Your Opinion on Swine Flu and Shots

[Gideon]

Cross-species illness are not at all uncommon. I'm not sure where you're getting that. Bacteria and virus, like all other life on earth (though much faster), mutate and adapt. Lots of our illnesses came from living in close proximity to animals (small pox, the black plague, for instance) that originally had some version of it. Avian flu, swine flu, etc... any animal infected will have millions of bacteria/viruses and some will be mutated. Every once in a while one of these mutations will give it an advantage in attacking human cells and then it'll reproduce and millions and millions of them will be in that person and eventually one of those will mutate and be better at infecting OTHER humans and then.....

Jared Diamond in his book "Guns, Germs and Steel" actually posits that one of the reasons the West gained as much dominance in the world that it did was because of us living so close to animals, getting the illnesses, and then gaining immunity (so we could then spread epidemics of small pox everywhere we went.)

I agree most the coverage has been ridiculous and I'm not terribly concerned (though a pandemic is ALWAYS possible, we shouldn't imagine it couldn't happen to us) but if I'm going to be around sick people all the time I'll get a vaccine. I got the flu a couple years ago for the first time in almost a decade and it was so god awful I never want to deal with that again.

[griffonwing]

Gideon

I would much rather get sick, and fight it off, than to get a vaccine that will make me sick, so that I 'might' not get sick to that strain again. Unfortunately, there are so many different strains of the Flu that getting a shot against one that you would come into contact with in the near future is a lottery.

If I get sick, I'll fight it the way I was created to.


DesertGrandma

Nice article.. But reading it really told me nothing. All that I basically understood was that the NIST had taken 8-9 years to come up with a hypothesis of what happened. Unfortunately, the NIST is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, and as such, I do not trust it. Of course they will side with the gov't and blame the attacks on Al Queda. The gov't watches its own back.

There are too many unanswered questioned concerning my government. The elite are prospering against the lives of the citizens. The federal reserve bank is a scam run by a dozen private individuals, the national income tax is a scam, and the national debt is nothing more than the interest our country owes to the federal reserve bank.

Do you think I would trust a country's government that would lie to its citizens, tear the money from their fingers, sell the country's land to other countries and allow tax breaks for companies to build plants off shore? There is so much that I hate, despise, and revile about my country's government schemes and developments.

However, I love what my country stood for, and the freedoms we used to have. I love being able to wake up and not have to worry about where my food is going to come from this morning. Whether I'll be robbed in the afternoon, or shot in the evening.

How long will this last? I don't see this lasting too much longer.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/new-legi...mps-in-us.html

A new bill introduced in Congress authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to set up a network of FEMA camp facilities to be used to house U.S. citizens in the event of a national emergency.

The National Emergency Centers Act or HR 645 mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of to providing “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” according to the bill.

The legislation also states that the camps will be used to “provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-based organizations”.

Ominously, the bill also states that the camps can be used to “meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” an open ended mandate which many fear could mean the forced detention of American citizens in the event of widespread rioting after a national emergency or total economic collapse.

Many credible forecasters have predicted riots and rebellions in America that will dwarf those already witnessed in countries like Iceland and Greece.

With national and private freedoms being slowly stripped away, this scares the shit out of me.

[nomesque]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

Lemme get this straight. You're worried that in the case of widespread riots, Homeland Security might... stop the rioting? Damn. That is majorly curbing people's freedoms.

[Ham88]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

Gideon

I would much rather get sick, and fight it off, than to get a vaccine that will make me sick, so that I 'might' not get sick to that strain again. Unfortunately, there are so many different strains of the Flu that getting a shot against one that you would come into contact with in the near future is a lottery.

One thing what do you mean "get a vaccine that will make me sick" vaccines don't make you sick. They use denatured forms of the virus, meaning it is none viral, because your immune system just needs to recognize the outer coating of the virus as alien, so no getting sick. Can you explain what you meant by the post about genocide I got a little confused there. But I do agree that this is all hype created by the media get to viewers, but there is a potential for a pandemic seeing as people lack immunity to it and I suppose it may turn out to be worse than normal flu.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

So, 150 deaths compared to an annual deathrate of half a million, and this swine flu is supposed to be a pandemic?!

You misunderstand the meaning of the word "pandemic". It does not refer to the "seriousness" of an outbreak of an infectious disease, but to how geographically widespread it is. The common cold is a pandemic.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ham88

but there is a potential for a pandemic seeing as people lack immunity to it and I suppose it may turn out to be worse than normal flu.

Swine flu is a pandemic; there's nothing "potential" about it. But please see my previous post about what the word "pandemic" actually means.

[acidzebra]

Global warming, global cooling, DDT, acid rain, africanized killer bees, mad cow disease, bird flu, swine flu, nuclear war, pollution, ozon holes, crime waves, sars, aids, superbugs, genetically modified food, pesticides, west nile virus, subliminal advertising, communism, terrorism, t-cell research, anthrax, fat, electromagnetic radiation, killer asteroids, mercury poisoning from fish, oil spills, dirty bombs, bubonic plague, razorblades in apples, mad cow disease.

All these things were going to kill us all, yet here we are. I'm not saying some of these things didn't cost and will cost lives, nor am I trying to diminish the damage some of these things have caused, I am saying the attention in the media and the way they are portrayed is not equal to the actual threat they pose for the vast majority of people living on this planet. I'm done being scared. But of course, happy stories don't keep people clustered around the boob tube or keep them from changing the channels, EXPLOSIONS AND SCARES DO.

With thanks to this video which starts off hilarious but gets VERY graphical after 2 minutes; not for the faint of heart.

edit: Oh, I've never had any type of shots since I was very young. I have the constitution of an ox and rarely get ill if I sleep enough and eat well.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

What are your thoughts, and will you be getting a shot should it become available, as well as the yearly normal flu shot?

