WEBVTT - Man Vs. Flu 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.400 Yeah, Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:15.960 stuff works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.040 This is Alexon Madermer Science Center at how stuff works 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.640 dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, signed writer at 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.720 how stuff works dot com. Yeah. Have you ever had 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.480 the flu? Boy? Have I ever had the flu? Um? 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:30.840 Tell me about it? Tell us about it? Okay, Well, 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:36.320 last year, Uh, my wife and I came back from Thailand, Yes, 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:38.400 and it was. It was an amazing trip and it's 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.440 amazing country. And got back, you know, ready to get 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:43.720 back to work, you know, hot back in the seat 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.440 and start writing some articles. I'm sure you were. I was, yeah, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.120 I mean, but as it turns out, missed how stuff Works. 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.879 Didn't you know? We thought about us constantly. Well some 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.000 of the time, I mean I definitely. You know, it's 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:56.960 like you can't go anywhere working here and not sort 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.560 of piece together, you know, something, you know, science related 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.400 when you get back. But but when I got back, 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.200 I was growing steadily, um sicker, and so like the 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:07.840 monday that I was supposed to go back to work, 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.520 I was instead. And this was like in October in Atlanta, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.440 So it's it's still pretty warm out um, but I 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.360 was just burning up, just like just completely yeah, burn yeah. 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.679 And then suddenly I was freezing and I would like, 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.360 you know, like had to drive myself to the to 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.720 the doctor and um, you know, wrapping myself up. And 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.360 it was in in like blankets in the car with 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:31.440 the heater on even though it was you know, hot out. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:33.720 And at one point I was like laying on the 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:35.839 couch and I was like just freezing with this flu 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.560 going on, just kind of delirious, and I like wrapped 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.120 up in the blanket and then the cat got on 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.559 top of me, and I was like, oh, that's great, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.520 you know because the cat is warm and I needed 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.560 warmth like crazy to stay alive. And then the cat 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.120 starts acting like she's gonna vomit on me, and like 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.280 that was that was the low point of my my 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.680 illness there. But then they don't know, injected a lot 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:58.280 of liquids into me and gave me some medicine. I 0:01:58.280 --> 0:01:59.960 got better and it wasn't bird flu, but it was hard. 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.920 Was it swine flu? No, it wasn't swine flu either. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.800 It was just some unknown Asian flu. Well I'm glad you, 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.080 uh you stayed home with that for several days because 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:12.800 there are a lot of people going around the office 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.280 as I'm sure they're going around yours or your schools 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.960 or what have you, sneezing and coughing up a storm 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.160 like crazy. The man in the corner office, I sent 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.160 him an email because in times fifty, because I swear 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:30.680 he must have sneezed like in innumerable times. Yeah, it's uh. 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.040 I have so many um um in interviews that I've 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.600 recorded with people over the phone that have like different 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.000 people coughing and changing in the background. The other funny 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.880 thing is that Discovery sponsors a wellness fair in which 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:44.639 you can get a flu shot. Here, so a bunch 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.239 of us had our flu shots. I did get one. Okay, 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.399 here's the thing. She missed my arm when she put 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.520 the band aid on. Oh okay, but not the needle. No, no, no, 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.600 she the needle hit the band aid missed, so I 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.520 bled on my shirt. I mean she does this all day, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.600 but she us is the spot where she put the 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.519 needle in. Huh. I feel like that's a job requirement. 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:06.800 Little accuracy when it comes to the band aid and 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:08.720 they needle, Well, don't keep it in suspense. What color 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.800 was the shirt? That was turqoise. It was like a nice, 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.560 you know, pretty spring turquoise. Yeah. I think it'll come 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:22.320 out that blood spattery. Yeah, bloods battery. Really, so thinking 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.400 about all this flu led me no wonder. You know, 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.600 we have taken measures, public health has taken measures against 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.440 various diseases, stamping out disease. Why haven't they ever tried 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:36.280 to eradicate influenza? Or have they tried to eradicate influenza? 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:38.560 And so before we get to that, let's talk a 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:40.320 little bit about flu. I'm sure you guys know a 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.920 lot of this, so chime in along with us. But 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.160 flu is really just an infectious illness, right, and it's 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.560 caused by a particular virus, an influenza virus, and it's 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.280 going to affect your respiratory system. Yeah, you posted a 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.360 photo of the virus on or not a photo image 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.119 of the virus on the Facebook. Yeah, and the guy 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:04.119 got it within the one guy that I got it within, 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.120 you know, ten minutes or so. It looked kind of 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:07.920 like an orange with a bunch of golf teeth stuck 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.720 in it. Yeah, that was not my impression at all. 