Posted on 10/18/2009 2:21:43 AM PDT by Grumpybutt
Vaccination is central to the government’s plan for preventing deaths from swine flu. The CDC has recommended that some 159 million adults and children receive either a swine flu shot or a dose of MedImmune’s nasal vaccine this year. Shots are offered in doctors’ offices, hospitals, airports, pharmacies, schools, polling places, shopping malls, and big-box stores like Wal-Mart. In August, New York state required all health-care workers to get both seasonal and swine flu shots. To further protect the populace, the federal government has spent upwards of $3billion stockpiling millions of doses of antiviral drugs like Tamiflu—which are being used both to prevent swine flu and to treat those who fall ill.
But what if everything we think we know about fighting influenza is wrong? What if flu vaccines do not protect people from dying—particularly the elderly, who account for 90 percent of deaths from seasonal flu? And what if the expensive antiviral drugs that the government has stockpiled over the past few years also have little, if any, power to reduce the number of people who die or are hospitalized? The U.S. government—with the support of leaders in the public-health and medical communities—has put its faith in the power of vaccines and antiviral drugs to limit the spread and lethality of swine flu. Other plans to contain the pandemic seem anemic by comparison. Yet some top flu researchers are deeply skeptical of both flu vaccines and antivirals. Like the engineers who warned for years about the levees of New Orleans, these experts caution that our defenses may be flawed, and quite possibly useless against a truly lethal flu. And that unless we are willing to ask fundamental questions about the science behind flu vaccines and antiviral drugs, we could find ourselves, in a bad epidemic, ....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I've had the flu maybe 4 or 4 times in my life.
I can remember two times that really nailed me ... once about 10 years ago and the last time two or three years ago.
Bad cases lasted about three or four days ... otherwise, a day in bed and lots of sleep and I could pretty much go back to work.
I felt shitty for a couple of days, but work was do-able.
Interesting read.
...has put its efforts into controlling what people do, is trying out the issuing of requirements for the population, is getting the population used to jumping when the Leader says jump.
If you have a reaction to the swine flu vaccine, it could be much worse than the flu itself.
So far the swine flu has been much milder than the old regular strain. I’ll pass on this one.
Very interesting, well-written article with lots of food for thought.
In the fall of 1976, as the government was trying to immunize people and was having problems when some of people receiving vaccine died. Like many others who decided not to get the shot, I came down with a doozey of a case of flu and spent 4 or 5 days in bed with fever and a cough. I often wonder if that was swine flu.
Before you get the vaccination read this story and watch the video. I saw this story on the news the other night and it is truly frightening.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92345&catid=158#comments
I saw that the other day. Yes, very frightening. I got my first seasonal flu shot a couple weeks ago. So far, so good. Even though I have asthma, we have decided not to get the H1N1 - we’re carrying handi wipe hand sanitizer and staying away from sick people instead.
Bump & a micro ping, this is provocative, to say the least.
Also, Keep up with other H1N1 update stories on this thread: H1N1 flu victim collapsed on way to hospital [Latest H1N1 updates downthread] thanks to DvdMom and others.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks - I will read the article tomorrow. (Brain not cooperating tonight; still recuperating from flu, day 11.) Have heard from someone who is studying the genetics of this thing that the H1N1 vax is off target; virus has mutated away already.
Never seen so much anti-vaccine rhetoric as has been employed these last few months to cover Obama's malfeasance.
That's the results from the study of the Air Force Academy outbreak. Half of those stricken received Tamiflu, half didn't. Absolutely no difference in severity of illness, hospitalization rate, duration of infectivity or recovery time.
Admittedly 130 17 and 18 year olds in perfect health are not representative of the population at large, but damn. WTF are we doing?
Vaccination for H1N1 "swine" flu: Do The Atlantic, Shannon Brownlee, and Jeanne Lenzer matter?
Journalists sink in The Atlantic article on vaccines
Science journalists, bloggers and the Brave New World we live in
No flu shots for us, and we have a similary story. For example, I almost never get sick. I do not know if I have ever had the flu, I probably did, but when I did I did not feel sick for long. I used to think it was just me, but now I note that my wife and kids are almost never sick, and when they are it is again very quick, often lasting only one night. Thus, I think the main factor is a healthy lifestyle.
While the articles freely attack the article, They have not addressed some concerns.
If the H1N1 variant going around does not attack the normal profile of flu victims, (Those over 60 is the group I am referring to), then it is not your ordinary influenza. Why have the popular (journalist) writers of article after article mentioned the risk profile as if this were an ordinary seasonal flu and not presented the risk profile for H1N1 instead.
There is concern about squalene and thimoserol, the latter nothing new, really, but the standards for mercury concentration were lifted when the National Emergency was declared, and the manufacturers were granted a liability waiver.
