get jumbled between suspected, reported – by whom? – and confirmed).

There was also a somewhat bizarre report out of Canada that pigs caught swine flu from a human who had just returned from Canada, but at last report, none died (pigs that is). But I guess in Egypt they overreacted and slaughtered thousands of swine for no apparent reason, except for the name “swine flu”. Meanwhile, the last I heard it had not been determined whether the so-called swine flu in Mexico, thought to be the nation of origin in the current epidemic, had actually originated from pigs. And the official name for the current brand of swine flu is Influenza A (H1N1). The swine industry, and maybe others, I suppose, had pushed for a name change.

The local case to which I referred involved a resident who had just returned from a trip to Mexico. The local TV news just said he is now completely recovered. The first report of him going to a local hospital emergency room was only a few days ago.

This current swine flu epidemic (or pandemic?) was not officially confirmed as such until about mid April. I can see that from what we know now about this fairly steady but slow-moving and so far not terribly deadly virus, sealing off the Mexico-U.S. Border probably would have been an overreaction (I had blogged that it should at least be seriously considered). But the contention by officials that it would not do any good seems to be belied by the fact that had not this local individual been allowed to cross in and out of Mexico we would not have had this particular local swine flu case.

But this is all way out of my league. I don’t mind so much opinionating on politics and such, but how to handle health emergencies I’ll leave up to the professionals (for the most part).

Harry and Louise and Joe Six Pack would sign up for government health care if it came to that, but of course they deserve it…

Was it Thelma and Louise? No I guess Harry and Louise, the concerned upper middle class couple who feared while sipping morning coffee and reading the Wall Street Journal that providing health care to all would eat into their 401K retirement investments.

Well their 401K went down the tube and their house, cash cow that it was, is not worth nearly as much as it used to be.

But the health insurance lobby is back. They’re warning everyone that government bureaucrats will be making life and death decisions and we’ll all be standing in line to get operations.

Well this is it folks: If you have money, lots of money, I mean whole bunches of money, you probably don’t need to worry (well actually medical bills can eat that up quickly). If you have a good insurance plan and can make the payments, or maybe if you are retired military, you probably are okay (until the government goes broke).

If you lost your job and your job-related health insurance along with it – oh oh. I know you used to gripe that so much of your tax money went to pay for health care for those undeserving slobs who don’t work for a living. But now you no longer work – although you’d like to. And you no longer have insurance – probably just when you needed it. Or maybe you did go back to work, but your company no longer offers that insurance, maybe because you were taken back on part-time.

Or maybe your company plan, whose premium goes up every year, has finally priced you out of the market.

Certainly now you feel you deserve some government health care. After all you paid taxes all those years. You’re not only needy, but you’re deserving. You’ll be the first in line for government health care. You better ask some of the more experienced at the game to learn the ropes.

I lost my job, not due to a layoff, but due to cancer. My company insurance ran out and then I had to start buying COBRA. I didn’t get in on the new Obama lower COBRA payments because I started too early (COBRA does not last forever, anyway). If you think you can get on Medicare, guess what, there’s a two-year waiting period. What you are supposed to do in the meantime is anyone’s guess.

Some people don’t worry. I sat next to a woman at a cancer support group meeting and she said her husband was self-employed and carried no insurance. He got cancer and needed an operation. The hospital “found” some program and performed it at no cost to him. No one’s offered me that. I wish him the best, though (it seems the polite attitude).

Health care and health insurance is a giant industry. The health insurance lobby probably has a point about government bureaucracy (but have you ever dealt with private health insurance and health care provider bureaucracy?).  And the lobbyists (they are the one’s running those commercials on TV against universal health care) are probably right that Canada and Western Europe and all the other modern industrialized nations that offer some form of what people like to call socialized medicine don’t necessarily offer the panacea that some might think, but when you have no insurance and run out of money, you’d probably take it (you might even like it).

Actually I think maybe the majority of the voters in those nations have felt that yes national health insurance does cost lost of money, but they also know that good health care costs no matter what. The important thing is that you get it. It may have seemed more practical to them to share the costs, kind of like businesses do when they form a consortium to purchase fuel or something like that.