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.160 Golf balls do not golf golf teeese. Yeah, yeah, they 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.080 do look like golf teeth, a little blue golf teeth, 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.640 I mean blue and red. Wait, the blue ones I 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:24.039 think were the neuraminidase. That such a tricky word to say, 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.320 and the red were the the other. Well, we'll talk 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.640 about these in a little bit. So symptoms. One of 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.080 the symptoms, what are the symptoms of faint, Well, you 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:34.920 kind of get a cough, you get a sore throat, 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.320 running nose, you get the aky brakies. What are they breakies? 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.680 It's like muscle. But you know, the only time I've 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.960 ever heard a key breaking before this moment. You don't 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.440 call him a breaking No, No, that's the only time 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:49.880 I've ever heard that was in its song Akey Breaky Heart. 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.400 I did not know that anyone else. You use that 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:58.240 terminology for anything other than countries. Yeah, I don't think 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.120 he has a patent on that term, the breakies. So like, 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.599 so if you have the achy breakies, that just means 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.400 you have sore limbs and do you know anything kind 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.000 of feel like hurts and you're really sensitive and it 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.960 doesn't feel good. It's muscle like more catchy way of 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:20.000 saying muscle like. I think, Okay, you're tired, you're extremely fatigued, 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.440 and sometimes, like Robert was you, you get a fever, 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:25.960 maybe a little vomiting to throw in there, mix it 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:30.080 up and me and maybe some some diarrhea too, But 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.640 just these latter two are mostly in kids. His kids 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.920 are messy, so why not giving them a messy stuff? Anyway, 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.560 So tip the bucket on all up. Did I ever 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.440 tell you about my Christmas last year? No, but now 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.559 I'm a little frightened to hear with that kind of leading. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.000 It's like kids are always vomiting and having diarrhea. Let 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.159 me tell you about Christmas last year. Yeah, well it 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.680 was kind of crazy because that was what happened. You 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.240 need to make big plans. Maybe you're going to go 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.160 to your family, going to have a big meal post presence, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.080 if you happen to sell at Christmas or whatever other 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.600 holiday perhaps you celebrated around in that time of year. Yeah, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:07.359 we had all sorts of big plans, and you know, 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.240 all of a sudden boom we had We had some 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.000 vomiting multiple times. I mean, so the washer and the dryer, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.320 we're going all day, and then we had no backup plan. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.560 We obviously can't go to the house we're supposed to 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:20.920 go to, because who wants a vomiting kid at their 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.200 Christmas dinner? And then they have kids and they get sick. 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.560 So we wound up staying home and we had no food. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.320 So we drive around to one of the local farmer 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.840 members from targets that's supposed to be open three six 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.000 five days a year. No, it is not open three 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.960 So yeah, so the vomiting, Yeah, definitely happens in kids. 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.039 This is very vomit heavy podcast. Actually, do you have 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.600 a week's stomach? I think that maybe you do a 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.520 little bit. I hope, well a little bit, but the 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.320 vomit doesn't bother me as much. But let's just I 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.760 hope my friend Becky is not listening because she gets 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.840 freaked out by this. Sorry Becky. So how long? How 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.200 long are you out? Down for the count? I was 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.839 out for it was I felt tough for about a week. Yeah, 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:03.720 so a few days, and it might be as long 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.760 as two weeks. But if you get some complications going on, 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.320 and you know you're gonna get these in high risk groups, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.080 and who are the high risk group? People? Um, people 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.800 like my parents, you people over sixty five pregnant ladies kids. 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.000 Of course, people with medical histories that have you know, 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:25.000 full stuff like heart disease, asthma, diabetes, they're gonna get 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.960 some complications going on that may eventually leave them to 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:30.920 the hospital. You know, they may wind up with pneumonia, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:32.880 to may get signed us and ear infections, all sorts 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:34.679 of stuff. You know. I just want to go ahead 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.160 and mentioned real quick. Um, this is something My mom's 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.480 a kindergarten teacher, so she's always driving home. To cover 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.880 your mouth when you cough and sneeze. So many adults 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.600 do not do that. What like, can you name some 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.520 people in our own I don't know about people in 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:50.600 our office, but like every other person on the MARTA 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.360 train in the morning, it's like, come on, enclosed space. 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.120 Didn't your kindergarten teacher ever tell you cover your mouth 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.679 and knows when you when you sneeze and cough, because 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:02.800 that's how you spread this stuff, you know. Lately, I'm 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:04.720 kind of a fan of sneezing in the crook of 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.640 my elbow. Yeah. Yeah, that's like when you get your 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.280 hands fill filled up with well, you know, if I 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.520 don't have a tissue or something at the ready, the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.280 crook of the elbow, it kind of contains it. What 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:16.960 do you really use the crook of your elbow for, 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.600 you know, because otherwise you can't use it in food? 