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" The current flu epidemic has begun to break out, you should pardon the expression, into the news cycle. The disease is now widespread in 44 states. Apparently, the standard flu vaccine is ineffective against one strain of the flu that has emerged. Up here, Mayor Tom Menino has declared a health emergency. (Massachusetts has seen 700 cases and 18 deaths from the flu already and, not for nothing, but we rather led the way back in 1918, too.) And, in various places around the country, the rickety infrastructure of our public health system is on the verge of complete collapse. Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania is getting as many as 100 patients a day with flu-like symptoms. A tent has been set up to handle the less serious cases. &amp;quot;We need a full functioning active emergency dept for the community,&amp;quot; said nurse Terry Burger, who is in charge of infection control. &amp;quot;And this just enables us to see the patients that are not as sick. So mild illness, mild injuries...see them quickly, and then discharge them.&amp;quot; About 60 miles south in Chadds Ford, the entire Coan family got the vaccine, but eight-year-old Alex came down with the flu anyway. &amp;quot;You cough a lot,&amp;quot; he said, &amp;quot;kind of sneeze a little, lay in bed all day.&amp;quot; His mother Christine said: &amp;quot;As a mom, I was very disappointed that he got the flu, because I had to fight him tooth and nail to get the flu shot.&amp;quot; Tents! Like going to camp! And, of course, this being America in the modern media age, things are not helped by the apparently widespread school of thought that all personal medical decisions should be made by relying on the medical wisdom of your crazy Uncle Manny who sends out chain e-mails and listens to Alex Jones. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s a growing problem called &amp;#039;vaccine hesitancy,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Dr. Frank Esper, a viral respiratory disease expert at UH Case Medical Center in Ohio, told FoxNews.com. &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re not truly against getting the shot. But, with all these people online saying, &amp;#039;Watch out for this, be careful about that,&amp;#039; - they&amp;#039;re hesitant to receive the flu vaccine, and then they never get it done.&amp;quot; According to Esper, with numerous websites, blogs, and podcasts perpetuating false information about the flu vaccine online, it&amp;#039;s easy for people to doubt the vaccine&amp;#039;s safety or believe it was not tested accurately. Many fear the vaccine will cause adverse side effects, which is an unrealistic fear, Esper said. (And yes, I do perceive the irony of linking to a story from Fox News that furrows its brow about &amp;quot;unrealistic fear,&amp;quot; thank you very much.) Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, they&amp;#039;re not pitching tents yet, but things are getting tight. Five to eight of Milwaukee County&amp;#039;s 11 hospitals have had to temporarily divert ambulances to other hospitals because staff and bed availability were so strained by an influx of patients hit hard by the flu, Paul Biedrzycki, director of disease control and environmental health for the Milwaukee Health Department, said Wednesday. Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear \u2014 2011, to be precise \u2014 when Milwaukee devised a solution that might have alleviated what&amp;#039;s going on right now, except that it ran afoul of Governor Scott Walker, the twice-elected goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. Walker, in Milwaukee on Thursday for the annual Governor&amp;#039;s Prayer Breakfast at the Italian Community Center, went to offices of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce offices to sign Senate Bill 23. The bill will pre-empt local ordinances from requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees for family, medical or health issues. &amp;quot;This law removes another barrier in the road to creating 250,000 private sector jobs by 2015,&amp;quot; Walker said. &amp;quot;Patchwork government mandates stifle job creation and economic opportunity. This law gives employers the flexibility they need to put people back to work and that makes Wisconsin a more attractive place to do business.&amp;quot; MMAC had challenged the paid sick leave law in the courts and pushed for the legislation to nullify the local ordinance from going into effect, saying it would be a job killer and bad for Milwaukee&amp;#039;s economic development. People go to the hospital to get better fast because they know they can&amp;#039;t afford to take time off from work. Letting them heal up with pay at home gets you a healthier, more dependable workforce, but that notion runs counter to the widespread belief of Walker and the people who pull his strings that we are no longer a nation of citizens, but a nation of employees. Back to your oars, people. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a17135/flu-epidemic-2013-011113/>