See today's Abbreviated Pundit Round-up for more on health reform.
- Note the framing in the WaPo, which today looks also at the religious right and their "contribution" to the debate:
President Obama attempted to reinvigorate support for his struggling health-care agenda on Monday by giving a stirring, campaign-style speech to thousands of union members celebrating Labor Day.
Contrast with Jonathan Cohn's Why Reform Survived August:
Despite all of the setbacks and all of the missed opportunities--despite this train wreck of a month--the situation remains remarkably similar to what it was before the recess. Significant health care legislation is likely to pass, particularly if Obama manages to give a good speech on Wednesday night. And while the possibilities for what that legislation might accomplish have certainly diminished, mostly for worse, it’s not clear how much they have diminished--and to what extent progressives may yet have the power to change that fact.
- Carl Bialik:
Medicine's Dangerous Guessing Game
Different Methods of Weighing the Risks and Benefits of Medical Treatments Lead to Varying Conclusions About Their Safety
Wonky, but interesting in honestly trying to figure out risk. Does taking account risk over time matter?
- From HHS:
Do you have children or provide child care?
Do you know children with asthma, diabetes and other underlying health conditions?
Know what to do about the flu with our webcast
For parents and child care providers on www.flu.gov
On Wednesday, September 9th, 2009, 1 p.m. (et)
- Good news:
A new study eases fears that the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus will recombine with seasonal flu to mutate into a more lethal form. The study, reported in the online journal PLoS Currents, shows that the pandemic virus, commonly known as swine flu, grows much faster than seasonal flu viruses and is thus less likely to exchange genetic material with them.
Another setback for the Aporkalypse.
- From the excellent AIDS.gov blog (an informative govt. blog!! We've participated there now and again.)
Nearly 850 participants joined AIDS.gov online and/or via conference call last week to hear from leading experts and local grantees about H1N1 Preparedness and HIV.
- Still,
Health officials are heavily promoting the inoculations. So far this year, fewer than 600 deaths have been attributed to H1N1 in the U.S., and swine flu was less lethal than feared during the southern hemisphere's recent winter months. But federal officials say that up to 40 percent of the U.S. population could develop symptoms during the coming winter flu season, and tens of thousands of deaths could result.
"This is one of those times that we should expect the worst and hope for the best," said Kenneth Alexander, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago Hospitals. "We could be called alarmists, but I would rather be called an alarmist than be called a fool for being underprepared."
- And
The U.S. is bracing for as many as 1.8 million hospital admissions for flu as students return to school and cases surge to unprecedented levels, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said.
- Plus
In one of the largest outbreaks of swine flu on a college campus, at least 2,000 students at Washington State University, in Pullman, Wash., have reported symptoms of the virus, according to reports in The New York Times, the Spokane Spokesman-Review, and other newspapers. The outbreak began around August 21, during the fraternity and sorority rush season, several days before classes began. Sally Redman, a nurse at the student health center, told the Times that the pace seemed to be slowing, with calls or visits to report flu symptoms down to about 140 a day, from as many as 200.
call, don't visit unless you have to. Here's more on home care.
- And:
In the southern hemisphere, 15 to 33 per cent of hospitalised cases went to ICU in the past two months. "That's very high for flu," says Richard Wenzel of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. "When this flu is bad, it's very bad."
- Repeated from APR this am: some good Q&As on swine flu from NY Times and TIME contributor Amanda Ripley (note the links at the end of Ripley's piece), and a Q&A from a teacher on CNN's site.
Q. I'm an elementary school teacher and am worried about H1N1 flu. What can I do to try to keep my students and myself healthy?
A. if it's wet and it's not yours, don't touch it. (advice from NYC school nurse)