CNN (October 7, 2009)
"For 13-year-old Brandon Marti, the intranasal vaccine felt 'good,' 'cold' and 'watery' at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York, on Tuesday.
"Marti, among the first to get vaccinated against the novel H1N1 influenza virus this week, said he would tell his friends and classmates that 'the swine flu vaccine is good, and protects me from getting the swine flu.'
"New York has received a shipment of 68,000 doses of the FluMist variety vaccine. This form was made available before the injectable kind because it was ready first, said Thomas Skinner, spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"As states across the country receive and distribute the vaccine, questions still linger about who should get it and why. Here are some guidelines:..."
The CNN article's guidelines are under headings like "Where is the vaccine?" and "Who should get it?" - It's pretty much common sense.
I've checked out the World Health Organization's "Pandemic (H1N1) 2009." The deaths of about 4,100 people around the world have been reported to WHO, as of October 2, 2009.
It's a sad fact that the (new) vaccine for this (new) disease is just now betting ready for distribution. In very limited quantities. To people who really need it.
Which doesn't include me. Yet, anyway. The situation may change. I've gotten my usual influenza shot - which is still a good idea, H1N1 or no H1N1.
Common Sense is So Commonplace
I think one reason that common sense isn't all that common - in some circles, anyway - is that it's so, well, common. Nothing particularly flashy about it.Take the epidemic of 1976, for example.
The Epidemic That Didn't Happen
You won't remember it, because it didn't happen. A very scary version of swine flu broke out at Fort Dix. The American government launched a massive immunization program: imagine that! It was as if the feds didn't want the disease to spread or something.The disease didn't spread - and about 1 out every 80,000 people who got the vaccine later developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). People get GBS anyway - but at about 1/6 that rate. (May 1, 2009)
With Logic Like This - - -
'Obviously' the vaccine was to blame and the government was to blame because there wasn't any epidemic and some people got sick and some of them died and how could anyone be so heartless as to allow such a deadly mistake to happen.I'll admit: I'm not trying to make the "deadly mistake" story sound any more reasonable than it is.
Problem is, although - sadly - some people who got the vaccine also got GBS; and some of them died; nobody's been able to find a link between the vaccine and GBS.
So, the vaccine was banned.
It's Gotta be Some Kinda Plot!
With the WHO involved, this swine flu's gotta be some kinda plot. As is well known, is part of the [boo! hiss!] United Nations. And you know what that means! Well, some folks are convinced that the United Nations is ickyness incarnate.The U. N. isn't the only bogeyman around, of course. Depending on who you pay attention to, the astute observer will not that some earnest individuals appear convinced that the world is threatened by Jesuit assassins, space-alien shape-shifting lizard people, and other malevolent forces plotting against all that is right and good - or left and diverse, as the case may be.
Conspiracy theories about H1N1 2009 have been around for a while. Nothing new there. As I wrote in another blog:
"...There seems to be a widely-felt need to have somebody to blame. Preferably, somebody who's involved in a secret conspiracy. That way, lack of evidence is evidence that the conspiracy exists...."There's more, about H1N1 and the state I live in, Minnesota: But that's for another post.
(Another War-on-Terror Blog (January 14, 2009))
Related posts:
- "Swine Flu / Influenza A(H1N1) Conspiracy Theories - No Surprises There"
(May 8, 2009) - "Swine Flu Vaccine, Benefit / Risk, and Common Sense"
(May 1, 2009)
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