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.640 Not so much, not unless I'm preparing that special cast role, 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:28.080 you know, just kidding. No, I think the crook of 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.040 the elbow is probably a good place for that to 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.000 take place. Makes more sense in the hands, right indeed, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.800 So how does it get around town? All those droplets 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:41.120 that's spring free, just floating in the air of the marta? Yeah, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.960 and you know the droplets spring free when someone's coughing, sneezing, 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.080 or even talking. Yeah, so again, if you don't cover 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:49.600 your head in your mouth and knows when you sneeze, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.000 think about that, Like every time somebody lets one go 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.640 on the marta just sprays, Like I think we've all 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.440 seen the videos before where they slow it down and 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.559 they show just like how much of volume like leaves 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.600 the human face during a sneeze. I think I saw 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.480 something to the count of about forty droplets. Don't quote 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.600 me on this, but it was just insane. Yeah, it's 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:13.800 not just like a little drop, it's it's a lot 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:15.839 of material being laid out there for the rest of 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.439 the population, and even if you're not in the blast zone. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.959 I mean that stuff ends up landing on different surfaces 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.160 like the Marta pole for example, on the Marta pole 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.319 or just you know, on both Like apparently like libraries 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.240 are pretty rough. Yeah, they always come out with studies. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.600 I feel like every week, you know, oh, we found 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:39.720 this in the um in the sample cosmetics at X 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.720 department store. Yeah, there are germs all over the place. Yeah, 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:48.040 but I'm not really a germaphobe, are you. Um? I mean, 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:49.720 I'm not not in the sense that I actually have 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.840 a hardcore phobia about it. It doesn't like keep me 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.200 from you know, you know, carrying on my life. But 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.120 I'm I'm pretty uh, I feel like I'm pretty aware 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.160 of it, especially when I'm on Marta. You know, I'll 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.400 look at the surface that a million hands have touched. 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.080 I'm like, I don't know if I want to touch that. 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.120 I think I'll. In fact, what I'll try and do 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.120 is wrap my my arm around it some of the 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.920 crook of my elbow. YEA an amazingly handy place, the 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.600 dirtiest place on the human body, apparently, just because we're 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:19.080 constantly sneezing into it and sticking it to the public martoples. 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.880 I remember once bringing back a friend of mine when 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.640 I lived in New York. She I think he'd come 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.320 in on the train and we're taking the subway somewhere, 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:28.720 and she had a bag of pretzels and she was 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:33.559 really hungry. So I watched her opened the bag of pretzels, 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.760 and you know, you're sort of just frozen. I just 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.960 watched her in this morbid fascination, and she's grabbing the 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.200 pole and then she's sticking her hands. Oh my god, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.040 and I couldn't say anything except just kind of my 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.520 mouth had dropped open. It was like, what are you doing? 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:54.040 Don't do though, well, that reminds that's exactly. Not exactly, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.120 but I saw a very similar case on Marta one. 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:58.760 Are you going to talk about the chicken? Yes, it was. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.320 I may have already apologies listener if you've heard this before, 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.800 but I saw a lady eating an entire rotisserie chicken 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.360 on the on the Marta one day. It was like 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.559 she'd eaten it down to just like the grays, you know, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.560 a little slivers, but she would like eat out of 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:13.240 it with her fingers, and then she would touch the 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.160 pole and then she would go back to eating them 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:20.080 the chicken. It was oh yeah, good times. Well the 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.839 other thing, okay, let's get back to the sick people, 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.960 the people with the influenza virus. Yes, we've kind of 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.320 gone off topic here, we have, indeed, but that's okay. 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.640 Feel free to write us with your crazy stories about 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.760 traveling on public transportation and the things you've witnessed. But 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:35.679 here's the thing. I mean, a sick person we think 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.640 of somebody coughing or sneezing or whatever. But you can 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.920 be passing along. You can be shedding virus before you're 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.280 showing symptoms, so, and you can be shedding virus for 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.920 as many as like five to seven days after. Okay. 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.720 So so even if if somebody is like follows all 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:53.880 the rules and they start feeling sick, they stay home 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:56.000 and then they come back to work after they're feeling better, 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:00.199 they're still like they store likely infecting people along the way. Yeah, 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.760 it could be could be incubating, hanging out. Yeah, so 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:05.400 why does it occur in the winter. This is one 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.520 that I feel like I have to just get out there. