OK so just found a fab new dermatolgist (park /64th Dr Roth, not Rob). Seemed really good... got this 'Elidel' cream from him which is fab amazing infact at removing the corned beef complexion that my red-irish skin has.. what is this cream nursey? will I end up getting liver cancer after using it for one wk? seems to work a treat...it's all vanity not necessity for me...

Ok just found a fab service - 1 888 AM PM DOC
House call visits (Anywhere in States).. charged to your credit card but mostly reimbursable by your Health insurance comp. as an 'emergency room visit'.
Really worth keeping hold of this number when you are totally sick and need a doc to visit you. (not that they are as equiped as they would be in an emergency room etc)... but you know what i mean.........

Oh dear nurse, can we pull you away from the medicine cabinet for a moment, and dust this topic off, to speak out on the current Flu Vaccine brouhaha? The alarmist media, with articles of price gouging, corruption, and elderly citizens collapsing on long lines would have us believe that a catastrophe is looming. But is it?

Years ago, I read a book called Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic by Gina Kolata which was quite amazing and puts any forensic thriller show on Court TV to shame. It's the story of the 1918-19 flu strain that killed over 50 million people worldwide and why infectious disease scientists live in fear of the possibilty of a similar occurrence in the near future.

The virus that causes influenza is a very crafty bug, mutates rapidly and can even "jump ship," so to speak, crossing easily to different species. Originally it appeared to do this only from birds to pigs and finally to humans, but in the late Nineties it was proven that it now was able to move from birds directly to humans. Hence, the news stories about Avian Flu and the concern over SARS...

The consensus now is that those that had a milder form of the illness in the summer of 1918 were able to survive the later onslaught of the mutation that struck and killed so many people later that year. Which explains why flu vaccinations might be a good thing-- once vaccinated, we just might be saved from the next, similar but more murderous flu. A bit of a gamble but a pretty good one it seems.

And now, due to gross stupidity and negligence, there seems to be a very serious shortage of the current vaccine. I was wondering what the professionals (or anyone) might be thinking, doing and saying right now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hatches,