Last year was an unfortunate reminder that no one is exempt from flu's most severe consequences. William Schaffner More Quotes by William Schaffner More Quotes From William Schaffner The supportive care that we're able to provide in the United States is so much better, so much more sophisticated, than what's available in West Africa. ... So we can move that needle of survival way down. Even Doctors Without Borders in West Africa are moving the fatality rate from 50 percent down to 30 percent-I bet we can do substantially better than that here. William Schaffner doctorsebolamoving We're very prepared: Infection-control people in hospitals over the past two months have been reviewing all their infection- control procedures because we anticipated just this sort of thing happening-a person coming from West Africa, they were healthy at the time they traveled, but got sick here. William Schaffner ebolatwopast Even Doctors Without Borders in West Africa are moving the fatality rate from 50 percent down to 30 percent-I bet we can do substantially better than that here. William Schaffner doctorsebolamoving I would have thought that CBP would have addressed this over the summer and we would now have a system in place, vaccination is not complicated. We conduct mass campaigns all the time. William Schaffner health-news The facilities in which they're detained could not be better designed for the spread of influenza. William Schaffner health-news We get on our soapbox and remind people that everyone older than 6 months needs to be vaccinated every year. William Schaffner health-news What the vaccine does is shift the equation in our favor. William Schaffner health-news That was part of the motivation, of course, to change the H3N2 component for the coming year, the flu vaccine has been reconstituted to be a better match, particularly for the H3N2 component. William Schaffner health-news If you get the flu, call your health care provider, treatment is available. It helps. William Schaffner health-news These measles outbreaks are remarkably persistent. William Schaffner health-news We've had the dominance of H1N1 yield to now a dominance or at least an equivalence of H3N2, which means that the strain that causes more severe disease is actually producing a substantial amount of late season influenza this year. William Schaffner health-news We are having a distinctive, prolonged influenza season. William Schaffner health-news It's difficult to speak with you because all my fingers and toes are cramped from being crossed. William Schaffner health-news If you become sick, please call your health care provider, because they may well provide a prescription for antiviral drugs that can help reduce the severity and duration of your illness. William Schaffner top-news Although it's not perfect, it still prevents many, many infections, and even if you should get influenza despite having received the vaccine, it tends to make a less severe infection. You are certainly less likely to get the complications of pneumonia, having to be hospitalized and dying. William Schaffner top-news Older people may have been infected with cousins of H1N1 years ago, and that gives them residual protection. William Schaffner health-news The vaccine is not perfect, none of us believe it is, but it's the best thing we have for preventing influenza, and even if it doesn't prevent the illness completely, and this is very important, it tends to make the illness milder. William Schaffner top-news The vaccine is not perfect, but give the vaccine credit for softening the blow. William Schaffner top-news Trying to think about it more positively, I hope the research continues to develop a Zika vaccine in the event we have another early signal of a Zika virus outbreak anywhere in the world, a vaccine could be deployed very, very quickly, and that would blunt the horrific impact of the Zika virus. William Schaffner health-news There's a whole spectrum of more subtle manifestations that can actually manifest themselves later. William Schaffner health-news
