H1N1 Hysteria and Hypochondria
October 28, 2009 · By Charles Anthony
An acquaintance of mine whose political and sociological opinions I rarely respect, asked me if I was going to get the latest swine flu shot that, for some peculiar reason, seems to be so popular these days. I said I was not. Then, he went on enthusiastically about how he was going to get his shot and protect his children and make the world a safer place.
He said the most astounding things: “well, vaccines do work” and “that’s not rocket science” after I told him that I do not trust this new vaccine. Then he went on a diatribe about how vaccines against polio and malaria have proven to work.
Somehow, he did not get it that years and years of experience with vaccination for one disease does not prove that the latest vaccine (which has no track record) for a different disease is safe. Oh, well.
I just find it so amazing to see so many eager people blindly ready to jump on the latest health solution peddled by the government. All of these trusting people lining up to get inoculated as if they were waiting to get milked by their farmer. They do not even know what is in those syringes yet they are convinced that they are protecting themselves from a deadly epidemic. Wow.
Enjoy your flu shots everybody!
UPDATE — (Sunday, November 1st, 2009)
Trying to look on the bright side of all this hysteria, I think I have found something positive among all of the hypochondriac parents waiting in line with their young children. This nonsense may provoke a natural revulsion to waiting in line. Future generations may shake our soviet Canadian culture of socialist obedience.
I’m with you on this one Charles. I don’t trust this Flu Shot, just as I’ve not trusted previous ones. In fact, I’ve learned that if I TAKE the Flu Shot, I get far sicker (is that a word really) than in years when I haven’t taken the shot.
I understand that I could be taking a risk, but I’m willing to accept the consequences of my decision in light of past experience.
As for the Hysteria? Yup. I see it the same way.
For all those well it works for polio etc. I agree I haven’t seen a polio or smallpox victim in years. However as is evidenced every year vaccinating against ‘the flu’ doesn’t work. If it did work we would have been flu free for years.
If you get vaccinated and don’t get the flu then obviously the vaccine worked. If you get vaccinated and you still get the flu its because you caught a different strain and the vaccine wasn’t appropriate. If you don’t get vaccinated and you don’t die from the flu …. Well just how did a person as dumb as you stay alive all these years!
Medicine; the profession that gets to bury its mistakes.
Stick to economics Charles. I realize you cannot actually control your distrust of government but in this case, I’m fairly certain you have zero medical credentials, or any actual material to cite.
You can start with this article from the New England Journal of medicine.: (start at the section entitled individual risk and vaccine refusal)
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/co.....60/19/1981
Sean, there’s multiple strains of flu. When you get vaccinated, it’s for a specific variant. If you happen to catch another strain, you’re up the creek. The flu is simply not just the flu. It’s a general term for dozens of influenza strains. It just so happens that this years H1N1 variant is particularly dangerous and even people outside of the typical high risk groups are succumbing to it.
I’m waiting for medical professionals to indicate that people should not take the shot. So far, overwhelmingly (if not unanimously), the medical community has been pleading with the public to take the shot.
Sean, the big problem with your decision to accept responsibility is that you must also assume responsibility for all the people that you will be spreading the virus to once you are infectious.
Finally, anyone who reads this, please don’t take your medical advice from Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, or some blog. Talk to an actual medical professional who’s work is dedicated to medicine and health and not some anonymous internet source.
So tell me RD did you fall for the Y2K scam? How about the Bird Flu of a few years ago? Do you believe in AGW? Remember that this belief in mankind’s ability to control his environment borders on megalomania.
@Charels
You’ve definitely got a point. I’m hoping that the Belgium trials that the government is relying on to rush this vaccine through are credible. I’m a little worried that the government is not particularly forthcoming with their information. It’s also worrying that GlaxoSmithKline had been testing the drug in a dosage that no one was ever going to use, and the amount of adjuvants that are to be used has varied as the production has gone on.
There’s also a bit of crying wolf problem here. H1N1, Bird Flu, West Nile, SARS… none of these lived up to their billig, thankfully (not that I am trying to minimizing the suffering of those who were afflicted). If the government keeps warning about the next big disease, fewer and fewer of us are going to trust them. I’m worried we’ve reached that point… and that H1N1 is actually the real deal, and thus going to decimate us.
