Say It Isn't So Algore

Oh wait a minute, I think you already have, many times now that I think about it, you lying swine. You're lucky there is no mechanism for recall of Nobel prizes. There are many sites to choose but this one seems to be fairly easily understood. It seems that Bernie Madoff is a low level piker when it comes to scams. No pleading foolishness here, the only conclusion is that you are a knave of the highest order.

This graph is meant to catch your eye. It is a head fake. The surrounding text at the site above is the real meat of this posting.

This is my favorite, found at the following site, along with many other very useful graphs.


[Oops, sorry, I forgot to get the website. I will look for it.]

Pediatric Influenza Week 45

Influenza-Associated Pediatric Mortality

Twenty-one influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported to CDC during week 45 (Arizona [2], Colorado [3], Georgia [2], Louisiana [2], Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, New York City, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon [2], Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin). Fifteen of these deaths were associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection, and six were associated with an influenza A virus for which the subtype is undetermined. The deaths reported during week 45 occurred between September 20 and November 14, 2009.

Since August 30, 2009, CDC has received 138 reports of influenza-associated pediatric deaths that occurred during the current influenza season (24 deaths in children less than 2 years old, 16 deaths in children 2-4 years old, 50 deaths in children 5-11 years old, and 48 deaths in children 12-17 years old). One hundred thirteen (82%) of the138 deaths were due to 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infections, and the remaining 25 were associated with influenza A virus for which the subtype is undetermined. A total of 171 deaths in children associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been reported to CDC.

Among the 138 deaths in children, 74 children had specimens collected for bacterial culture from normally sterile sites and 23 (31.1%) of the 74 were positive; Staphylococcus aureus was identified in eight (34.8%) of the 23 children. One S. aureus isolate was sensitive to methicillin, six were methicillin resistant, and one did not have sensitivity testing performed. Fifteen (65.2%) of the 23 children with bacterial coinfections were five years of age or older, and six (26.1%) of the 23 children were 12 years of age or older.

This data is from the CDC website here.

It still looks to me as if there has been an increase in influenza deaths in children less than 18 years this year, but not an extreme one, and further, it looks as if things are getting better, i.e. fewer deaths this past week. By the way the data are always a week behind for those keeping track by the week. It still seems worthwhile to me to get your flu shots, both H1N1 and the usual seasonal flu shots, in a relaxed manner of course. Vaccinate the kids first. Did Yogi Berra say, "It ain't over 'til it's over?" Even if he didn't he should have.

Talk About Bad Timing

I see in the Gazette that some government group of exalted experts has recently come out with suggestions on screening for breast cancer with mammograms. They said those of the female persuasion should not start getting mammograms at age 40, but rather wait until they were 50.

Naturally enough, it was fairly easy to find articulate ladies in their 40s who had had mammograms that found cancers in an early stage, and they readily agreed to having interviews, probably for free too.

So now, in addition to us old folks gradually getting more suspicious that our exalted politicians were out to ration us out of existence—how else could they save money on Medicare—now they are arousing the wrath of 40 somethings who would have not discovered their cancers until perhaps it was too late: And worse, it seems very clear that this is an example of another form of rationing that will be inevitable with government medicine. Instead of high mucky-mucks making their pronouncements and then us turning to our local physicians who would advise us whether we should listen to them or not, we will not have that option.

Of course, there is more to it than the simplified argument above but that is not how we conduct our so-called "health-care debates."

Mid-November 2009: Aspens in front yard of 3033 Ramada, Billings Montana 59102

Another Job Created or Saved

Who knew that blonde, blue-eyed boys of the '40s and '50s, playing cops and robbers or chasing endless flyballs, glad for the warming sun, but heedless of its poisonous rays, would eventually, some 50 or 60 years later, seek out our friendly medical whittlers, to scrape off the excesses of our thin epidermis?

Who was it that said "They also serve who only stand and wait." Could it be Mark Twain ? No, too poetic. Ah, according to Google it was John Milton, in a sonnet on his blindness.

If we only hadn't spent so much time waiting in the sun.

The picture to the left is before my surgical/dermatological friend at the Billings Clinic, Dr Mike Wentzell, started expertly cutting away the big, flaky red lesion of the scalp in the center, or at least destroying the remaining fragments of a squamous carcinoma lurking on the periphery of the lesion. As you can see there are a number of similar though earlier lesions of reddish skin just waiting their chances to expand into something more than just a red spot. Watch this space for follow-up pictures.

All I Want For Christmas

This will go well with my collection of public figure bobble-headed dolls.

The John McCain doll has his head screwed on backward.

Joe Biden has a head which is all mouth.

Sarah Palin is dressed as a cheerleader.

Let's see, who else can I insult. Let me think.

Week 44

Sorry, this graph is hard to read and harder to make sense of. The larger view available at the CDC site is worth looking at. I think it is safe to say that there has been an increased number of pediatric deaths compared to the last few years, starting in the spring of this year and then recently rebounding, even before the usual influenza season starts. This is a strong argument to have your children vaccinated, expecially for the H1N1 influenza. It might be easier to understand the above data in a less graphical organization. See below. I don't know what the percentage of illnesses and death that are unreported is. The CDC may have an idea but I can't seem to find that info.

Calling Senator McCarthy!

Who will stand up and ask who is responsible for the Muslim massacre at Fort Hood? I mean those who accepted the killer into our military medical school, those who accepted him into his psychiatric residency program, and those who were responsible for keeping him on active duty. Were they all part of a conspiracy or just stupid? We need you now, Tail-Gunner Joe.

Week 43

It's a little hard to tell from this graph but it does look like the number of pediatric deaths is declining. If you click on it the graph gets a little larger. This is from this useful website.

Recent Newsweek Cover

Of course he is a joke, though he is smart enough to know what his role is.

I remember when Time, Newsweek and US News and World Report were magazines of enough integrity to be allowed to be quoted and referenced in various papers we wrote as students in the 50s. Now that my freshman English professor has passed away I can probably own up to using a Newsweek article as the unattributed main source for a longish term paper I wrote for that dear lady. Nowadays, it seems to me they are not taken seriously, rather like the mainstream TV networks.

I must confess that I haven't been paying much attention to the erstwhile Senator Claghorn, or was it Jack S. Phogbound, but now a useful contrasting Vice Presidential fool for President Obama. When I saw this cover I immediately wondered what he had been up to which triggered this defensive, backhand stroke from one of our mainstream weeklies. Maybe we shouldn't tell them how we use them in a 180 degree Pravda-like manner but I think they are sufficiently insensitive for it not to make much difference.