“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients hospitalized with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need intensive care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.

"During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries have viewed the need for intensive care as the greatest burden on health services," it said…”   Yahoo News

  Well that information sucks…  Let us hope we do not get with that form of the Swine flu this year. 

  Time has a good story:  Behind the Unproven H1N1 Flu Vaccine
  You can read the story but let me sum it up a little bit…They are not going to use unproven vaccine.  The vaccine is being tested right now…They are allowing the flu vaccine to be made up so that it will be ready if the vaccine proves safe and if it works…It is just very smart to do that…Do not wait weeks and then find it works and then have to get it ready…Get it ready now…If it does not work you toss it out… But read the story…. The other thing is the report that we could have 90K people due this flu season and they talk about how they come up with that computer model…They say in the story…That we do not know at this point…We may have those sorts of numbers or less.
  What I worry about is that people may not get the vaccine…People that should get it…Fox “news” is reporting that half of the health care workers are not going to get the vaccine.  If the vaccine works and is ready in time and the health care workers do not get the vaccine then they are going to give the flu to others and they are going to get the flu and be off work…This flu season COULD become very bad and very fast…I read or heard on TV that they expect the peak of the flu season to be October 15th.  That is not very far off.
  I do not plan to get the vaccine.  It is not fear of the vaccine…It is just that it is rare for me to get it and I think they are going to be short on the vaccine and I think others may need it more that me.

  From my little window on the world it looks to me like there are going to be a few problems with this flu season.
  One is that many people do not trust the government and many do not trust the news media.  (If you are a right wing Republican then you do not trust any of them.)
  Many people my age remember  the 1976 swine flu scare.  That is one of the few times I got a flu shot.  The medical people were wrong that year and the deadly virus did not sweep the nation.

  The government is not going to be the problem.  They are just going to listen to the medical experts and pass on the information.  They are not going to put a political spin on it. 
  They are not going to use it to force everyone to get a shot that is going to turn them in to socialist.  They do not need to try and use it to get national health care. 
  There will be some problems from the right on this issue…They are going to use it to attack President Obama.  It will depend on how the flu season turns out …if we have a bad flu season the right will attack him and say he did not do enough and if we have a season like 1976 he will be attacked for being a wild man out of control.  President Obama and the Democrats will not come out a winner on this flu season.

  The news media are going to be a problem and it has nothing to do with CNN being a “Socialist” network.  It has nothing to do with Fox “news” being the wild right wing network that lies 24/7.
  It has to do with all of them just being out for ratings and opportunist.  They do not care about America but only about ratings and “being first” with the “news.”
  Fox “news” is one of the worst.  They love the stories about sex, drugs and all the rest … anything to get ratings.  
  So we can expect all of the networks to report each death of a young person…They will show the photos…They will show the crying mothers and it will go on and on ….without end.

  Right now I think the American people are not worrying about it.. One reason is they do not want to believe it …  When the news media start counting the deaths and showing the photos … Then I think it will go the other direction… Then many of the American people will be living in fear.

  I hope this is just like 1976 except this year I am not going to get the shot.

  Note:  I think this flu season a lot of people are going to be looking for information.  I am going to start working on Show Me H1N1 News today. 
I am going to try and make it a site that pulls in information, news and links on the subject.  If we get hit hard I hope people find some information to help them out.  If you are a doctor, nurse or anyone that can write on the subject or do some research on the subject contact me and I will set it so you can post to the blog.