I noticed in the paper today that ERs are getting swamped with sick people – people who would otherwise not have gone in if it weren’t for the warnings by the government. Should we not be worried that we’re packing people into ERs when they don’t need to be there, and thus exposing them to the one person in there who might actually have it?
I’m not getting the vaccine. I realize that I might be putting other people at risk, but on balance, I think I’m making the right choice. I think the manufactured hysteria will actually be even more dangerous.
i dont trust anything that has not been tested for at least 20 years when it comes to mass vaccinations. just waiting for the HPV vaccine to begin sterilizing this generation’s young women or drugs like prozak to cause some future brain meltdown. fearmongering like this current one has big pharma all over it. (remember thalidamide, that was a great drug wasnt it?)
after all isnt there like 33000 deaths a year over the regular flu? i think i will take my chances thanx.
I’m not buying the hype either. H1N1 is quite mild compared to previous flu variants, flu vaccines have never been proven to work the way other vaccines do, and the testing for both efficacy and safety have been nowhere near the standards required for any other type of medication.
No flu shot for me.
Guys, show me some evidence of your paranoia…
Vaccinations are safe, show me ANY evidence that they’re not safe.
I take pride in being a solid skeptic, but in this case, your fear is based on hearsay and conjecture.
Wirer Mag had an interesting article on the topic of fear of vacinations: “An Epidemic of Fear
Today my family & I went & got our flu shots. I am not going to argue whether I trust it or not.
However, I AM getting sick and tired of the bullshit hysteria employed by the “pro-vaccination” crowd.
“What about my children?” they wail as they metaphorically hold their brats in front of them to fend off rebuttal (cuz obviously if you disagree with them you must hate kids – right?)
“You’re spreading disease!” they shriek wild-eyed, as if the mere fact that you did not immediately follow their orders and stampede to the nearest clinic will ensure you instantly catch the flu. (cuz of course since you didn’t follow THEIR ORDERS and get a vaccination then of course you are obviously too dumb to stay home when you’re sick – right?)
Tell you what loudmouths – Take care of your own families and if you want to SUGGEST people go get vaccinated – fine.
If you want to help by driving people to a vaccination centre – fine.
If you want to dispense up to date, accurate information – fine.
But, when you start screaming and name calling others simply because they don’t feel like doing that which you are ORDERING them to do – then please feel free to FUCK OFF.
@ greg
mass immunizations give me the creeps when they are based on very little clinical trial periods. there was no reason to think that thalidimide was harmful until babies became born with missing limbs. as far as many people are concerned, the jury is still out on thimerasol.
i just think that nature is trying to thin the herd. unless of course we all believe that h1n1 is a bio weapon (OH NOOOOO!!!!!!).
seriously though, i trust my gut and my gut is hardly wrong.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i.....;aid=14950
this site has a pretty interesting article on H1N1. just found it and read it, dont know nothing bout it. big site though think i’ll take a longer look.
cheers
Joe,
Y2K was not a scam. This is usually an opinion held by someone who was not in any way involved with dealing with the complexities of the issue at that time. The truth is that there were several costly problems post Y2K. It’s just that the world didn’t end so the media moved on to the next OJ trial.
But thanks for making my point. Just because a problem does not bring about the apocalypse, it does not mean it isn’t a problem.
I’m appalled that people sound downright disappointed that SARS, the bird flu and other major viruses did not kill more people. They were still major illnesses and hundreds if not thousands of people did actually die from these. To date, 89 Canadians (many of whom were not high risk), have died from h1N1 and flu season hasn’t even kicked into high gear.
Greg, thanks for posting that article from the wire. I had read it a couple weeks ago and it really opened my eyes to this paranoid group of people. This makes Charles’ title all the more ironic no?
If you don’t want to get the vaccine, that’s fine by me. But at least be responsible and quarantine your whole family when the first person becomes ill. Don’t put your coworkers and schoolmates in harm’s way. That’s probably how I contracted H1N1, and it’s not fun. I’m just getting over it now, after a week of being stuck at home.
Abattoir: Hope you feel better soon. I’m curious to know if they’re encouraging people who have already had H1N1 to get the shot as well once they’ve gotten better? Or at least what their response is to the immunity/resistance question post H1N1.
