Interesting and we really have no vaccine for the flu because it is always a new strain, and we have no cure for the flu. There have been so far 63,000 deaths alone from the flu just in the USA. I think the shot for flu gives everyone a false sense of security. I think we will have a shot for the C virus but not a true vaccine like with polio and smallpox vaccines
Actually, we do have a treatment for the flu. Tamiflu. We give it to all flu patients in the hospital.
The flu vaccine helps prevent the flu, or at least, gives partial immunity so you are likely to have a mild case if you do get it. The vaccine isn't for lifetime immunity because of the way it mutates. Other vaccines may give lifetime or long term immunity depending on how the virus changes over time. The flu vaccine had reduced the number of people who die of the flu each year...even still, the deaths are very high.
The reason the 1918 epidemic was so deadly was that there was no treatment for the pneumonia that developed in severe cases. We now have antibiotics and people mostly get better from the pneumonia.
I am a nurse. I don't and don't know of any nurses or doctors who wear masks or gloves outside the hospital. We wash our hands or use hand sanitizers frequently and feel comfortable with that. The only time I would wear a mask was if I was sick and was going to be around other people. I hate wearing masks and find I touch my face more with one on.
(I hate wearing them in the hospitals and since we have to reuse them now related to shortages, I think it is really a joke...we are already exposed over and over from the mask.
And it looks like a lot of places may be reaching the peak...Michigan and NYC have had several days of dropped number of new cases, for example. It will take a few more days to see if this is just a pause or the peak but I personally am hopeful.
And to the person who thinks this is a hoax, I can tell you that there are plenty of hospitals that are still very full. The ERs are not as busy. And there are a lot of units that have simply been closed since the hospitals have gone to primarily Covid only patients. The empty units are not set up to handle the needs of the Covid patients or too close to units like the newborn nurseries so unsafe to put patients on. My unit has stayed at full capacity .. but people are getting better and going home and people are coming off the ventilators and breathing on their own. I am not on the vent unit but the people who have died on my unit that I am aware of were elderly frail people who had opted to not be intubated.
I think we are likely to find out a lot about this virus that shows what we assumed about it's transmission is wrong. Considering how medical staff has not been able to do any of the things we normally do to protect ourselves from this virus, either most of us had it and didn't even notice...or it isn't as contagious as they believe it is. The evidence ... the number of healthcare providers that didn't get sick in spite of almost living in Covid positive rooms ... full of covid germs and coughing patients.
The latest studies are indicating that it actually might affect the blood's ability to carry oxygen and not so much a real respiratory illness. Like malaria, it seems to affect the Heme portion of the red blood cell which is essential to transporting oxygen to all the body's cells. I have heard a mix of whether or not experts believe it is transferred via contact or respiratory...but the mouth and nasal airway is the primary way it is introduced into the body.
Wear a mask if it makes you feel safer. They are primarily used to reduce the distance that viral particles go in the air ... because viruses will easily go through cloth. And be sure to wash your masks frequently or else when you touch them to put them on or take them off, you will be transferring the virus to your hands and anything you touch after that until you clean them. Just don't give someone else a hard time who opts to not wear one (unless they are coughing and coughing). If you don't feel comfortable near someone, just give them a wider berth. I need to breath freely when I am not in the hospital. My favorite part of the day is throwing my nasty mask in the trash can outside the hospital door on my way home.
