Caroline Pan's journalism

Influenza symptoms and prevention

The CDC defines influenza as a highly contagious viral disease. Influenza attacks the respiratory system. The spread of influenza flu is through tiny droplets released during sneezing, coughing, or talking, which land on the other person’s nose or mouth. Complications and severity of the disease vary from one season to another, yet distinct characteristics such as race, age, and gender place individuals at high risk for complications.

The disease can cause mild to severe illness, and it is preventable through the flu vaccine. While the CDC ascertains that vaccine prevents people from acquiring the disease, some are reluctant to be vaccinated.

According to the Medical Doctor in the Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Xiao Guo. He said a flu vaccination each fall is essential.

“Flu vaccination is crucial for adults and kids since it prevents and minimizes hospitalizations and illnesses that can lead to paralysis of the limbs, amputation of an arm or less, hearing loss, brain damage, and death.” Xiao said.

Another important reason for the need to get flu shots is that flu viruses often seriously affect the health of patients with other diseases and even cause them to die.

Xiao said “When people are asked the reasons for being opposed to vaccines, they share distinct reasons such as religious beliefs, lack of education, poverty, and health beliefs”.

On the other hand, it took several generations of researchers time and lives, spent billions of dollars to develop various vaccines, if easily denied and resisted is a waste of professional efforts over the years.

Influenza flu can cause serious repercussions, particularly in patients with other preexisting conditions. Persons with chronic illnesses are at an increased risk of death. In contrast, when combined with other illnesses, the outcome can be paralysis and amputation of limbs, brain damage, or even hearing loss. Vaccination can prevent these severe outcomes.

The reasons for rejecting the influenza vaccine vary from community to another. Some cite religious beliefs, other health, poverty, and lack of education. The greatest impediment to vaccination is cultural and religious beliefs, combined with a lack of education.

However, Governor and medical practitioners can appeal to the masses to accept vaccinations by informing them about the consequences and importance of the same.

Over the years, Chicago has witnessed a change in vaccination rate and influenza mortality rates as public health regulations have opted to protect as many individuals as possible by limiting liberty to promote public health.

The CDC notes that the severity of influenza flu differs by season.

For instance, the 2015-2016 season was a moderate one characterized by a low percentage of hospitalization and mortality rates . The season’s mortality rate from influenza was 7.9%, which was lower than the previous one . The decrease in mortality rate is attributable to the mass uptake of the influenza vaccine.

However, the 2017-2018 season was a high severity period characterized by a prolonged duration of the disease. There were increased cases of hospitalization, outpatient visits, and deaths. The percentage of deaths from influenza and pneumonia by 2018 was above the epidemic threshold, exceeding 10% for four consecutive weeks. In the same period, 186 deaths among children were reported.

In terms of hospitalization, the 2017-2018 season recorded 710,000 flu hospitalizations while produced vaccines were 155.3 million. The elderly patients were the majority (58%) hospitalized persons. The Google Flourish Chart below shows more details about flu disease burden.

CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in nearly 50 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010. (Disease Control and Prevention)

According to Chang, a graduate medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago medical school, the vaccine is the only safe protection against influence. However, the vaccine requires a yearly update to match frequent changes in influenza RNA. Adoption of the vaccine at public facilities such as community centers and ward offices can increase the uptake of the influenza flu vaccine. Besides, the government offers a free flu shot.

Public facilities like ward offices and community centers, and private facilities like Walgreens, CVS, Target are offering their flu shots this season all across the city.

“The government offers us the free flu shot, because it’s necessary,” said Sophie Yang, she is the gallery owner in Chicago Downtown and the new Asian-American immigrant who stayed in the United States for over 10 years.

Here is the interactive map of locations where people can get vaccinated for the free flu shot, most locations provide the address and hours. (Data from the Chicago Data portal)

Vaccination is crucial for preventing sickness and death caused by flu. While public health policies aim to ensure that all persons are vaccinated, diverse factors limit compulsory vaccination.

Religious perspectives such as the belief that it is wrong for people to receive chemicals and that healing is from God, hinders complete immunization of the targeted individuals (The history of Vaccines).

“Some of the kids are not vaccinated because their parents lack knowledge and information about the importance of immunization,” Chang said. “African Americans and hispanics are also among the significant large group of people who are not vaccinated because most of them lack education on the importance of vaccines.”

In conclusion, vaccination serves as a crucial aspect for which to prevent sickness and death resulting from influenza. However, religious perspectives hinder the realization of immunization and contribute to increased infections, hospitalizations, and even deaths. The government, in collaboration with health departments, should sensitize the masses on the importance of getting the flu vaccine.

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Avoiding the flu

During the flu season, people should think rationally and strive to be comprehensive, objective, and true in order to protect their lives and those around them. We hope you have strong attention to learn about the flu shot information and protect your health and protect others by doing the following:

The infected number of Coronavirus in the world

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.

To learn more about COVID-19,please visit World Health Organization.

Check the graphic below to see the increase in the number of people infected.

Flu Shot Centers in the Chicago Area

Influenza occurs frequently in the autumn and winter seasons. The flu epidemic in the United States generally peaks between December and February of the following year, which is called the flu season.

During the 18-19 flu season, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6.2 to 7.3 million people in the United States were infected with the flu during peak hours. About half of these patients were treated for the flu and 69,000 to 84,000 were hospitalized.

The 2018 flu season is one of the worst flu seasons in the history of the United States. More than 900,000 people were infected and hospitalized, and about 80,000 died.

For the flu season, flu vaccination is the main preventative measure. The map below is where the flu shot is currently available in the Chicago area. Data is from Chicago Data Portal.