RD: I’m well aware that there are a bounty of varieties of Flu strains and that they vary in severity and symptoms. What I’m saying is that based on my own personal experiences with the Flu, the only time I’ve ever been laid low for a long period of time was shortly AFTER I chose to get the Flu Shot. Every other year without exception, I’ve made it through the year without coming down with it. And as an asthmatic and ex-smoker, I know that my immune system is weaker than others. And yet, I’ve been remarkably free of illnesses. Am I lucky? Maybe. But I’m going to stick with my personal experiences on this.
Greg: As I said to RD, the only proof I have is my own personal experience. I’m not necessarily paranoid about H1N1, but I’m really not that worried about it myself. I worked in a high-exposure job in Scarborough during SARS and never felt a twinge of “ick” or real concern for my own safety or well-being. People as individuals can be intelligent rational beings. People as a crowd are skittish, paranoid creatures that easily succumb to panic or rage. We know this. What I’m seeing now is people’s fears being stimulated in order to satisfy a precautionary measure that isn’t guaranteed to work, or expected to work in sufficient percentages to warrant the imperative they’re attaching to it.
I’ll agree that the correlation/causation argument is valid and it shouldn’t be relied on as any kind of “empirical truth”. I’m not an anti-vaccine anything, and I’m not a pro-vaccine anything either. For me, it’s simply a personal choice based on personal experience. Will I accuse anyone who chooses to get the vaccine or not? No, I won’t. I respect their choice for whatever reasons they have, but I won’t assume their reasons as my own.
Also, just for the record, from time to time I do decide to get the flu shot, and the result has always been the same compared to years that I don’t.
We are debating this even now in our household. It’s a tough decision.
Until healthcare professionals can reassure me that only people with underlying conditions are dying with this H1N1, I fail to not understand why people would not vaccinate. Young, otherwise healthy people are dying. Their families wished they could have had the vaccination and their lovedones would get the shot. I stayed in line 2.5hours to get mine. The choice is yours, no one is holding a gun to your heads, do what u think is right for you.
Sean, thanks for the well wishes. I’m starting to feel better and I’m back to work, but man did this thing ever get deep into my lungs. I was having a hard time breathing on Monday, and I’m still half-choking on it. I beg of you all, please get your children immunized – it’s not worth their discomfort.
According to Health Canada, once you’ve had H1N1, you should be immune. That said, they’re still recommending everyone get the shot, just in case your particular strain wasn’t actually H1N1.
I don’t blame anyone for wanting to protect themselves and thier loved ones, and I empathize with those who are feeling anxiety and lining up, but how many people would be lined up if they heard the truth?
If the government and media were to say, “We can’t know how safe or effective this vaccine is because the clinical tests normally required to do that are happening right now. We enacted legislation so that we could ignore methods and protocols in place to protect the population………But, we are hoping based on results for testing on two vaccines different than the one we’re giving you that everything will be O.K.?”
I am not an anti-vaccine crazy person.
If you read the product monograph for Arepanrix ™H1N1available on the Canadian Glaxo Smith Klein website you will see that the only testing GSK has done on any H1N1 vaccine was for efficacy and was done on a very limited group and age range using an investigational form of a vaccine which is manufactured in Dresden Germany using “a different production process” than the one Canadians are being given. This same investigational vaccine wasn’t tested for safety as of October 21st.
The safety studies that GSK is sighting in the product monograph were extrapolated from another vaccine, an H5N1 strain which was also produced with the same “different manufaturing process” in Germany.
The product is being misrepresented and legislation is being enacted to shelter Glaxo Smith Klein from the legal fallout of what is a political decision.
I hope to GOD that the vaccine is both safe and effective. At this point that’s all anyone can do. But I’m not going to line up to prove that it’s either of those things.
good thing everyone isn’t like you otherwise we wouldn’t have a track record for any vaccine lol but i can see the reason for the worries about a swine flu that does just about as much damage as every new flu each year.
As a danish reader I ‘fell’ over this site – I have this to say- IF this vaccine really does work then why is it not given to us all just like we had to with the polio??We do not have ANY garanti that the vac works.My mother (82)had the shot because she got the flu every year hated being sick for weeks and because ths shot was free!BUT she has the flu not just once but twice every single year and is much more sick now and can take weeks before it’s over! I haven’t been sick with flu in years My advice take vitamin D. Young people of today are so affraid of ‘getting sick’ and will do anything to make them healthy – The Pharma industry is making big profits by your fear for sickness!!