Me, I just think everyone benefits from not only having good health care themselves but from everyone else having it. We can sit around and worry about who is paying their fare share and price everyone, including ourselves, out of the market or we can come to some kind of agreement on how to provide health care for all.

Filling up our emergency rooms with people who simply are looking for routine health care just makes everyone’s health care coast more. Maybe through some form of a universal system (that can still include private insurance) we could not only be able to have health care providers see everyone in a more orderly fashion but we could actually provide preventative health care to bring ultimate costs down.

And having large numbers of people unproductive in society does not help anyone.

Another problem we have had is that it seems that the so-called working poor (and that’s just a term) have been the most neglected class in health care. Those above have insurance and/or otherwise can afford it, and those out of the workforce are often on government programs that provide them with some regular form of health care (not necessarily top notch).

I think this current economic crisis has shown many that health care tied to jobs is not the way to go.

But Harry and Louise and the Joe Six Packs who still may have jobs with health insurance are probably still reluctant to support any form of universal health care, that is until theirs runs out.

But of course they deserve it.

P.s.

It would seem the simplest way to provide healthcare for all would be to expand the current Medicare program. We as a nation have accepted Social Security since the 1930s (just recall what resistance there has been to tampering with it), why is this different?

For a likely pandemic, swine flu outbreak seems relatively mild for now, and why shouldn’t the Mexican border be closed???

While I am not for a minute underestimating the potential of the 2009 H1N1 virus, better known as the swine flu, it seems that for now for what is seen as a potential for a pandemic is not acting like a pandemic.

That is to say that although Mexico has suffered 150 or more deaths officially attributed to the H1N1 virus – let’s just call it swine flu with no offense to pigs or pork – it does not seem to be terribly deadly elsewhere – yet. The U.S. has only suffered one death and that was a child who came here from Mexico seeking medical treatment. As of this writing I have not read nor heard about deaths elsewhere (although news changes rapidly).

A look at the current numbers (and realize that by the time many read this they no longer will be current) shows 109 confirmed cases in the U.S. and a handful in the various regions of the world. It seems that most of the cases can be attributed to the simple fact that people travel directly from Mexico to other areas of the world. A member of President Obama’s staff and his family are suspected of having contracted the swine flu, it has been reported. There had even been concern for the president himself when one report said that an official with whom he shook hands on his recent trip to Mexico later died, but last I heard it was not from the swine flu (maybe it was old age, I don’t know).

So anyway, 150 deaths in Mexico (some say no more than might be attributed in any given year or less to the more regular forms of flu), and 109 cases (and counting?) in the U.S. and as I said a handful elsewhere. I should note that Mexico reports 2,400 suspected cases.

———–

AND HERE IS AN UPDATE FROM MY ORIGINAL POST:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is now calling the current swine flu virus Influenza A (H1N1).

The latest numbers as of this update (late Thursday evening my time) are 257 confirmed cases world-wide, 109 in the U.S. and 97 in Mexico.

I will also note here that I have been reading that so far this current virus has actually not been detected in pigs (that’s curious).

————-

But the world population is 6.7 billion. So by any measure, the potential pandemic is small at this time.

According to current news reports, the swine flu is suspected to have begun in a Mexican village in the state of Veracruz where the villagers think it may have originated from a commercial hog farm (run by a U.S. company). Tests, though, reportedly have come up negative for swine flu at that hog farm. It has also been reported that villagers there reported getting sick as far back as April 2 and I have also read as far back as February.

So, anyway, the swine flu spread in Mexico and then because of travel spread to the U.S. and elsewhere.

I have to wonder why the border has not been shut down. Perhaps that would be an overreaction, but I do not understand the rationale given by officials in the Obama administration and the advice of health authorities that it would be useless since the virus has already traveled here.

Would not more cases coming in increase the likelihood of increased transmission by some exponential effect? I am not calling for a border shutdown, but I would be interested to know why it should not be seriously considered, at least till things are sorted out. I realize it would have a drastic effect on the economy (more than has already taken place) and the lives of people who find themselves for family reasons going back and forth, but so could a pandemic.