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.559 Virus digs a cole there, It's pretty much all there 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.000 is to it. And I didn't think I had anything 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:15.800 in common with the flip, but we both like the 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.200 cooler weather and the cold, dry air specifically. So the 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.000 one big one that you guys know is swine flu 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.960 H one and one indeed, and that was responsible for 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:30.000 the first pandemic. And that just means, you know, an 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.720 epidemic that covers a big old area like the world, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.840 say that we've had more than forty years. And that's 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.960 interesting too, is when I was researching this, pandemics occur 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.240 about every forty years, so we just had one. Although 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.120 it wasn't so bad. It wasn't like say, the pandemic 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:51.280 of in which half of the world's population was infected, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.360 like whaty million people died and that thing. Yeah, that 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.400 flows my mind. Half of the world's population was infected. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.559 I mean that's just crazy easy. That is a pandemic 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:06.280 of pandemics. That is a highly successful organism. Yeah, no doubt. 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.160 So what are we talking when it comes to deaths? 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.080 Um You know, in a normal year last year with 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.320 swine flu, there are about twelve thousand ufs deaths attributed 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.840 to H one N one. But in a severe flu season, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.079 you're going to see as many as like forty people 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.120 dying in the United States and then take it to 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.040 the global level and how many What are the numbers there, 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.640 Robert between two and five hundred thousand deaths per year. Yeah, 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:31.920 so that's those are some pretty high numbers. So like 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.360 even yea, even the normal numbers are pretty pretty big, 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:37.640 Like we just kind of you know, they don't then 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.840 make the headlines necessarily unless the slow news weaker or 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.840 it really starts piling up. Yeah, a lot of us 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.120 tend to dismiss the flu. You know, you're so what. 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.920 I'm of a sicktic can watch a little daytime TV. 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.880 My partner doats on me. What's the big deal? But 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.120 it is a darned big deal, So let's talk it. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:58.839 I mean, so, why don't we eradicate the flu? Why 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:00.120 don't we get rid of this? I mean, if so 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.080 many people are dying, and how would we do it? Yeah? Like, what, 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:06.640 why don't we just come up with a vaccine? Right? Well, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.000 so we have a vaccine, right, They've been around since 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.240 not what I mean, they're not as refined as they 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.480 are now, but we've had them and in vaccine, in fact, 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:17.480 we are would probably be our best bet when it 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.080 comes to stamping out influenza, and it's they've certainly proven 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.200 to be our best bets and stamping out other diseases 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.680 like smallpox. You guys all know that smallpox has been eradicated. Yeah, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.800 The last naturally occurring case of small pox was in 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:34.720 Somalia in nineteen seventy seven, or according to the CDC. Yeah, 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.320 in the States, our last case of naturally occurring smallpox 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.640 was in ninety nine. It's been decades. I find it 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.479 nowadays you pretty much have to go to a laboratory 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.320 and find like a stored sample of it. Yeah, So 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.240 that's what eradication means. There's a pretty particular definition of 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.280 it in the public health world, and that is no 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.240 new cases in the world and no control measures are necessary. 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.000 You don't have to vaccinate for it anymore. The other 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.280 after the nine eleven scare, they did do some vaccinations, right, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.360 I believe so, Yeah, because there was there were some 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.960 concerns they're about about the use as a bioweapon, right, right, right, 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.880 So eradication is kind of the ultimate level and what 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.480 you're aiming for as a public health professional. But you 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.560 also hear them talk about a disease being eliminated. And 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.880 what does that mean. Um, elimination just means that you've 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.040 decreased the number of cases to a very low level, 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.280 or a controlled level, right, And that's how the World 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.600 Health organization is kind of that's what the World Health 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.960 organizations is gonna tell you what's going on. And then 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.440 you also hear people talk about disease being controlled, and 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:36.840 that means, hey, folks were working on it. We got 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.600 ongoing operations going here, We've got interventions plan, we're trying 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.280 to reduce the number of new cases and the existing 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.000 cases in a population. So the battle is underway and 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:50.200 going well. Basically when it's when it's controlled and there's 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.000 there's there's also this kind of holy grail status and 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:57.880 that's extinction. And no infectious organisms have been declared extinct, 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.120 and so this would be UM when an infectious agent 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.200 is no longer in the wild or in the lab. Yeah, 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.440 you'd have to really for that to take place. I 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:09.640 think a lot of times you'd have to be talking 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:14.760 about coextinction like you'd have to, you would. It would 