The Values of Influenza And Coronavirus in the U.S.

Corona virus is one of the topics that has received much attention from late 2019 to the present. Corona virus is from Wuhan, China, the infection rate has reached close to 100,000 people in just three months, and the death rate continued to increase. Up to now, many countries have had infection cases, and the United States is facing the annual flu season while preventing the Corona virus.

The graphic below shows the trends in the number of people who pay attention to the influenza and Coronavirus since January 1, 2020. Graphic is from Google Trends.

It can be seen from the chart that people pay more attention to Coronavirus than to flu. On the one hand, Americans are accustomed to the presence of influenza, and Coronavirus is a new virus just discovered. On the other hand, flu vaccines can effectively treat the flu, but Coronavirus currently has no drugs to treat it, so it is more panic-prone.

Aiming at these two viruses, people generally adopt two ways to prevent infection, there are washing hands and wearing a mask.

It turns out that the search volume for masks reached 100 which is the highest in February 27.

In response to both of influenza and Coronavirus, It is recommended that everyone pay more attention to your health and wear masks when you go out to prevent being infected with the virus or infect it to others.

Los Angeles Lakers Stats 2019-2020

Los Angeles Lakers Salaries 2019-2020

https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js

The graph above shows the distribution of salaries paid to the players of the Los Angeles Lakers during 2019-2020. From the data, it can be seen that the income gap between players is very large.

The salary of ten of them is hardly equal to the salary of LeBron James alone. This kind of distribution is very common in the sports world. The popularity of players determines the salary and fame resources, so there is polarization.

Teams are often willing to spend a lot of money to retain strong players, and this has led to the distribution of team funds and the low salaries of other members. As in the table above, LeBron James’ salary for 2019-2020 is more than forty times that of Talen Horton-Tucker.

Comparing the performance of the player with the highest salary and the lowest salary.

The data below is the score of the most paid LeBron James and the least paid Markieff Morris of the Los Angeles Lakers team earned points in the 2015-2020 game.

The lowest salary on the graphic above is Talen Horton-Tucker, but he has only participated in one game at the moment and has zero points, so it is not comparable. Markieff Morris has the second lowest salary and is relatively comparable.

https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js

It can be seen that Markieff Morris also has relatively rich game experience, but the results of the game have on average doubled. There may be other Conditions such as team position, team strength and opponent strength, etc. The amount of salary is not necessarily interfered by the points, and the data is for reference only.

Chicago Cubs Attendance Between 2007 and 2016

The Chicago Cubs is a team of the Major League Baseball (MLB). The team’s economic strength is relatively strong, with a history of more than 100 years, and fans are widely distributed throughout the United States, but have not won the World Series championship for 100 years. This is the longest time in the major leagues that has not won a championship.

On November 3, 2016, the Chicago Cubs finally ushered in the World Series championship after 108 years of waiting. This year was also the year with the highest attendance rate since 2008.

Quinn:Pensions Threatening MAP Grant Program

Gov. Pat Quinn talks about MAP grants at DePaul University. (Photo by Josclynn Brandon)

Editor’s note: This story was originally posted on Dec. 12, 2012 and is housed at RedLineProject.org

By/Bob Smith

Gov. Pat Quinn visited DePaul University’s Loop campus on Wednesday to discuss how pension reform is harming the Monetary Award Program (MAP) college scholarships and access to higher education in Illinois.

“This is so important to our state, not only in the past, but certainly now and in the future,” Quinn said.
“We want everyone to have the opportunity to go to college that has the ability to go to college.”

MAP grants are need-based college scholarships that allow merit students who are in need across the state and do not need to be repaid by the student. Quinn said that due to cutbacks and having to pay more money in the pension amount, almost 18,000 students lost their MAP grant scholarships this year.

“We do not want anyone denied that opportunity because of finances,” Quinn said. “We can’t afford to lose all the talent that exists, all the ability that exists for higher education to help our economy and to help all of us, because there are financial challenges that deny someone the opportunity to go to community college or a four-year university — public and private — in our state.”

Quinn was joined by several Illinois college students, including DePaul Student Government Association Vice President Casey Clemmons.

“Every year over 5,000 DePaul students receive MAP grants, and just like the students who have already spoken here today, all of these DePaul students rely on this funding in order to continue their college careers,” Clemmons said.
“Because the number of Illinois students eligible to receive MAP is currently increasing, existing funding does not allow the state to assist all the eligible students. As a result, without action by the Illinois state leadership, more DePaul students than ever will see their MAP funding disappear this year and more

DePaul students than ever will be forced to give up their education due to finances.”

More than 150,000 students nationally receive MAP grants each year.

Clemmons told the audience that on Tuesday, DePaul’s SGA unanimously c

Ken Thomas, a University of Illinois Board of Trustees student member, MAP recipient and University of Illinois Chicago student, told how he wouldn’t be where he is today if it wasn’t for the MAP grant.

“My mom, when I was in high school, had to work two jobs just to keep food on the table,” Thomas said, “and if we didn’t have [the] MAP program like we do today, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today; graduating with a degree, hoping to be a productive member of society.”

“Jobs follow brainpower,” he said. “We want to make sure we have smart people in Illinois. Well skilled, well-educated students coming out of college with graduate degrees and diplomas so they can create jobs, create new businesses,” he said. “Our goal in Illinois is to have at least 60 percent of the adults in our state with a college degree or college associate degree or career certificate by the year 2025. In order to achieve we have to make sure we have a good scholarship program.”

Clemmons said that in order for that to happen, state legislatures need to reflect upon the question, “What must be done?” and do what’s required.