12/04/2009

Weekly Flu Questions

Based on the report from Liam Donaldson on the weekly swine flu figures, there are almost as many questions as answers given the government's dreadful response to swine flu.

The government are apparently worried about the continued flow of under fives in to hospital because of their extreme reaction to swine flu.

Interestingly though, under fives are equally prone to hospitalisation from normal seasonal flu, so it is a mystery why under fives are not routinely offered the seasonal flu vaccine. I know someone whose three year old has been admitted to hospital in each of the last two years because of seasonal flu and still this child cannot get a seasonal flu jab because he is not in an "at risk" group.

Anyone with any knowledge of health issues (and they know this in the US) knows that under fives are at risk from any flu bug irrespective of their general medical condition.

The second issue is why there is still no agreement with GPs for immunising all children between six months and under five years. This is supposedly a priority for the government, but they have not even agreed a deal more than two weeks after announcing it !

2 comments:

Malcolm Redfellow said...

I don't know whence comes your hysteria about childhood 'flu (of any variety).

I'd be a bit more convinced if you'd come clean on financing long-term childhood problems. For example, early intervention with autistic children -- the earlier the better.

It only costs about £30-£40,000 a year -- per child. But, of course, some of that money might have to come out of your nursery and primary special needs allocation.

Right?

Nich Starling said...

Because I teach children, beacuse I have a young child, these issues are very real, not paranoia.

As for you stuff about autism, quite what that has to do with flu is a mystery and your attempts to make out that my views are controlled by my school budget are hysterical. I don't even know what my school's budget is and I certainly have no hand in setting budgets.

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