Bre Payton, US conservative news writer, dies at 26

[SoCalNative]

The conservative US writer and commentator Bre Payton has died at the age of 26 after falling ill.

A friend, Morgan Murtaugh, found her unconscious on Thursday. She died in hospital where she was found to be suffering from H1N1 flu and meningitis.

Online magazine The Federalist, which Payton wrote for, said she "brightened the lives of everyone around her".

Payton made several appearances for Fox News, and also appeared on other major channels, including the BBC and CNN.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46708656

[dhill926]

1. whatever her politics...

that's way too young. And flu and meningitis....weird...

[stonecutter357]

2. thoughts and prayers , was it Heroin ?

[SoCalNative]

3. She died in hospital where she was found to be suffering from H1N1 flu and meningitis.

eom

[Volaris]

6. It is sad as that IS way too young,

But I can't help but ask the question: was she
an anti-vaxxer?
It might help answer some relavent questions?

[Ms. Toad]

16. Hmm....why is it when the flu vacine is only 38% effective, on average,

and someone dies from the flu, that people leap to the conclusion that they opposed vaccines and/or didn't get the vaccine - rather than assuming they were in the 62%, on average, for whom the vaccine is not effective.

(Effectiveness of the flu vacine, based on CDC data, from 2004 - 2017: 10%, 21%, 52%, 37%, 41%, 56%, 60%, 47%, 49%, 52%, 19%, 48%, 40%, and 40%. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/effectiveness-studies.htm)

[Volaris]

18. Flu vaccine is not quite the same as H1N1...what most people call 'the flu'

Lasts a few days to a week and your immune system kills it without help.

H1N1 is a different animal and is more dangerous; it's why there's a vaccine for it in the first place

[Ms. Toad]

21. That's a bit of a misinterpretation.

H1N1 is one form of influenza A, and is one of the influenza viruses that vaccine this year is intended to protect against.

The trivalent vaccine (i.e. protects against 3 strains) this year targets:

A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A(H3N2)-like virus (updated)
B/Colorado/06/2017-like (Victoria lineage) virus (updated)

The reason that protection averages 38% is because there is no general H1N1, H3N2, etc. - each strain is different, and the vaccine targets the strain that is predicted to be circulating each year, and the predictions are often pretty far off.

So, H1N1/09 was a new strain of H1N1 that popped up in 2009. Because it was new, and there wasn't a residual pool of antibodies, and no one predicted it would be circulating (see the problem with influenza vaccines above), a special vaccine was developed for that unexpected event. Since then, however, when the H1N1/09 variant is expected, it is included in the annual vaccine - as it was this year (see the variant included in this year's vaccine). (If you search for whether you should have the H1N1 vaccine, or swine flu vaccine, you'll find all the recommendations were from 2009.)

[Ilsa]

8. A lot of people her age didn't get the H1N1 vax when

it first came out. I'm surprised she wasn't vaccinated against meningitis. Or maybe she was and she needed a booster.

[bitterross]

4. WTF Happened?

She shouldn't have died from either condition. Did she not seek help and then became unconscious?

[mr_lebowski]

11. Meningitis? That's some serious shit ... Lethal if not properly treated ...

Add H1N1 Flu on top of it and I would guess that it's really no joke.

I would suppose that if you got both infections at once and didn't have anyone around looking after you/checking up on you, you could find yourself incapacitated (i.e. unable to get yourself to the phone to call 911) in a pretty sudden fashion.

Anyways I'm sure we'll learn more in the upcoming days.

Thoughts and prayers to her family and friends. Nobody deserves to go out that young, esp. not to treatable illnesses.

[LisaL]

28. Shouldn't have died from either condition?

Meningitis can be deadly, and many people have died from the flu. So either condition by itself can kill a person. Let alone combined.

[3catwoman3]

34. Meningitis can kill you before you even...

...know how sick you are.

