If you ride BART and still haven’t gotten the swine flue vaccine then you're in luck: the vaccine will be available this week at Oakland's 12 Street BART station. The swine flu vaccine will be offered at a clinic in the BART station on Wednesday January 26th at 3pm until 6pm or until supply runs out. This partnership is between public health and transportation agencies.

12th Street BART station isn’t the only place to get vaccinated. Walgreens is also offering the vaccine for $18. After worrying that there weren’t enough of the vaccines to go around, people now can get vaccinated during their commute or while developing pictures.

One in five Americans have been vaccinated based on the results of two government telephone surveys.

“The surveys concluded that an estimated 61 million people -- or about 20 percent of the population -- got a shot or nasal spray vaccination against the H1N1 virus since the vaccine became available in the fall.”

(via The Washington Post)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concluded in November of 2009 that 50 million Americas were stricken with the swine flu and that number of deaths had reached 10,000.
 

By Nick Eckenwiler- (Youth Radio DC at the Latin American Youth Center)

Back in July, not many people were concerned about the H1N1 virus. I was one of the skeptics who thought that the media had blown the situation entirely out of proportion.

So I hardly thought about it for the first half of the summer. But then I went to China.

Stung by criticism of its response to SARS in 2002, China was taking no chances with the swine flu. Their approach was to screen all international travelers arriving in China, and quarantine any who were suspected of having the virus. I had heard about this policy, of course, but paid little attention.

I was traveling with a group of twenty high school students. But before we even cleared customs, that number was reduced to nineteen. The infrared cameras spotted one of us with a fever. Our chaperones told us that the friend who had been taken would be fine and treated well. But the next day, our friend was diagnosed with H1N1. Two more in our group, feeling sick, were taken to the hospital. The rest of us were isolated in a special “quarantine hotel.” With no roommates, calling cards, and scant access to the internet, there was nothing to do but read and watch TV. Despite being given virtually no information on our friends’ conditions or situations, we stayed in good spirits. Four days later, we were still in quarantine, and our number had shrunk to nine.

A new study finds that swine flu kills only 26 out of every 100,000 people who contract it, suggesting that the virus is far less deadly than initially suspected. In the United States, a new Center for Disease Control estimate says that one in six Americans has contracted swine flu, and nearly 10,000 people have died worldwide from swine flu.

The British study found that while the numbers were lower than expected, one-third of the deaths were among people deemed "too healthy" to be eligible for the vaccine. According to the report, the virus is most fatal among the elderly, but it has also affected a "substantial minority" of healthy young adults. Even though swine flu has not targeted healthy adults, the report concludes "wider population vaccination … merits consideration."

(via Guardian)

Previously:

• Swine Flu Facts for Teens
• Your Guide To H1N1 Influenza aka "Swine Flu"
• What Teens Should Know About the Swine Flu

The swine flu or H1N1 virus has put the U.S in a state of panic. When swine flu first broke out in April, I did an interview with Dr. Lisa Winston, an epidemologist from S.F General Hospital. Now, six months later, I interviewed her again with some follow-up questions.

Q:How has the H1N1 virus progressed in the last 6 months since we talked?

A:So the H1N1 virus, which was first found in the U.S. in April, had steady cases throughout the spring and summer and has now increased to the fall months such that it is widespread in 48 states including California. So there have been a lot of cases of the H1N1 virus or novel cases of the swine flu.

Q:Have scientists found an explanation for why young people are more likely to catch the flu than say someone over 40?

A:So there are two issues with that: it is true that young people are more likely to catch the flu, but that probably isn’t very different from swine flu and other flus and influenza. Because young people tend to gather in crowded areas where there are a lot of people,  such as school and recreational areas, we know that kids get the flu a lot. What's a little bit different about this, [is that] people don’t have immunity to it because it’s a new virus and so in some cases including in kids, the disease can be severe. We do see occasional severe disease in some people and in kids and young adults, but w're seeing more of that this time around.

It all started with a sore throat.

It was midnight, and I had just clocked out from work when a wave of nausea and fatigue overcame me. I thought to myself, "It must have been that old bacon I ate." That morning I woke up with a 102-degree fever. I went to the doctor, and to my surprise I was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus.

To say I was shocked was an understatement.

Apparently, my nephew unknowingly had the swine flu the weekend I went to visit home, most likely infecting me with the virus. Headlines of a “Swine Flu epidemic” and announcers telling of increasing death tolls led me to think I was in the wake of great danger. Shortly after, I did what any sane person with a dangerous virus would do. 

I Googled it.

On an early Sunday morning, my dad announced to the family that he would be getting the H1N1 vaccine and that my mother would be taking my brother and me to get it done as well.

Immediately, my brother and I refused. We both had reservations about the vaccine.

We decided to have a family meeting--not heated, but civil.

My dad asked us why we were against it.

We said that even though we might run the risk of getting the swine flu, we couldn’t predict the possible side effects of the vaccine.

My dad didn't say much after that.

Internet networks may also need a vaccine for the H1N1 virus. A federal report shows that so many people are searching for information about the flu, that it could potentially overload internet networks.

The federal government is in disarray when it comes to dealing with such a scenario, the GAO reported. The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of communications networks during times of national emergency. But it says it doesn't have a plan to deal with overloaded Internet networks -- an essential resource to keep the economy humming and residents informed and connected during a pandemic. And the DHS hasn't coordinated with agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to create clear guidelines for how telecom, cable and satellite providers can minimize congestion.

The swine flu doesn’t only make humans sick anymore; it has taken on a new prey, my computer. But what confuses me about this story is this: aren’t there about a million people on the Internet daily all searching for the same thing? What makes the swine flu different?.

(via The Washington Post)

According to the San Francisco chronicle, swine flu vaccine production is being delayed due to the vaccine taking longer to reproduce than other vaccines. For months, the U.S. CDC said that 50 million doses of the vaccine would be available by mid-October, but only 13 million doses have been delivered. Since the supply of the swine vaccine is limited, only high priority groups are being offered the vaccine, such as health care and emergency workers, pregnant women, caregivers of infants younger than 6 months, young people ages 6 months to 24 years, and chronic health patients younger than 65 years of age.

Los Angeles County public health officials announced this week that H1N1 flu vaccinations will be available to all county residents, free of charge.  A Harvard School of Public Health study, however, suggests that large numbers of people may refuse the vaccination.  Harvard University surveyed 1,042 people ages 18 and older, and found that only 40% of them will line up for a vaccination from the virus.  The way H1N1, or the "swine flu," has been covered in media, I would have expected a frenzied panic.  Get the vaccine shot as soon as possible.  

Like many people who’ve been bombarded over the past two weeks with news about the Swine flu, I’ve been worried about Mexico. Not because I’m afraid of a virulent strain of the flu spreading north across the border, but because I’m concerned about my family members who live there. What’s going to happen to all my primos in Ciudad de México?

“Here with the Swine flu,” my uncle answered when I called him on the phone and asked him how he was doing in Mexico City.