Should you be worried about the Flu and the Coronavirus?
It’s an interesting subject. We’re in the midst of Flu season now, and it’s pretty bad this year. It’s been worse on kids than it has been on adults.
Last year was a particularly bad year. There were more deaths last year than there have been this year. There were 60,000 deaths from the Flu last year, and there’s been 34,000 so far this year.
So, it’s still been pretty bad.
It seems that they’ve missed it on the Flu vaccine again this year. How that works is that usually every year they guess which 3 strains of the virus that will hit. And the last couple of years they’ve been wrong.
But either way, the Flu shot is certainly not an absolute guarantee that you won’t get the Flu.
Of the Flu cases I’ve seen in the office, half of them have been patients who have gotten the Flu vaccine.
I’ve had lots of patients over the years who have told me that every time they get the Flu shot, they end up getting the Flu. I’ve always kind of downplayed that because there’s no scientific reason for that to happen. But now I’m starting to believe them a bit.
Situations I would get the Flu vaccine:
Young kids
Elderly
Pregnant women
Hospital workers who are around a lot of sickness
Wuhan Virus (Coronavirus)
The Wuhan virus is a virus that started in a particular mega city in China. If you watch the news at all you’ve got to be aware of this.
It’s a major concern. Not so much here yet, but it could be coming.
The chances of it coming here at this point are kind of low, but it could become a pandemic.
An epidemic means that something spreads locally, and a pandemic means that it spreads worldwide. It’s a possibility.
They’re doing everything they can to scramble and get this virus in check in China.
So, how do you gauge how fast something is going to infect a bunch of people?
The CDC has this thing called the RO, which means how many healthy people can one contagious person infect.
So for example, a RO of 2 means that one person will infect 2 people, and 2 people will infect 4 people etc. It doubles every time.
The estimated RO for the Coronavirus is 2.3 right now. That’s a pretty fast spreading virus. They’re trying to keep it under 1.
The Coronavirus is much more of a concern than the Sars virus of 2003 ever was.
In fact, it’s already worse. There’s already been 60,000 cases of it, and over 1,300 deaths. I actually think that that’s probably under reported.
What’s the vector?
A vector is where the virus originated from. They think the Wuhan virus came from infected bats that bit certain animals that were sold to eat in this particular market in China.
What should you do?
The best thing you can do is not get the Flu or any other virus. The way you do that is by washing your hands thoroughly, and by not touching something and then putting your hands in your mouth, nose, or eyes.
If you’re sick, try to stay away from public places.
Stay healthy! Get a good amount of sleep and exercise. Avoid being in places that have a lot of people in close quarters.
Just normal precautions.
Supplements you can take to stay healthy:
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
L-Lysine
We don’t know how long the Coronavirus will last. We do know that they’re putting all efforts to try and stop this virus in its tracks.
Again, there’s no reason to panic in the U.S. right now for sure. Just use precautions. You should be more concerned about the Flu.
And remember, a mask won’t prevent you from getting something. You wear a mask if you already have something, and don’t want to infect other people.
