Mass swine flu outbreak imminent
Thursday 29th October 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
Staff nurse Jane Roberts receives her injection from Tarina Le Duc, head of risk management and registered nurse
A LONG-FEARED mass outbreak of swine flu is imminent following a dramatic rise in the number of new cases of the disease, the Health Department has warned.
Dr Rosemary Geller, Jersey’s Medical Officer of Health, said that the Island is now on the brink of a sustained surge in cases after the number of people being struck down more than doubled in the past week.
Twenty-four new cases were diagnosed last week – compared to just nine in the previous week and five in the first week of October.
And the department believes that swine flu is now spreading between Islanders for the first time since the disease arrived in Jersey in June.
Health care staff and pregnant women will continue to be offered the swine flu vaccine this week
A flu helpline which offers general information about the disease is available on 445566 from Monday to Friday, between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm.
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Think and ask questions before taking the vaccine!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1K74Tnrrok&feature=player_embedded
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Here we go again… Dr Rosemary Geller telling us all the worst! Why make such drastic reactionary comments?
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As I am in a high risk group I get my swine flu jab tomorrow – not a moment too soon it seems.
I did call the helpline but all I heard was crackling.
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Dr Geller is now perfectly entitled to say, “I told you so”!
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This is sensationalism. More people have died and probably will die of normal flu than Swine flu… but that’s an everyday ocurrance and won’t be reported.
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And to that end could you please tell me the winners numbers in this weeks national lottery(!)
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Helped by over population on a tiny island
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Whats the problem…we have the vaccine and Tamiflu, its flu like any other type of flu. Please stop spreading these panic stories which are just scaremongering!
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4. Magnolia Man
Why? 24 people is not a mass epidemic!
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Will she ever stop with her scaremongering?
When all this is over and done she will pat herself on the back and say only contained this flu because we acted quickly bla bla bla.
The bird flu was supposed to kill millions,and no doubt they will come up with another scare tactic .
We are hoplessly enamored with eugenics-inspired by statistical drivel and social control
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Stop the scaremongering…..stop it now!!!!! media blowing it all out of proportion. stop it …stop it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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enough is enough!!!!!! right??????????
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So its gone from 9 to 24 people. Lets Panic
There are 90,000 on the island so 24 people works out at a minute percent of the population…LETS PANIC!!!!!
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Oh no…..not more media frenzy instigated by our Medical Officer of Health. Recently returned from a visit to see my pregnant daughter in the UK even she has been advised by her midwife NOT to have the swine flu vaccine as the effects on the unborn child are as yet unknown!
I was there so I can confirm what was said, and remembering Thalidomide it made sense to us both.
Swine flu is a variant of flu, end of….. I have read articles quoting how big pharmaceutical companies are jumping on the bandwagon with this one to boost their ever increasing profits.
200 people smitten in an Island with a population of 80 – 90,000, hardly a mass epidemic.
Please, please Mrs Geller and the JEP do not sensationalise this until it IS a problem.
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Just heard on local radio that they are going to give the vaccine to schoolchildren next week.
Now I may be a simple lad but surely they should have done this last week before the half term and thousands heading off to all corners of the globe.
Just my twopenneth !
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Who’s doing the scaremongering here then??
Rosemary Geller said ‘the Island is now on the brink of a sustained surge’ in the number of cases. The only person to mention ‘mass outbreak’ and ‘long feared’ was the journalist.
It’s the JEP who are guilty of scaremongering and sensationalism – again!!!
Rosemary Geller, to be fair, predicted an increase in cases once the the seasons changed. Looks like she was right.
P.S Fubar, you’re like a broken record!!!!
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We currently have cases running at up to a couple of dozen a week and no one has died of it in the island up to now.
How much money has Health spent and how much more will be spent before this is ended?
How many islanders die of plain vanilla flu each year?
I would guess at a few dozen at least and very little is said or done about it.
This is another case of States of Jerseyitis, molehills become mountains and millions are wasted as all sense of perspective is lost and the money tap is turned on full.
Haut de Garenne, incinerator overspend, etc, etc.
No accountability at all, they do not even have the good grace to say sorry.
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Well the M.O.H.has to scaremonger.How else will they use up supplies of vaccine that has cost us a fortune?
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Don’t expect any action from Dr Rosemary Geller if you or your child reacts to this experimental vaccine.You will be first labelled as anti vaccine and secondly, told that any reaction was mere coincidence.Although it is acknowledged that no vaccine is without risk,any medical scientist, whom presents investigative evidence of a reaction to this vaccine, will face prosecution, in an unending General Medical Council trial.Take,for example,Professor Walker-Smith,the first academic Emeritus Professor of gastro enterology in the UK, his colleagues, namely Professor Simon Murch and Andrew Wakefield, surgeon and author of hundreds of peer reviewed scientific papers. They dared to investigate the first MMR vaccine after they found that it possibly led to bowel disease and autism in certain children.The result has been a witch hunt in a GMC trial, which has besmirched their credibility and is the longest in GMC history, because so far,the prosecutors have failed dismally to find any evidence against them.Over to you,Dr Geller, though I’m not counting on a reply.That would be against the advice that you receive from NHS mandarins in Colindale, whom have ironically ended Jersey’s health recipercosity with the UK.
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A LONG-FEARED mass outbreak of swine flu is imminent – why such emotive language?
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Yet more sensationalism.
Please ask your doctor whether the vaccine being used in Jersey contains adjuvants.
pandremeix from Glaxo Smith Kline contains ingrediants such as;
Formaldehyde
Thimerosal ( Mercury)
Sqalene
to metion just a few.
-
The swine flu vaccine has not been tested properly.
Please educate yourself before you roll up your sleeve.
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The naysayers and pooh-poohers quoted above seem to have forgotten that everybody can exercise a choice.
