Panorama tonight looks interesting

[VulpusinaWilfsuit]

here

And Fergus Walsh just did a report on how Australia coped with their winter outbreak.

Sounds - so far - like the main issue, as predicted is the pressure on the health services. Rather chilling account of limited number of ECMO beds (which 'breathe for you') of which UK has around 15...

It does certainly look very interesting. I wonder how up to date all their info will be.

anyone watching?

I did, not very much in it really I thought. Hopped around a lot - its such a huge subject and they seemed to try and cover much of it.

It was a bit 'idiot's guide'. I was left with more questions at the end...

1. Is there a way of telling, after the fact, if one has had it, therefore not needing the vaccine (presumably)?

1. Donaldson rather dodged the questions of intensive care and specialist facilities...

1. What are current data on epidemiology? What lessons being learned from southern hemisphere? I may have missed this as missed the start...

I thought it did the very minimum it had to to appear non-sensationalist, but otherwise, just focused on the awful but rare dramas.

Interesting to see this programme on same evening as the debate between Lord Drayson and Ben Goldacre on science reporting!!

I missed that debate. I'll have to see if I can watch it.

Donaldson was terrible on the Intensive Care bed situation. How he thinks that doubling the beds to 4000 (esp when he said the training would take a few months) will touch the situation goodness knows. Anyway, if that was so doable why to we come close to crisis each winter?

Didn't talk about adjuvants either. Maybe that was too technical!

Lessons learned from Australia is that they had to cancel non-urgent ops that would require intensive care and that they have a lot more of those cool oxygenating machines (forgot the name) despite having a population 1/3 of ours. Some good news was though that civilisation didn't collapse there, not even temporarily

Apparently in NZ there was a decline in the amount of normal seasonal flu - quite a dramatic one. Whether this was due to more people being vaccinated, or the increased hand washing, avoiding crowds, satying home when sick is not clear.

This meant the hospitals were not overrun because when they had planned they had allowed for swine flu plus seasonal flu.

I feel so much more relaxed now I don't have a foreign holiday booked, and since the media stopped covering it. Since the weather warmed up I've not heard anyone talk about it. I think you have had it worse - worry all summer and then get winter with the inevitable flu stories.

In previous pandemics the new pandemic strain tended to replace the seasonal strains that were circulating. Its interesting

I watched it. It was very BBC-patting-us-on-the-head-patronising television. 'Oh look at this nice vaccine, it is made out of hard boiled eggs'. And Donaldson basically said that people who needed an ECMO machine were so ill they'd probably die anyway

10 of the ECMO beds in the UK are for children. that leaves 5 for adults, in the whole of the UK. Scandalous.

I was also waiting for more news on vaccine adjuvants but it never came.

In the Sunday Times review they said that it was a balanced programme that would reassure people and give them the facts on swine flu.

I watched it last night and have concluded that I would like to be in isolation for the remainder of my pregnancy, I have nearly 7 months to go so not very practical!

If I wasn't pregnant I wouldn't be concerned but I do have to admit I am worried. Not sure what to do about the vaccine, I had the seasonal flu vaccine 9 years ago and was very ill, I still have problems with my lungs now although obviously I have no proof that it was as a result of having the vaccine.