It was advising me not to get my swine flu shot. It contained an alarmist video where serial alarmist Wayne Madsen advises us all to stay away from the vaccine.
I considered pointing out that as recently as April of this year Mr. Madsen was reporting that H1N1 could be a weaponized strain based on background discussions with two unnamed journalists (only one of which related the weaponized claim based on yet another unnamed source at the UN).
But I didn't. You see, I need my job.
I have therefore vowed to get my shot, ensure that my family gets their shot - and advocate that thinking people everywhere get the shot.
This way, I can visit their sickbed and gloat - with my healthy family in tow. "Good thing nobody listened to you, eh?"
....
(Too much? In my defense, I'm a fairly bitter person.)
Anyway - HuffPo is getting some deserved flack for posting anti-vaccine quackery from a Dr. Frank Lipman.
Phill goes all gonzo on this (with good reason) but
PalMD over at WhiteCoatUnderground has an informative beatdown of Lipman's main points.
Here's the intro:
Let's start with what swine flu is and is not. Every year, influenza sweeps across the world, affecting the US most strongly in the winter months. Influenza causes at least 35-40 thousand excess deaths every year, and even more hospitalizations and lost days of work and school---and all that is in a "typical" year. In typical years, flu is most brutal on the very old, very young, and chronically ill.That's just the regualar, seasonal flu. What about swine flu?
Swine flu follows a different pattern. It isn't any less virulent or deadly than seasonal flu, but attacks a much greater number of people, especially those who don't usually suffer much during a typical flu season. It also has refused to confine itself to the normal flu season, having simmered all through the summer. Vaccination helps prevent illness, hospitalization, and death due to influenza, so each year we formulate a vaccine based on the current circulating strains. To what extent vaccination is beneficial is an open area of investigation, but that it helps is clear.Read the full post, it's great stuff.
2 comments:
i'm right on track for my 'regular' flu shot. end of next month, offered at work. i only 'got the flu shot' once before, about ten years ago, when i was working in the legal division of a major national affinity organization. all but one of us assistants made the time to run down and get stuck. all of the lawyers and one assistant were 'far too busy' to do it.
they got the flu. they got it *really* badly. all were too ill to come to work for two full weeks. i repeat. seven *lawyers* were too sick to come to work. the one assistant was able to move after about ten days, and showed up with a new, full-size box of tissues and a gallon of orange juice -- and he went home early his first couple of days back.
i was glad i got the shot. i'm totally getting the shot. and i'll try to get the h1n1 shot, too, although that might prove more challenging, given the projected shortage of vaccine.
but maybe a bunch of people will skip it, and there'll be enough for me after all...
sincerely,
thorn
At least for the regular shot, e's already done.
Every time I've asked about shortages for the regular shot - the health care worker has looked at me like "you poor, deluded soul" and then told me there would be plenty.
Don't know about the H1N1 vacc, though.
And I know we plan our getting ours, just don't know how we plan to do it yet.
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