It is up to them to decide whether or not they wish to be vaccinated against H1N1.
No one is forcing islanders one way or another.
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Will this outbreak be like the first mini-outbreak. Will we bother to test every single case to see whether it is swine flu or plain ordinary flu? Or will we simply assume that any flu symptoms are swine flu?
I’ll accept the vaccination in the same way I take the flu vaccination every year, however, I would prefer that we do not cause mass panic on the basis of making the assumption that every case of flu IS swine flu!
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An immunisation programme will only work if 95% of the population get immunised.
So yes you have a choice but you also have a choice to protect yourself and your wider community.
This is why you are seeing measle cases creep back even with children who had the MMR jab because a large swath of the population did not get immunised because they were scared by the bad journalism and lack of understanding of science by primarily the daily mail about a study that used a very small sample of children in ONE study to get a result which then got sensationlised and then caused ill informed decisions to be made on the nations health.
The swine flu vaccine is the same proceedure they use on all the flue vaccines just different active ingredient – ie the swine flu virus.
If you look at most medicines the side affects or ingredients are enough to put you off taking them that is why you should only take medicine if you really need it. You only have to look at a regular pack of Panadol.
Don’t get me wrong I certainly would think twice if I was pregnant but I think it is an excellent idea they have prioritised new mums as well as your immune system can be down after birth and your baby will be at less risk.
I do take issue with the sensationlist headlines and comments from the health professionals and press. Follow up these statements with information and appreciation that most health professionals will be busy for the next few months administering these vaccines while trying to fit in normal surgeries.
Where is the information on the web sites like the UK – what is the plan for the school vaccination programme? Make sure the public is INFORMED properly and there will be less panic and more take up.
I am not connected with the health profession in anyway – I am a parent that wants information and clear leadership on this subject to put down all this misinformation and ill informed guaff so we have a properly immunised community as if there is not the take up it will all be in vain and then we really will have a problem on our hands – maybe not this year but the scientists are predicting this could be an issue for the next 3 years.
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RG is coming on the talk-back radio at 10am
switched the radio off and put music on instead.
Is it just me fed up of listening to her?
likewise when she is on tele i quickly turn channel off before i throw something at her.
She gets more air time than ann robinson.
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Does Dr.Geller and her over inflated media publicity do anything other than justify her job and financial spending.Beware of any vaccine that has not been tested and which is probably raising huge amounts for those who have shares in it.In a small island Dr.G should be concentrating on supporting the young,old and frail and not scare mongering.After all she is a doctor.?
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It’s easy for you all to make sneering comments, but there has been a surge in cases in many countries surrounding us. Will you all still be sneering when we have the first deaths?
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What does this governmet scaremongering hope to achieve? What can we do with this information, except worry? Thanks a bunch!
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#27 It’s a flu! People die from flu every year, yet we don’t see mass panic and the media whipping the public up into a frenzy every year.
As for vaccines, it’s fantastic that we have them (for those that are vulnerable), however they also allow the public to ignore their personal duty. That duty is to follow proper hygiene procedures and to stay off work and away from vulnerable people if they start to feel unwell.
Unfortunately today’s society is too selfish to stay at home and put others’ first. It’s too selfish to wash its hands properly after going to the toilet. And its too selfish to (and disgusting) to put a hand over its mouth when it sneezes or coughs.
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24 new cases is hardly an mass outbreak. 24 cases out of a population of 90,000+. The percentage is too small to mention. One number by itself is useless. We need the number of cases of seasonal flu, chicken pox, norovirus, meningitis and all the other illnesses in order to put this figure of 24 into some sort of context.
It was also be useful to know how many school days have been missed by perfectly healthy children?? And how many quarantined children actually came down with swine flu?
Finally, why is the number of cases lower in both Isle of Man and Guernsey, neither of which have this 24 hour policy?
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22: “No one is forcing islanders one way or another.”
But if the media and politicians choose to stir this up and create fear then there is pressure. The biggest kind of pressure. Same thing happening all over, not just in Jersey.
Powers that be are either:
1. Genuinely trying to protect people
2. Ignorantly caught up in their own scaremongering
3. Supporting or bowing down to very powerful pharmaceutical companies who stand to make a lot of money out of this.
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#19 Realist
In fact, Andrew Wakefield was called before the GMC because he failed to declare funding from an anti-vaccination organisation and subsequently wrote an article criticising vaccination. It was a clear conflict of interests. I believe the GMC found him guilty of this some time ago.
Having read his original Lancet article, it is strange. He presents a case series that suggests a link between both autism and inflammatory bowel disease and the MMR vaccine. In the final few paragraphs, he starts criticising vaccination programmes for no apparent reason.
Incidentally, subsequent statistically significant research has shown that there is no connection.
#21 ed
Really? I thought potentially harmful additives had been phased out at the EU’s behest some time ago.
Re vaccine testing, #24 Q is absolutely correct. The swine flu vaccine is simply a form of the flu vaccine that has been used for many years. Every year, the strains of the influenza virus contained in the vaccine change slightly as the prevalences of each strain differ slightly year on year. This ensures the maximum number of people are protected. Why should adding the H1N1 strain be any more dangerous?
#25 bella
How can you possibly comment if you won’t even listen to what she has to say?
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Nice comment Michael.
Maybe it’s simply unfortunate that this vaccine was been rolled out at a similar time to the HPV vaccine, along with the unfortunate tragedy that unfolded there (that was not actually related to the vaccine however).
There is a procedure for testing drugs and it is thorough. Can it ever be thorough enough? No! But we have to draw a line or we will have no treatments.
Does anyone actually have good reason to be concerned over this particular vaccine? My only concern is over-vaccinating society in general, not this specific vaccine.
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