A repeat of flu vaccine scare of last year?

This is something (else) that I try and keep up on: flu activity. After the panic Chiron corporation created when half our nations vaccine would not arrive, there was a big push for anti-viral medications as an alternate to vaccine.

Well, there was talk on NBC news that Chiron may fall short of vaccine production by 7 million (I expect that number to rise like last year), and I've read reports that there's no proof that these anti-virals have not been proven against H5N1 (or Asian bird flu). But there's no reason why it wouldn't (famous last words, right?)

So, what can we do in case H5N1 easily transmitts person to person? It'd be nice if there was a way to quickly produce vaccine on demand. Unfortunately, the NIH is suffering budget cuts with this administration, so their ability to fund a new flu vaccine manufacturing process is not very likely. (Too bad the government is finding resources for hundreds of billions of dollars for an endeavor that needs more money and resources, and could still fail.)

Why is all this important? 1918. The end of World War I was a time when millions more people died from the flu. Even without overnight international travel, this travelled the world. Then vanished. I never heard about this pandemic until a couple of years ago. It is interesting on several perspectives, but I also realize that we need to learn from this to try and help when the next pandemic comes. I don't mean to sound like a "the sky is falling" person, but we cannot just ignore the Asian bird flu problem because it's on the other side of the world.

What's Chicago without political scandal?

I didn't hear about this when I got back to Arizona - I guess most other states are sick of reporting about another political scandal. But this is important enough to discuss.

Father released from jail after DNA clears him. In case you don't want to read through the story, a three year old girl disappeared from her home, to end up in a nearby creek a year ago. DNA material was collected at the scene (she was sexually attacked as well). The DNA was sent to the FBI, and was told there was a backlog.

Then the county prosecutor was facing trouble with re-election coming in a few months. Shortly before the election, the girl's father was arrested. After 14 hours of questioning, he confessed to murdering his girl accidentally, and then tried to fake a kidnapping and assult. The prosecutor announced that the community was safe, and the father would be tried with the death penalty. Three days later, the father recanted his confession, claiming he was forced to confess. He then pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Then the election came, and the prosecutor lost. His successor did not attempt to transfer the DNA to a different lab to speed up the results. The FBI lab DNA results came in late last week: the DNA of the father did NOT match the DNA on the body of his daughter. The next morning, after eight months in jail, the father was released.

He no longer lives where the crime was committed, and trying to live anonymously in Chicago with his wife and remaining child. He is expected to file civil charges against the county prosecutor office. Just another scandal in Chicago.

With former governor Ryan about go to trial, the "asphalt scandal" forcing resignations at the city office, and now the "DNA test before the arrest" scandal, I wonder if they'll ever learn in Chicago to clean up their act.

Yeah! Photos are working

Marcus_boat
Originally uploaded by Jenn Michaels.

Okay, so I finally figured out the photo upload thing. So here's a photo I uploaded of my sister and nephew on Lake Michigan.

Vacation from vacation...

Don't I wish! Anyway, after I last posted, my availability to the internet disappeared. I didn't have too much time to worry about it though. Here's a quick summary of the rest of the trip:

My nephew caught an ear infection one week after arriving. Doctors thought it was because he wasn't used to the humidity, but he was still sick. THEN he caught some sort of cold, which I seem to be dealing with.

I got an even worse sunburn on my lower legs down to my feet. It hurt real bad, and radiated heat for about 24 hours. After a couple of days, it wasn't too bad. I had been putting lots of lotion on it, and did so the day I flew out of Chicago. When I arrived in Phoenix, I was showing my mom the color of my legs. Then to my shock, the skin on the burn litterally sloughed off, leaving a clear fluid in its place. So before I went to bed, I cleaned up the sloughed off skin and dried off my legs *sigh*.

Okay, those are the highlights. I'll probably mention more of what I noticed with my family later...but am I glad to be back in Arizona. The weather was terrible - hot and humid to cold and humid (14 degree drop in temperature in one day!) I won't miss the terrible roads, and all the running around to see everyone.

I'll post more later, I'm back in Tucson. I have 400 e-mails to plow through (it could have been worse), my nose is congested and my throat sore. I am also a bit tired, and have a lot to worry about with work Monday.