Damn, This Is a Crappy December

My aunt, my father-in-law and my mother's best friend are all ill. The FIL is doing the best, having just had heart surgery at age 87. He's up and around three days later. But I keep hearing from my friends about their relatives, too. Everyone is on eggshells this holiday season due to old people illnesses within the past three weeks. There's something going around. Used to be the old folks got sick in February.

• Is global warming making old people sicker sooner in the season?

• They are warning of a new norovirus at hospitals in the UK. Expect it to hit our shores soon.

• OP, many of my relatives have been coming down with a strange stomach virus...I'm guessing a new strain of a virus. Weird!

• OP, you're not alone. In my apt complex, people are complaining of symptoms of a virus they can't figure. We've had weather that's not normal for this season; but later went back to normal. So, it might be just temporary; we hope!

  anonymous

• Plus, Les Mis was released.

• An older relative came gown with a norovirus, had a heart attack from puking and is now on the way out...

• My uncle was admitted to hospital with a high fever and dropped dead Christmas Eve. My dad (his brother) had the decency to linger for three months without fucking up a holiday. My dad was cool.

• We all have The Cold That Won't Die. It lingers and lingers and lingers...

• Flu season has hit early. And it's a different strain than what was in the vaccine (surprise!)

  Not

• >>We all have The Cold That Won't Die. It lingers and lingers and lingers...>> Fukushima. Still goin' strong.

• [quote]Flu season has hit early. And it's a different strain than what was in the vaccine (surprise!) Serious? I got a shot for nothing?

• Not for nothing. The currently circulating influenza virus is an H3N2 strain, and that was included in the mix for flu shots this year. We also got an H1N1. There is a slightly different swine flu that also has an H3N2 serotype that the shot won't protect against, but that only caused a few hundred cases over the last few years.

  The Voice of the Night

• Not for nothing, R11. The viruses in it may yet come around. Meanwhile, your shot may help protect you against any virus that's related to any of the viruses in the vaccine.

• Yes, I know one older woman in the hospital, one who fell and an older man who passed away. No fun anywhere.

• Norovirus on a cruise ship. A very crappy December for them!

• Two cruise ships! Useless trivia -- Norovirus is named after Norwalk, OH after schoolchildren were sickened and the single strand RNA virus was discovered. As time went on, more of these single strand viruses were found to cause gastroenteritis and they were called "Norwalk-like viruses," which became to cumbersome. So they said, "Fuck it, it's Norovirus."

• Now it's three cruise ships, including the QE2. In what appears to be the third cruise ship to be hit with a gastrointestinal illness outbreak, likely norovirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) reports that some 205 passengers and crew aboard the Cunard Cruise Line’s “Queen Mary 2″ have developed symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting, according to a CDC-VSP release Dec. 28. The federal health agency says 194 passengers and 11 crew members have been sickened by a sickness of unknown etiology.

• Bad for ships all over... US Sailors Sue Japanese Utility Over Radiation SAN DIEGO December 28, 2012 (AP) Eight U.S. sailors are suing the Tokyo utility that operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant, charging that the company lied about the high level of radiation in the area where they were carrying out a humanitarian mission after the tsunami that triggered the reactor crisis. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego last week against Tokyo Electric Power Co., which is owned by the Japanese government. Plaintiffs include the infant daughter of two of the sailors who was born seven months after the March 2011 disaster. The sailors served on the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, which was carrying out "Operation Tomadachi" ferrying food and water to citizens in the city of Sendai in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami. The sailors claim the Japanese government repeatedly said there was no danger to the carrier crew "all the while lying through their teeth about the reactor meltdowns" so rescuers would "rush into an unsafe area." The U.S. Navy, the suit said, relied on information from the Japanese government, which only belatedly admitted that radiation had leaked into the atmosphere from the damaged power plant. An email seeking response from the utility's corporate office in Tokyo was not immediately returned. The 37-page suit, which cites numerous reports about the Fukushima crisis and response, said that after discovering the truth of how much radiation they were exposed to, the sailors have undergone extensive medical testing and will be required to undergo periodic examination in the future. They say they are at risk for developing cancer and a shorter life expectancy, and are undergoing considerable mental anguish as a result. The sailors are suing for more than $100 million in damages.

• In Maine, our brothers and sisters are now free to marry. It's not all bad...

• I'm hearing of more elderly people coming down with norovirus.