<http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2009/09/us-laurie-garrett-has-h1n1.html>US: Laurie Garrett has H1N1
Via Newsweek: <http://www.newsweek.com/id/215826>Swine Flu Strikes Pandemic Expert Laurie Garrett. The article is by Garrett herself. Excerpt: >As I type these words my brain is swarming with >mind-twisting immune-system chemicals called >cytokines: I am in day six of the swine flu. >Yes, I wrote The Coming Plague in 1994 and have >warned about pandemics for most of my life. (I >also wrote "The Path of a Pandemic," the May 18 >cover story of this magazine.) My diagnosis is >unofficial: doctors are no longer testing for >swine flu, but since it's the only strain now >circulating in the U.S., it's the likely >culprit. Colleagues have noted the irony of the >fact that I find myself an early victim of what >will likely be an enormous American epidemic. As >we brace for an H1N1 outbreak that White House >science advisers predict will sicken half the >country before the end of the year, I am >fighting trillions of nasty influenza RNA >molecules. This bug is, in virology parlance, a >"mild flu," but only somebody who hasn't been >laid low by H1N1 would consider days of >semi-delirium, muscle aches, fatigue, nausea, >and stomach twisting to be "mild." > >If the duration and depth of my personal illness >are any indication of what's in store, and if >scientists have correctly predicted that the >bulk of infections in the U.S. will slam the >entire nation long before vaccines are >available, we are in trouble. > >From the perspective of disease, we are all one >people on this planet, divided by risk more on >the basis of wealth than of geography. This flu >will not be deadly for 99.9 percent of those it >infects, and that's a good thing not only for >infected individuals like me but for the world >as a whole. Why? Because we have utterly failed >the globalization test in our response to H1N1. >The most effective tool in fighting flu is a >good vaccine, and the pharmaceutical industry is >working on manufacturing supplies right now. >According to the World Health Organization, >about 1 billion doses of H1N1 vaccine have been >ordered worldwide. But more than 6¦ billion >people live on Earth. From the get-go, some 85 >percent of the world's population will be >excluded from what, were this a virulent >influenza, would be the primary life-sparing >medicine. Worse, those 1 billion orders have >been prioritized, with the wealthiest nations at >the top of the list. This effectively means that >before New Year's Eve only about 5 percent of >the world population will have been immunized. > >This makes my stomach hurt-well, the H1N1 is >making my belly ache, but this unfolding failure >of globalization doesn't help. If this were a >1918-type influenza, the first test of disease >globalization would not just be a failure-it >would be a catastrophic one. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [email protected] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