I don't get a "normal flu" shot. I detest needles. And the only times I've had a shot was when I was absolutely required to have one (like when I wanted to go to India and before that, when I wanted to go to the States when I was 17). I will most certainly not get a shot for the Mexican flu.

Originally Posted by griffonwing

I personally believe that its all hype. This "pandemic" is nothing but bullsh*t to get people to take the vaccine. Compare the numbers who have died to Swine Flu to the numbers who have died to regular flu. It's a drop in the bucket. Hundreds compared to Hundreds of Thousands.

The problem is, it is highly contagious. The problem is that when a massive outbreak does occur, it's not so much the amount of deaths that will cause problem, but the huge number of people that won't be able to go to work.

Originally Posted by Patricia

Meanwhile, I had a nasty bug which was probably H1N1, but am now better. My daughter was diagnosed with the virus, had Tamiflu (she's asthmatic) and recovered very quickly. And my partner will have the vaccine because he's asthmatic. And academics like us are at some risk: every September we stand in front of crowded lecture theatres, and hordes of students from all over the world sit there and cough at us.

I can understand you will take some medication to relieve the pain or stress. Or if you're in a situation where the chance of getting the decease is high.

[rgeorg]

I have asthma and asked my doctor (who I trust) if I should get the new flu vaccine. She said to get the seasonal flu vaccine as normal (end Oct), then to call her in January to ask about whether or not I should get the H1N1 vaccine. Not because it may have problems - she said that the new strain may change over the autumn months and that would render the vaccine useless. Experts will be able to judge better by the end of the year after seeing how things go in Australia. We (in Greece) have a later flu season because of our warmer climate.

[GeoffC]

I get an annual flu jag as part of care against asthma (though I have had no asthma attacks this year).
The specific jag for Swine Flu has had conflicting, and often worrying, press - I'll have to leave the decision to when the time comes ....

[DixieGal]

I WANT TO BE FIRST IN LINE FOR THE SHOT!!!

I work in a children's hospital, and the kids are just walking talking petri dishes. We have a ton of kids with swine flu in Ala, and guess where they go to get treated? Let me tell you, Purell is like liquid gold around this place!

Two of our Division's docs got their faces sprayed yesterday when kids coughed on them this week, so they are already on Tamiflu. And that is just for my specific group. Luckily, we don't work in Infectious Diseases or General Peds!!

Yes yes yes, I'll be in the first group to get the vaccine, due to being in healthcare and due to having a few medical problems of my own. I take the flu shot every year, haven't had flu in decades now.

What a vaccine does is it is almost the virus, usually just dead virus, and fools your body into thinking you have been infected by a living breathing version of the virus. That way, you can create nice B & T and all the nice killer alphabet cells. Then they go dormant in your spleen and, unless you laugh your spleen out, they stay there harmlessly until you encounter the real virus. Those killer immune cells flood your bloodstream and hopefully block whatever receptor on the virus that is trying to gain a foothold on you. Sort of like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, it just won't work.

To any MD's lurking out there: Please feel free to correct me if I said it wrong.

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by nomesque

Lemme get this straight. You're worried that in the case of widespread riots, Homeland Security might... stop the rioting? Damn. That is majorly curbing people's freedoms.

Sure, that's what they say, that it is due to rioting, but if there is going to be any rioting, it will be due to the rest of our freedoms being stripped away. Spending tax money to build riot camps to keep citizens in after taking away their freedoms? It's a neverending circle or corruption. It tells me where this country is headed.

Originally Posted by Ham88

One thing what do you mean "get a vaccine that will make me sick" vaccines don't make you sick. They use denatured forms of the virus, meaning it is none viral, because your immune system just needs to recognize the outer coating of the virus as alien, so no getting sick. Can you explain what you meant by the post about genocide I got a little confused there. But I do agree that this is all hype created by the media get to viewers, but there is a potential for a pandemic seeing as people lack immunity to it and I suppose it may turn out to be worse than normal flu.

Many vaccines use live virus. How many times have you gotten sick from a vaccine? My brother did, my mother had, so had my father. He got a flu shot, got the flu, was out for a week. 2 months later, got a different strand of the flu, was out again. So, no, it's not just dead denatured forms.

Originally Posted by HarryT

You misunderstand the meaning of the word "pandemic". It does not refer to the "seriousness" of an outbreak of an infectious disease, but to how geographically widespread it is. The common cold is a pandemic.

My mistake. I suppose that's what I get for occasionally watching network news.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

The problem is, it is highly contagious. The problem is that when a massive outbreak does occur, it's not so much the amount of deaths that will cause problem, but the huge number of people that won't be able to go to work.

I speak only for myself in this. I would rather risk infection of a highly contagious, yet weaker strain of virus, than to submit myself to a vaccine that has yet to be proven.

The only news sources that I trust are NPR and BBC World News. I used to trust Fox News, but they are beginning to cloud their news as well.

[Sydney's Mom]

I don't usually get a flu shot. My daughter (11) has only had the seasonal flu once. But I asked my Dr., and he advised me to get the H1N1 shot, because of my daughter. He said her pediatrician would advise her to get one. I'm not going to get a seasonal flu shot, but since H1N1 is expecially dangerous to children/young adults, and I have one (she flips between categories on an hourly basis), I will be getting one this year. Actually, the Dr. said it was 2 shots.

[Sydney's Mom]

Speaking of panic, I get a lot of legal advertising on H1N1. One landed in my mailbox this week: Employers duty to screen workers before letting them come in. That is really scary.

[geneven]

In order to be "genocide," it would have to be aimed at some particular race or ethnic group, wouldn't it? Or is "genocide" now a term meaning "bad"?