The Flu – A Viral Illness – How to Prevent it and When to Seek Treatment

The past few weeks have been busy ones in emergency rooms across the nation as there has been a sharp uptick of people testing positive for the Influenza virus. Most experts believe that you get the flu when a person with the flu coughs, sneezes, or talks and droplets containing their germs land in your mouth or nose. You can also get the flu by touching a surface or object that has the flu virus on it and then touching your mouth, eyes, or nose.

There are many actions you can take to help protect yourself and your loved ones from this viral illness.

• Wash your hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• Practice good health habits. Get plenty of sleep and exercise, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat healthy food.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it, then sanitize your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub.
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without the use of fever-reducing medicine.

I recommend using Purell as your hand sanitizer and Clorox disinfection wipes to clean high touch surfaces in your home.

What are the symptoms of Flu?

When should you seek treatment?

Seek medical attention immediately if you experience any of the following:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Purple or blue discoloration of the lips
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Seizures
• Flu-like symptoms that improve but then return with fever and worse cough

For more information about the flu, the vaccine and tips on how to reduce the chance of getting the flu surf on over to Flu.gov

Snark Factor Tonight

Listen live to the Snark Factor every Wednesday night at 1opm EST on FTR Radio where I will be joining Fingers Malloy, Irish Duke to bring news bites at the top of the hour followed by sparkling chats with invited guests. If you are a fan of my blog, you’ll know that I have an eclectic taste in news of the day.

On tap for Wednesday night:

SCOTUS – Arizona and Obamacare

Swatting Conservative Bloggers

Hunger in America – Lessons Learned

In 2008, Los Angeles city council unanimously voted to ban fast food restaurants from selected low income areas for one year to battle obesity among school children. This banning was explained at the time by the NY Times as the reason governments were created:

It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Flash forward to 2012, the Conservative Commune reports that this ‘article of faith’ was essentially bogus. Two concurrent studies revealed in their findings that low income areas were awash with available food as compared to higher income areas. One of the researchers dubbed it a ‘food swamp’, not a desert.

While obesity among children and adults is a serious problem, sticking with facts and evidence-based actions is always preferable than acting on an ‘article of faith’.

A Foregone Conclusion

I called this a month ago.

Politico reports SCOTUS will decide the fate of Obamacare. 

The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.

Got Flu Vaccine?

It is that time of  year when the leaves turn on the color, the air turns crisp and Dunkin Donuts starts selling Pumpkin Spice coffee. This are a few of nature’s gentle reminders that now is the time for my readers and lurkers to starting thinking about the 2011/2012 Influenza vaccination or as it is more commonly known – the flu shot. Please note this vaccine also protects against the variant influenza strain H1N1.

In February 2010, CDC released a recommendation to expand immunization to every person aged 6 months or older. I concur with the findings and urge everyone who is able to get the flu shot. To help in your decision process, here is a link to a CDC web post with pertinent information on the flu vaccine, contradictions, and why this vaccine is important.

In Case You Missed It

H/T Verum Serum

I know I missed this announcement yesterday, but then the latest batch of Obamacare waiver announcement was designed to sneak past most Americans.  An additional 106 waivers were granted bringing the total to 1472 waivers.

John from Verum Serum points out the reason for these waivers:

In other words, they don’t want companies to start dumping employees–exactly as conservative predicted would happen–until the exchanges are ready for them to be dumped upon. Once the exchanges are up and running and the waivers end, you can bet a lot of companies will be availing themselves of this option.

My question is will this matter when SCOTUS strikes down Obamacare?

On The Road to SCOTUS

11th Circuit appeals court decision has pushed Obamacare one step closer to the Supreme Court.

The three member court ruled on a case brought before it by 26 states led by Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business. Their decision in part reads:

that the individual mandate contained in the Act exceeds Congress’s enumerated commerce power. This conclusion is limited in scope. The power that Congress has wielded via the Commerce Clause for the life of this country remains undiminished. Congress may regulate commercial actors. It may forbid certain commercial activity. It may enact hundreds of new laws and federally-funded programs, as it has elected to do in this massive 975- page Act. But what Congress cannot do under the Commerce Clause is mandate that individuals enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die.

It cannot be denied that the individual mandate is an unprecedented exercise of congressional power. As the CBO observed, Congress “has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.” CBO MANDATE MEMO, supra p.115, at 1. Never before has Congress sought to regulate commerce by compelling non-market participants to enter into commerce so that Congress may regulate them. The statutory language of the mandate is not tied to health care consumption—past, present, or in the future. Rather, the mandate is to buy insurance now and forever. The individual mandate does not wait for market entry.

I’ve no doubt Obamacare will reach the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision of SCOTUS will decide the fate of Obamacare, not poll tested promises of politicians.

Remember when USPS was the Poster Child For Obamacare?

It seems the United States Postal Service (USPS) is facing insolvency – unexpectedly. Bloomberg Business Week is reporting that the USPS has not been able to cover its debts since 2007. The situation is so dire a GAO study of the USPS was released 18 months early in April 2010 in hopes of alerting stakeholders in the USPS to start making changes. A year later, the fiscal situation is still a disaster.

USPS was once held up by the Obama administration as an example of a government entity that can provide healthy competition to private companies. Based on the USPS model, government sponsored health care will be unable to fulfill its debts and closed on Saturday. *head desk*

See below for a classic ‘remember when’ video:

Sarah Palin’s Victory over Dems Deceptive Healthcare Marketing

Hi Mom!

James Taranto writing for the WSJ lays out the facts of Sarah Palin’s ‘Death Panel’ Face Book statement and the Democrats deceptive marketing of Obamacare.

“Government takeover,” like “death panel,” is a true description of ObamaCare’s essence. These phrases are “inaccurate” only in that they cut through formal distinctions designed to deceive the public. (We wish we could use a barnyard vulgarity in place of the unwieldy clause “formal distinctions designed to deceive the public,” but The Wall Street Journal is a family newspaper.)

(…)

Palin got the truth out with the help of journalists determined to bolster the deceptions at the heart of ObamaCare. She was instrumental in winning the political argument that looks increasingly likely to render ObamaCare’s legislative victory a Pyrrhic one. Sarah Palin outsmarted the formerly mainstream media simply by being blunt and honest. That is why they burn with a mindless rage against her.

File this under: Sarah Palin All Month Long

Florida Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional

Stunning.

U.S. Circuit Court Judge Roger Vinson, in Pensacola, Florida stuck down the ENTIRE Obamacare law. He based his opinion on the “individual mandate” of Obamacare which requires citizens to buy insurance, this mandatewhich he concluded was unconstitutional.

W.O.W.