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.760 not just be a matter of eliminating like this particular flu, 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.240 but everything the flu lives in. You know, it's just 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:23.520 get to that. That is a very good point, have it, 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.560 Hatten Food. It's just it's just too much, It's right, right, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:28.760 And that is that's definitely factors into the picture of 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:33.120 ultimately why we can't eradicate the influence of IRUs. So 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.600 another more broadly applicable one is that populations can be 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.120 really tricky to reach, right. You get a war torn 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.840 region thrown in there, you get poverty, you get location, 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.280 you know, somewhere who's living in a someone who's living 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.240 in a particular remote place. Yeah, there's like poor infrastructure, 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:51.160 poor communication, like in many places, just outright chaos, you know, 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.320 and it's just not going to be very high on 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.840 the um you know, on the list of things to 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.120 do right. And then in industrialized countries you definitely have 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.880 these concerns about the side effects of vaccines surfacing. So 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.879 aside from that, you really can't make people be vaccinated, 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.520 so people are going to opt out. And it's I mean, 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.000 to have a disease eradicated, it is this major public 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.720 health victory, and it just can't happen without you know, 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.120 a crazy organizational fee. Yeah, like even if you did 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:22.719 like a huge you know, expansive you know, vaccine effort, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.040 you know for something it's like you're like the one 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.000 they did for small box, right, you're still you know, 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:29.520 run the risk of getting you know, people at the 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.240 top and the bottom who disagree with it and and 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.360 you know some resulting chaos. There was actually, back when 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.360 I was researching the bioweapons article for how Stuff Works 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.240 dot com that I wrote, I ran across this. I 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.400 don't know that it was ever actually implemented, but there 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.800 was a scheme to cre to create a like a 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:51.320 bioweapon a and you know taylored jameara virus that would 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:53.840 be pretty like you'd you would get ill with it, 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.600 but it wouldn't really become dangerous until it was treated 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.840 with a vaccine. Oh. Interesting. So you'd have people that 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:03.520 would say, oh, I feel sick, and then they'd go 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.120 to their like the easter egg inside the right. Yeah. 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:07.760 But see the thing is they would go to their doctors, 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.239 they go to their and their their government whatever, and 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.199 they would and they would get to get shot with 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.960 something and then they would get worse, which would just 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.199 totally like screw up you know, trust and h and 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.200 just lead to more like civil unrest is a pretty 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.560 evil ingenious scheme. Only a human could come up with it. Yeah, 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.119 but no case, no known cases of that occurring on 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:29.879 their No, no no, no, no, no, that's I think it 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.440 was just purely in the in the ledgers of of 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.920 these guys who were scheming all these biochemical weapons up. 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.480 So even if you had the perfect influence of vaccine, 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.880 it's gonna be really hard to vaccinate everyone who needs 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:44.159 to be vaccinated. Yeah, you can vaccinate some of the 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.000 people all the time, or all the people some of 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.879 the time, right, I mean, consider this. I was reading 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.320 a statistic that said, in two thousand seven, twenty percent 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.000 of children don't receive the vaccines are scheduled for. And 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.960 I was according to a massive report, massive awesome report, 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.520 I should say that was jointly published by the World 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.440 Health Organization, World Bank and un stuff that gave an 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.359 update on the state of vaccinations and stuff going on. 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.399 It was. It was a really good publication if you 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:12.080 guys are at all interested in public health. Of course, 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:16.119 the other thing about trying to eradicated diseases, it's pretty expensive. Yeah, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.800 so just to give you some statistics to illuminate that picture, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.400 that expensive picture. It came across some numbers that said 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:27.320 eradicating smallpox costs the US hundred million spread over ten years. 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:33.679 The flip side, however, is pretty good. Yeah, so you're 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.240 gonna say you're gonna have some savings. Uh, you know, 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.399 entreating and preventing costs after you know, you get rid 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.040 of a disease. So some estimates put this at one 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:45.920 point three billion a year. We are saving one point 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.199 three billion a year. So we've more than made our 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.560 money back on that one. Pretty good return on investment 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:55.679 for eradication of smallpox. And then the trickier territory again, 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:57.920 you know, we gotta do some easy ones the numbers, 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.040 and then it just comes down to politicking, right yeah, 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.200 and priority, like if you're going to wipe out one disease, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.679 like which one, which one has the most momentum, you know, 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.440 which one has the most press which one is actually killing. 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.640