[lastlib]

5. I'm sure here family will miss her deeply...

Maybe someone else will, too.

I s'pose it's too late to send her a get-well card............

[demmiblue]

9. Wow, so young.

[LisaM]

10. Very sad.

. That's way too young. I had never heard of her

[Ilsa]

12. It's easy to believe at her age that

You can't die from an illness. If she was in good physical shape she probably thought a few days in bed would get her through it.

My guess is that the pain from the meningitis incapacitated her. Sometimes, depending on the type of meningitis, when you recover, you almost wish you were dead because of the pain, likely amputations, mental condition.

I'm sorry for her family and friends.

[Journeyman]

13. I wonder if lack of health insurance contributed to her death . . .

A freelance writer and independent commentator isn't a strong candidate for a personal insurance account, especially if she was ideologically opposed to the ACA. And as a young person, she may have felt insurance an unnecessary expense.

Potentially, this is another in a continuing stream of arguments for medical care for all. Dying of a contagious disease, living her final days within the community and not in a hospital, placing us all in danger, she probably felt she was "going to get better any day now" and so avoided medical care. Ideologically, she may have rejected even the use of emergency care to address her condition. Idiotically, she's now paid the ultimate price for inflexible thought.

[virgogal]

22. Health care has nothing to do with this-----it's a killer.

A friend lost a son from meningitis-----college kid.

[Journeyman]

25. But her lying in her apartment, potentially infecting all her neighbors . . .

is everything about health care.

And who's to say if, had she been hospitalized for the influenza, she'd have not contracted meningitis.

(For the record, my brother had meningitis as a babe -- that was in 1952. He celebrated his 66th birthday last week.)

[LiberalFighter]

14. I think she was an anti-vax disciple.

[virgogal]

23. What makes you say that?

[LovingA2andMI]

15. Oh....

"US Conservative "News" Writer" for the Racist "The Federalist" Website.

(Thoughts...If One Has Nothing Good To Say, Say Nothing)....We Got Nothing....Next...

[Claritie Pixie]

17. H1N1 is swine flu, meningitis was probably a secondary infection.

[AJT]

19. It is sad and tragic that she died,

but I don't think this is true:

she "brightened the lives of everyone around her".

She was a 23 year old faux news conservative....there is a lot of nastiness involved in being that hateful at such a young age.

[treestar]

36. Like Tomi Lahren

How do you get that famous that soon? It is interesting that they are conservative too. But the opinion of someone half my age isn’t of value unless you can convince me they are extraordinary

[MrScorpio]

20. She spent her relatively short life as an adult advocating for the wrong things about America

What a waste.

[pintobean]

24. Threads like this

make DU look really ugly to outside folks.




RIP

[FreepFryer]

26. This thread is positively compassionate compared to Right wing celebrations of lost/sick Democrats

None of the posts above are anywhere near the vitriol and nastiness we have seen directed towards those we have lost. Not even CLOSE.

Making false equivalences doesn’t make them so.

[pintobean]

29. "They do it too...

and worser" is a great justification.

[FreepFryer]

30. That's not what I said at all. Misquoting someone does not put the words you want in their mouths.

Your comments seem determined to castigate the undeserving.

[LovingA2andMI]

31. This.....

Thank You!

[sakabatou]

27. I almost died to something similar

But damn, that's pretty young

[FreepFryer]

32. She clearly had reprehensible views, stunning example at this link (can't seem to embed)

“Vaccines are from the devil”
“Healthcare is literally not a human right”

May God have mercy on her soul.

https://m.facebook.com/grouchysocialists/photos/a.1782546972055501/2107952356181626/

[Electrical Arc]

33. May she RIP

Knowing her king of Kings will be sending her directly to limbo.

[Catherine Vincent]

35. Very sad. Rest in peace.

My thoughts and prayers to her family and friends. So young.

[mainer]

37. Which city was this? An H1N1 death is ominous

This is not the time for a pandemic while our govt is shut down.