Most adults with influenza can spread the disease to others beginning one day before they get sick and up to seven days afterward. Children are contagious for longer than a week.
Source: CDC
Year: 2009
37th in Health Performance?
The Wall Street Journal‘s "Numbers Guy," Carl Bialik, takes a deeper look at a well-worn statistic: that the U.S. ranks 37th in the world in health system performance. His conclusion:
WSJ’s Bialik, Oct. 21: Among all the numbers bandied about in the health-care debate, this ranking stands out as particularly misleading.
The No. 37 figure comes from a 2000 World Health Organization report that attempted to grade nations’ health care according to five factors and assign an overall ranking to each.
October 21, 2009
Over the past 26 flu seasons, flu activity has peaked in February more often than in any other month.
Source: CDC
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Oct. 13-Oct. 19
This week, readers sent us comments on the flu vaccine, fabricated Limbaugh quotes and FactCheck fact-checking. In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive.
Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
Cadillac Plans and the Middle Class
The liberal group Health Care for America Now is airing an ad that argues against a tax on high-cost employer-provided health care plans, a revenue-raising aspect of the Senate Finance Committee bill. "Some senators say they want to tax so-called ‘Cadillac’ health care plans, but those proposals will also tax the benefits of millions of middle class workers," the narrator says as an on-screen graphic pops up, claiming "40% tax on health care benefits of middle-class workers."
October 20, 2009
Each year in the U.S., 5 percent to 20 percent of the population on average gets the flu. About 36,000 die from flu-related causes.
Source: CDC
Inoculation Misinformation
Wild rumors are flying about the newly developed vaccine for pandemic influenza H1N1, also known as “swine flu.” We’ve seen e-mails stating that the vaccine is tainted with antifreeze or Agent Orange, causes Gulf War syndrome, or has killed U.S. Navy sailors. One says the vaccine is an “evil depopulation scheme.” …
October 19, 2009
China is the world’s top apple producer.
Source: USDA
October 18, 2009
Pumpkins can range in size from less than a pound to more than a thousand pounds.
Source: University of Illinois
October 17, 2009
Illinois, one of the top four pumpkin-producing states, produced 496 million pounds of pumpkins in 2008.
Source: University of Illinois