Public health: flunking the test
We complain when there isn’t enough swine flu vaccine and we complain when our health departments don’t count all the cases. It’s probably good so many people are out of work and can’t eat in...
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Epidemiology at the state level is shrinking
I’m an epidemiologist and I train epidemiologists so you expect me to think epidemiology is important to public health. Epidemiology describes the pattern of diseases in the community and tries to...
View ArticleOther flavors of flu A: what else is out there?
So far the pandemic of 2009 has been bad enough but not anywhere near as bad as one could imagine. Let’s hope it stays that way. While winning new knowledge from actual disease and sickness is not...
View ArticleAnother swine flu virus
There is an old vaudeville joke where a man goes to the doctor complaining about pain in his arm: Doctor: Have you ever had it before? Man: Yes, once before. Doctor: Well, you have it again. CDC...
View ArticleBlood transfusions and pandemic flu
As predicted, the pandemic of 2009 is beginning to yield more data, some of it directly applicable to pressing practical questions. The answers are still preliminary, and, as with all science, subject...
View ArticleFlu: Georgia on CDC’s mind
A day or two after CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) released a report about risks to pregnant women from pandemic 2009 flu, CDC held a suddenly announced press briefing about the...
View ArticleFlu: the gift that keeps on giving
There is a good Canadian Press by Michael Macdonald about the often long time it takes to make a full recovery from flu. A full blown case of classical influenza can really lay you low for days or...
View ArticleFlu in hospital workers
The AMA just took over a journal called Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. In fact they proudly announced they were the exclusive publisher and distributor of the journal, formerly...
View ArticleNo fly disease regs don’t fly
Better late than never. When the Bush administration proposed sweeping airport quarantine rules in 2005, even those of us most concerned about avian influenza thought it was a fruitless policy on...
View ArticleCoping with swine flu down under last year
What are we to make of the swine flu pandemic? The only thing I feel confident about is that it will be some time before we really know. A great deal of data and experience was gained in the year since...
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