The big mystery in all of this is why the swine flu seems to be harder on the Mexican population than those elsewhere. It seems as if the cases people are contracting elsewhere seem to be milder so far.

While I am out of my league in a matter that only doctors would understand, I have to wonder if the lack of healthy and sanitary living conditions in much of Mexico is the reason. I have not heard that discussed (although it may have been). Maybe that would not be politically correct.

Mexican citizens themselves can hardly be blamed for the swine flu. For all I know it may be the fault of U.S. hog farm (factory) operations in Mexico (or not). But it is interesting to note that with the amount of world travel there is, a heath problem in one nation becomes a health problem everywhere.

P.s.

One health official noted today that in the southern hemisphere (that would of course be considerably south of Mexico) winter is coming on and it will be important to see if the virus will take off there. Also health officials are looking at the fact it could show a resurgence here in the northern hemisphere next Fall. I understand the so-called second wave of the influenza pandemic back in 1918 was the worst part of it.

P.s. P.s.

There has also been an observation that unlike other flu strains that seem to leave the very young and the very old most vulnerable, this one seems to strike otherwise healthy people not in those two afore-mentioned catergories. And there has been talk that perhaps people with healthy immune systems are more vulnerable because in reaction to this new strain  their immune systems overreact. No, I have no idea how that is. I’d like to read more about that.

Exploding swine flu vials, now there’s something to be concerned about; meanwhile, pigs are getting a bad rap…

UPDATE: Since I first posted this blog the World Health Organizaton has raised its alert level on swine flu to its second highest mark, phase 5, meaning a pandemic (epidemic over a wide geographical area) is imminent.  Germany and Austria have been added to the list of nations reporting swine flu. “It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,” the health organization director Dr. Margaret Chan was quoted as saying.

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So, amid all this concern, anxiety, panic, or however you might describe it over the swine flu, a container filled with swine flu virus explodes on a train carrying 60 passengers in Switzerland.

That’s what I read on the Der Spiegel website.

According to the story, officials assured everyone that even though it was swine flu, it was a strain of the virus somehow different than the one that is killing people in Mexico and seems to be spreading world wide (I don’t know the science of that).

Just like it was noted in the story, it was something like a plot for a science fiction movie (although it really happened). A lab technician out of Geneva had been sent to Zurich to pick up several ampules of the flu virus that were to be used in testing for the flu epidemic. The ampules were hermetically sealed and packed in dry ice in the container, but apparently not packed properly and gas escaped, resulting in the explosion. The train was evacuated and passengers were held for an hour, but then released. But officials said they did take contact information, presumably for followup.

In a previous blog I said that I would be making sure to use hand sanitizer a lot (I already had been doing that compulsively after going through a bout of low-immune system problems in the recent past – I’m supposedly okay now).

So where did I go today? To one of our local hospitals to visit an ailing brother-in-law (not from the swine flu). But I did use plenty of sanitizer while I was there, but I did not wear a face mask (I just try to hold my breath when people crowd too close, like in the elevator).

There has now been at least one confirmed death in the U.S. from swine flue, a 23-month old child in Houston, Tx. The child had been in Mexico. Some 150 deaths in Mexico have been attributed to the swine flu.

I  read a story that said students from a New York School had been in Cancun, Mexico and contracted the virus. Now hundreds of students in New York have reportedly come down with the flu.

Several U.S. states have reported cases. And several nations around the world have reported cases, to include New Zealand, Israel, Canada, Great Britain (to include Scotland) and Spain.

As everyone is reporting it is called swine flu because originally it was a virus found in pigs and sometimes transmitted from them to humans. This virus seems to have mutated and is being transmitted from human to human. The experts do not have a lot of answers yet and seem to be saying there is not much they can do to fight it right now.

As to the source, I have heard at least two reports (details unclear – partly because I did not take my own notes when I heard them) that workers at a commercial hog farm or farms in Mexico reported getting a flu-like sickness, possibly as far back as February.

It has now been reported that a 5-year-old boy in the Mexican state of Veracruz had the first identified case of swine flu. It was recorded on April 2. He appeared to be recovering at last word. His family reportedly lives near a large U.S.-owned hog farm. But tests there for swine flu were said to be negative.

