here we go again. dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria. a rather nasty and contagious flu has again broken out in a foreign country causing international panic and excessive gloating by big pharma and big brother. rumors of potential millions dead, entire cities shut down, and the entire world at risk are pushing media into a swooning frenzy. does it not seem odd that nobody has brought up the debacle of the 1976 swine flu vaccine, which killed more people than the flu? or that the fatalities of the flu pandemic (a real one!) of 1918 were actually caused by strep? and that they did not have an effective treatment for it at that point? before you buy yourself stock in surgical masks, my suggestion is that you step back, take a breath, and get a little perspective. the bird flu? not a pandemic. west nile? not a pandemic. the original swine flu? not a pandemic. panics, yes. excuses for border closures, surveillance, and expensive vaccination programs, yes. but dangerous? no. not to your health, anyway.
here are a few numbers on the current mania.
* 64 laboratory confirmed cases in U.S. -- 0 deaths
* 26 confirmed cases in Mexico -- 7 deaths
* 6 confirmed cases in Canada -- 0 deaths
* 1 confirmed case in Spain -- 0 deaths
somehow this doesn't look like ebola, y'all. so...
wash your hands. don't smooch people you don't know who have runny noses who just got off the plane from Mexico. go see a doctor if you get sick. but... don't let them give you a flu shot.
(here are the common side effects of Tamiflu:
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Headache
* Dizziness
* Fatigue
* Cough
they can include convulsions, delerium, delusions, and death. somehow, i think that i'd rather brave the flu.)
at any rate! be well! drink lots of fluids and get some rest!
lovepeace
heather
About Me
- Heather Tinnaro
- Asheville, North Carolina, United States
- It will be a few years until I can step back on board with an eye to staying a while. At the moment, I still live in the mountains of North Carolina, in a small house with a piano in the parlor and a teenager in the good bedroom. But it is time to start dreaming. The nest is preparing to empty, and when it does, I should be ready to fly. Or float.
1 comment:
I think that the name "pandemic" scares a lot of people, because it has that connotation of "killing alot of people" when all it REALLY means is that the infection is sustained in multiple global regions. Because it's recently moved to humans, we just don't KNOW what it's going to do. But before you get too down on immunizations and vaccines in general, check out this presentation from the ACH Grand Rounds.
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