The fictional TV character Adrian Monk would feel very much at home in today’s world. Whenever one group rings alarm bells and tells the rest of us that something is really, really bad for us or that the end is coming, society, including the media and politicians, lap it up and eventually scream louder than the original messengers.
Some medical scientists believe that parents who are excessively overprotective of their children, such as when a frazzled mother shrieks at the, perceived, sight of a single germ, the children will grow up to have an immune system that shrieks in horror every time it encounters a bug, bacteria, virus or germ. In fact, some researchers are convinced this is a sure-fire way of creating future generations of allergy sufferers.
The swine flu, or H1N1, has been tagged as a potential pandemic that could kill not only thousands but hundreds of thousands. Canada, for example, is now said to be on its second wave of the H1N1 flu. Not surprisingly, Big Pharma has quickly cooked up a vaccine, barely tested it, and governments all over the world are now in the process of releasing the vaccine, which is said to have potentially serious side effects such as paralysis and even death.
After SARS, for which health authorities were thoroughly unprepared, it is understandable that governments want to act quickly and effectively this time. It is highly appreciated even. But if this is the so-called second wave, one cannot help but wonder whether H1N1 is really the genocidal killer it has been made out to be.
I have yet to see a single person in my part of the world who so much as has the sniffles, let alone the flu (seasonal or otherwise). Recently, I also entertained visitors from overseas, who on their long journey to Calgary had passed through some of the biggest airport hubs in the world, thus exposing themselves to the highest risk areas imaginable, yet none of them has contracted anything.
Apparently, I am not the only one to have made such objective and cool observations: one poll indicates that as many as 47% of Canadians are apprehensive about getting the H1N1 flu shot. Most of them, it seems, may still believe the hype, but they are more worried about the side effects that a more-or-less-untested vaccine can trigger. Particularly so, as the death toll of this flu is far from the apocalyptic predictions everyone has been hearing.
People always die of something. Every regular old flu kills many people every year. It is only natural that H1N1 should prove lethal for some as well. Of course, health authorities should always strive to keep the number of fatalities as low as possible. But since even every mundane headache pill has to complete years of clinical trials before it hits the shelves, there is no excuse for pumping out a vaccine for which the usual procedure has been suspended.
For the US president, Barack Obama, however, to declare the flu a national emergency is way over the top and creates a panic where there so clearly does not have to be one. It will only drive more people to clinics to get the flu shots, most of whom would have never caught H1N1 in the first place but who may well experience some nasty side effects instead.
Many of the conspiracy theories about the vaccine currently making waves online are just fairy-tale stories, but it still raises the question as to why we, as people, have become such ninnies and scaredy-cats that we virtually faint whenever we hear warnings of any kind. H1N1 is merely the latest example, but “man-made global warming” and the various “climate change” scenarios strike the same chords.
The entire human civilization seems to have adopted a frame of mind where everyone always expects the worst. No one sees colours anymore; everything has been reduced to gloom and doom. So, whenever a genuinely concerned individual or group of individuals issues warnings, or a malevolent snake-oil salesman speaks of the planet’s demise, most of us are only too ready to believe every single word. Just as we have seen with global warming, so there are also a growing number of individuals in the context of the H1N1 flu who are determined to cause potentially more harm than the underlying problem could ever produce itself, with some bureaucrats and politicians going so far as to say that getting the flu shot is a “civic duty”. With such opinion taking hold, can compulsory flu shots for everyone be far off?
Call me overly skeptical, but exposing myself to a vaccine that has been cobbled together on the fly and has not been tested thoroughly is not part of what I consider my “civic duty”.
Illustration courtesy of Deviant Art
I vaccinate my children for the usual things like MMR DPT etc because those vaccines have been around for a long time and I know that many of the things they protect against have harmed more people than the flu has. Mortality rates have significantly lowered in the decades since various vaccines became available. However, using these new ones on my children scares me more than a flu does! Each year the seasonal flu vaccine is a little different with different strains, and this H1N1 is no different. I have read Canadian govt papers online that admit the vaccine was not tested on children under 3, limited testing on children under 18, and that the addition of the booster adjucate (sp) is new and not recommended for women pregnant less than 20 weeks due to, again, lack of clinical trials. we ARE the trial right now and I will not do that.
We are trying to be sensible like we are every other year. Washing our hands, boosting our immunity naturally or with supplements during the winter months, and avoiding unnecessary crowding situations. Another little problem I have noticed is that some schools are sending children home as soon as they develop a cough and they are told to stay home for a week (I also know of schools in the US that say stay home for TWO weeks). How is that going to affect working parents? I know many that could lose their job if they have more than one child and end up needing 3 or more weeks off work this winter. Several of my friends around North America have already had to deal with this and their kids may not have even had H1N1. Since testing is only been done on a few people, you don't know if your child has any influenza at all. My son's teacher said she isn't sending anyone home unless they have fever AND cough AND muscle aches (ie several symptoms) but many are sending kids at the first sign of any illness and I think that is getting silly. My kids have sinus issues and cough every other month for weeks on end, should they stay home 6 months of the year for a post-nasal-drip that people fear might be H1N1?
I have a preemie son that has respiratory issues but I am still not giving him the vaccine. I have not given my older two any flu shots and I don't plan to start now. I have only had 2 over 10 years ago and I was so sick those winters with the flu, I ended up with pretty severe pneumonia both times. I have not had a flu shot since, and have not had pneumonia and I've only missed 3 days of work in over 5 years (kidney stones, not the flu). I find the gastro bugs to be much harsher and scarier than the flu. I had norwalk virus 3 years ago and it was totally debilitating for 3 days. Yikes, don't want that again! Rota virus is next on my list for being horrible - if they have a vaccine for that one day, maybe I'll think about it ;) lol
Posted by: kez | November 04, 2009 at 04:04 PM