Ad Astra Per Alia Porci

Here goes number two, a little bit more bloggish?

So...this swine flu stuff. I kinda think people are freaking out too much.

As Colbert warned: "Swine flu feeds on your fear."

But seriously, let me point out that only 236 cases of swine flu have been reported [and confirmed].ª That's 0.00000295% of the population. Two probable cases were reported in Madison County today, and due to that the school is getting closed down for 7 days. Yes...a week off of school because two kids have something that is almost as treatable as the typical flu.

So far there have been 159 deaths in Mexico, which is a big deal, considering this is an emerging pandemic that little is known about...BUT the Mexican Health Care System spends approximately $675 per capita on health care(adjusted for PPP), which is about one quarter of the OECD average, and only 11% of what the US spends ($6,102). Although I will point out that our healthcare system ranks 22^nd out of 23 industrialized countries in our healthy life expectancy and per person medical expenditures, only ahead of the Czech Republic.^b

But that's another story for another day.

My point is, only one person has died inside the US so far from a confirmed case, and that was a boy visiting from Mexico. As much as I hate to bash their health system, it is not nearly as strong as ours and additionally, only 79% of the population has access to proper sanitation.^c

Besides, swine flu is relatively treatable with Oseltamivir and Zanamivir (Tamiflu and Relenza)...although it is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, and unaffected by typical flu vaccinations.^d Also, 250,000-500,000 people die each year from the normal influenza virus.

So chill out folks...wash your hands, order a big crate of fresh Egyptian bacon, and just be careful.

And yes, I do realize that I totally geeked out with my citations. Health policy rocks.

ªhttp://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/30/swine.flu.outbreak/index.html
^bwww.who.int/whr/2003/annex_4_en.xls
^chttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Mexico.pdf
^dhttp://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/antiviral_swine.htm
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America's health care system is second only to Japan... Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, ... well all of Europe. But you can thank your lucky stars we don't live in Paraguay! - Dan Castellaneta

Le Première Un

So I decided to create a blog.

I'm not sure why...but I think it's a combination of boredom, narcissism, and procrastination (I should be studying for a bio lab final that's in 4.5 hours.)

But yeah, I figured...if I have all these ramblings in my head, maybe I should get somewhere to put them out. Maybe I'll talk less. Maybe I can share all the fun geeky things that my brain/wikipedia can conjure up.

But anyways, mostly this post is just to see how everything looks...and hopefully you enjoy.

I'm also gonna try to put a quote at the end of each post. Assuming I do regularly post.

Assuming.



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"Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people." - Andre Dubs