U.S. companies are running what would more accurately be described as hog factories in Mexico. They run them in the U.S. too, but they get a lot of opposition. The animals are raised in tight confinement and there is a lot of waste.

Even though health officials have repeatedly said you cannot get the swine flu from eating pork (but you should cook it well – that has always been the case with pork), at least one hog industry member said the market is being affected adversely.

In Egypt the government has ordered that all pigs be slaughtered. Although Egypt is a predominantly Muslim nation, whose adherants don’t eat pork, pig farmers there sell pork to the Christian minority. (What the thinking is on this I don’t know, since the disease is reportedly being spread from human to human despite its name.)

I sure don’t like the idea of those commercial hog factories. I raised pigs once when I was in high school and a member of the Future Farmers of America. But mine were not confined in a tight space. And I’ve seen plenty of places where pigs were raised with much open room to run, even on pasture. Pigs love to forage and root.

And contrary to popular conception and the vernacular (“dirty as a pig”), pigs by nature are quite intelligent and clean animals when they can be. They do like to wallow in mud. That’s because they have no pores through which to sweat. On a hot day they love a pig wallow.

My pigs drank out of a fountain which they had to push their snouts up against for the water to run. Also, “eat like a pig” might be accurate if comparing someone’s eating manner to a pig at the trough, but in reality pigs only eat until they are full, whereas a cow or especially a horse will eat until they are sick.

But pigs are highly susceptible to contracting various diseases that afflict swine.

I personally think there ought to be a law against cramped confinement of swine and all other animals. I’m not big on cattle feedlots either. In fact, feedlot type feeding has been linked to mad cow disease (you’d go mad too).

But I would not be concerned about eating sufficiently-cooked pork. And I am going to keep using that hand sanitizer.

P.s.

Due to concerns of the swine industry, at least one health official said there is some consideration in coming up with a new name for what is being called the swine flu.  And what I gather is some type of fundamentalist right wing group called SaveCalifornia.com is calling on President Obama to close the border with Mexico and is calling the virus the “killer Mexican flu”.

World’s newspapers share top story: the swine flu…

Newspapers all over the world shared a top story in their Monday editions, the swine flu. I understand that there is concern that a lot of misinformation is going around via new electronic gossipy devices such as Twitter, and I have nothing authoritative to add to the serious subject of the swine flu. But I was perusing a site I have on my favorites by the Newseum that displays front pages all over the U.S. and all over the world. Most of the papers carried the swine flu as the lead story and others had it prominently displayed. The Japan Times (English edition) headline said: Swine Flu in Mexico Sparks Global Panic. I thought that was a little over the top, perhaps (above that newspaper’s masthead is the slogan: All the news without fear or favor).

From Minnesota, however, the Duluth News headline read: Flu Threat Real, but Don’t Panic. The Buffalo News ran the story below the fold with a headline that read: Nations Gird to Avoid Flu Pandemic.

Most of the newspapers had photos of people in Mexico City wearing face masks. A newspaper in Germany ran a photo of Mexican soldiers armed with automatic weapons and wearing face masks with a headline that said: Soldiers Looking for Sick (that seemed ominous).

One in Vienna had a photo of a violin player in an orchestra wearing a face mask, but I don’t know if the photo was in Vienna or Mexico. But a violin player photo from the city famous for violins seemed appropriate to me.

My German is not good, but I do know some Spanish. The headline in Reforma out of Mexico City, the heart of the Swine flu crisis, read: Federal District Lives in Suspense. An accompanying photo showed a religious procession with people wearing masks carrying a replica of Jesus on the cross.

And I hope I am not spreading misinformation, but it seemed the headline below the main story said something to the effect that “they knew since April 2.”  I do know that I heard a story on the CBS Evening News that said workers on commercial hog farms in Mexico (some owned by U.S. companies) had reported getting sick for some time.

By the time most people read this blog it will be Tuesday, and I don’t know what the updated assessment will be, but I know I am going to avoid crowds and keep using that hand sanitizer.

P.s.

You can see the front pages of newspapers all over the world by Googling newseum front pages. (Newspapers are not dead yet!)