In the instance of debilitiating complications which could be linked to thimoserol, even with proof there is no recourse. That is enough to give one cause to stop and consider carefully vaccinating the very young.
The inhaled vaccine, in at least a few cases (granted, 'anecdotal evidence') has been given credit for flu infection, whether that is warranted or not (whether the patients involved are a victim of bad timing or 'bad' vaccine).
There has been at least one recent article posted on FR linking squalene to the growing number of peanut allergies over the last decade or so, and to the development of more broadly presenting anaphylactic reactions in general. While that may be open to debate, the use of adjuvants has been called into question.
There has also been some of the sloppiest record keeping/data gathering in regards to the H1N1 outbreak in the history of modern medicine, with testing incomplete or suspended, with those presenting flu symptoms summarily diagnosed as H1N1 (which complaint is allegedly refuted by contending that is the only flu circulating--which is a fine piece of circular reasoning).
It is difficult to say just how deadly the flu is if you cannot weigh the confirmed dead from the flu against those who have had it and survived and those who merely had a mild case, and initial descriptions of the disease left the population with the impression it was indeed a mild flu, only holding serious implications for those with "underlying medical conditions", (which many took to be immunocompromisation or pulmonary disorders).
Having stated the cases against the vaccine, and ignoring the biowarfare and other conspiratorial thoughts from further out, the case for the vaccine is one of providing immunity to as many people as possible. We are told this by people we don't trust (in the Government), after we were told if you are healthy you have nothing to fear. Wash your hands often and well, drink plenty of fluids, get rest, try not to infect or be infected...
I ping a wide variety of articles on the flu, and include the tremendous compilation of articles done by DvdMom and others at this link: H1N1 flu victim collapsed on way to hospital [Latest H1N1 updates downthread] because I want people to have all the data available, to sift through it as they will, and to make an informed decision.
I see being informed as having at least seen all the information, whether one decides to believe parts of it or not. The choice is up to the individual, and I welcome the input at those links as well.
As for me, I view the current political situation, the coup in progress in the nation's healthcare industry, the conflicting statements issued by an administration determined to sieze control of an entire industry sector, the failure of that same administration to take steps to ensure sufficient stocks of vaccine are available while giving away a significant proportion of our vaccine stocks, (and while pushing to lift the exclusion of immigrating people who are HIV positive from the country), and keeping in mind that the Alisnky radicals in that same administration are not beyond exacerbating a crisis in order to exploit it, I have some serious questions about political motivation as well.
Throughout the timeline of this outbreak, the administration has taken actions which seem more aimed at timing the crisis than ensuring the public health. Before Government run health care became an issue, we were told the flu was mild, it only killed people who had underlying medical conditions, nevermind the third-world health care elsewhere. There was no need to close the obvious infection routes from Mexico to the US, "It is already here, nothing can be done". The conditions for a pandemic (WHO criteria) had been met well before the declaration of one--just not enough people had died. There will be plenty of vaccine.
But when health care legislation bogged down, and the American people started rebelling against the idea of more government tampering with health care, suddenly, there is not enough vaccine, the disease is everywhere (even though testing was stopped in many areas and all flu-like presentations were considered H1N1--hardly a peer-reviewable data gathering standard, and one which cuts both ways--you can't prove either way).
The WHO declared Stage 6, Obama declared a National Emergency, and the media bombardment is on.
H1N1 is old news, but now influenced by daily body counts, slick graphics, and fomentation of general panic.
Old people who were not at risk because the flu attacked the young, are now demanding to be vaccinated, and the media is muddling that with the normal seasonal flu risk profile.
People are braving the weather to wait in line (did they get paid for that like the townhall meetings or were they real?), and every thing happening is presented to show the American health care industry as a failure.
This raises a few red flags with me, and it should with you, too.
The vaccine is an individual decision, one every person must make for themselves. You have to weigh the risks you perceive from getting the vaccine with the risks you perceive from not getting the vaccine, and choose accordingly--for you and your family. The results of that choice are up to you, and rather than try to persuade people to believe one thing or another, I want them to look for the best information they can find.
That will be no easy task.
The fact that the data set is deeply flawed, that there are definite political motivations for having it that way, and the future of our health care system is at issue in the midst of a 'crisis' all have me question the motivation of the less than forthright media and governmental entities in pumping the crisis and the vaccine.
We have seen how the media have shilled for Obama, we have seen how the media have shilled the Anthropogenic Global Warming hoax and how peer-reviewed science has been hijacked to enable that.
So now, in between soap commercials, for our viewing pleasure...
As always, you are welcome, Alamo-Girl, whether I post that in a timely fashion or not.
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