Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

< 12:58:20 PM        >

CDC says we are almost up to a normal flu season now. Interesting is how they've changed some past data curves to now look like this chart. I imagine the change has a reasonable explanation, but they ought to give an explanation.

Visits to health care providers by patients having influenza-like symptoms continues with wild abandon. Considering that the story was front page coverage every day last week, that is not terribly surprising.

And finally, now come the charges of price gouging by vaccine manufacturers and distributors.

"The unusually early flu epidemic, complicated by shortages of an injectible vaccine that is a poor match for the predominant Fujian strain that is circulating this year, has sparked the expected signs of alarm: panicked calls to doctors and hospitals and long lines at the clinics that have not yet run out of flu shots. ".

The CDC estimates that 92 children under the age of 5 die from the flu each year (but has never collected reliable data so they do not actually know). As of now, 42 children under the age of 18 have died and just over half of those were under the age of 5. (So perhaps 25 children under age 5 have died out of a questionably expected 92 in an average year). Of the children who died, the CDC was aware of "flu shot" status in just seven of the children. Two of those seven had had a flu shot, got the flu, and died.

Unlike past years, the CDC has requested that all child deaths associated with influenza be reported to the CDC this year. This is good, except that it may yield a highly biased sample that the media will then use to report "massive deaths due to flu". How long before someone blames Al Queda too?

Another word of warning: it is likely that influenza will reach "epidemic" proportions. That means it has crossed a pre-determined threshold. According to the CDC, "Epidemics of influenza occur nearly every year during the winter months." Which means that it would be weird if this winter does not achieve epidemic status. Not the other way around; the moment the CDC says flu has reached epidemic status, as it normally does, watch the media go wild! [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology]

comments < 12:57:26 PM        >

"Hackers Worked Wi-Fi Planet. AirDefense monitored the air at Wi-Fi Planet and found a huge number of security breaches: The company saw 21 attempted man-in-the-middle attacks, of which 16 were successful. The rest of the numbers are pretty shocking. In just one day, AirDefense also found 75 denial-of-service attacks targeted at APs, 125 attempted identity thefts by spoofing MAC addresses and 24 fake AP attacks. With that kind of activity, you'd better use the best security options you've got. But most people didn't. Only 6 percent of corporate email downloads used a VPN and 89 laptops were configured to allow ad hoc networking. I think this kind of data is an argument for not using Wi-Fi in an environment like Wi-Fi Planet unless you know how to secure your laptop.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]" [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology]
comments < 12:55:49 PM        >

WSJ.  In one of the largest moves to "offshore" highly paid U.S. software jobs, International Business Machines Corp. has told its managers to plan on moving the work of as many as 4,730 programmers to India, China and elsewhere...  Some workers are scheduled to be informed of the plan for their jobs by the end of January. After that they will be expected to train an overseas replacement worker in the U.S. for several weeks... Unlike low-wage manufacturing, the U.S. computer-services jobs to be moved overseas by IBM typically pay $75,000 to $100,000 or more a year, according to one person familiar with the operations. In contrast, hiring a software engineer with a bachelors or even a masters degree from a top technical university in India may cost $10,000 to $20,000 annually, analysts say. [John Robb's Weblog]
comments < 12:46:46 PM        >

WSJ.  Inflation plunges to lowest level in 40 years.    The report "allows us to extend further our estimate of the 'considerable period' before" the Fed raises its federal-funds rate target, now 1%, said Steve Cecchetti, an economics professor at Brandeis University. "It is now extremely difficult to see how conditions for a rate increase can emerge before early 2005."  Nice!  That means the Fed will probably keep rates low.  It is bad news for the Dems. The new economy is still in effect. [John Robb's Weblog]
comments < 12:42:55 PM        >

VIP-16 Bomb Jammer.  It would be nice to see these in use on Army vehicles in Iraq.  Here is another one configured as a backpack for infantry. [John Robb's Weblog]
comments < 12:36:47 PM        >

BG.  The FDA, operating as an arm of the US pharma industry, is working hard to stop US cities from buying low cost prescription drugs in Canada.  Danger from Canadian drugs?  C'mon.  Needless to say, it isn't working.  Shrugging off warnings from the Food and Drug Administration yesterday, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he will forge ahead with his pilot plan to import prescription drugs from Canada for city employees and retirees.  The mayor traveled to Washington and sat down with a group of high-ranking officials at the FDA who urged him to abandon his plan because of safety concerns and potential liability exposure for the city. Menino said in a telephone interview later that the conversation ended on a cordial note but that he disagreed with most of the FDA's points.  NOTE:  This is about as disingenuous as the SEC's efforts to clean up corporate and financial market corruption.  It takes Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of NY, to do ALL the heavy lifting for the nation.  He is also taking on SPAM in lieu of the Justice department. [John Robb's Weblog]
comments < 12:26:47 PM        >