IPFS News Link • Vaccines and Vaccinations
H1N1 has not killed 17,000 Americans expected the past 7 months
• ReutersBetter data than was previously available shows the flu pandemic has infected an estimated 22 million Americans and put 98,000 in the hospital, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Children account for 8 million of the infected, 36,000 of those hospitalized and 540 deaths.
1 Comments in Response to H1N1 has not killed 17,000 Americans expected the past 7 months
What do I mean? The annual death rate from all flu is 36,000. (7 months / 12 months) x 36,000 annual deaths - 3,900 actual deaths = 17,100 missing but predicted deaths. Now this 3,900 did not include those who died of other flu strains in the USA during this time period. Those need to be extracted too. But so far the number of deaths is much less than feared from H1N1. Could it get much higher?
Absolutely. But it is likely the vaccine would no longer protect against it as it would likely be a new strain causing a greatly increased death rate.