H1N1 vaccine - Should we Leap before we Look?
puremagic
Posts: 1,907
Published: Monday September 28, 2009 MYT 9:23:00 AM
Updated: Monday September 28, 2009 MYT 10:31:51 AM
A(H1N1): Intense tracking for vaccine side effects
WASHINGTON: The U.S. government is starting an unprecedented system to track possible side effects as mass influenza A(H1N1) vaccinations begin next month.
The idea is to detect any rare but real problem quickly, and explain the inevitable coincidences that are sure to cause some false alarms.
"Every day, bad things happen to people. When you vaccinate a lot of people in a short period of time, some of those things are going to happen to some people by chance alone," said Dr. Daniel Salmon, a vaccine safety specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Health authorities hope to vaccinate well over half the population in just a few months against influenza A(H1N1) , which doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain.
That would be a feat. No more than 100 million Americans usually get vaccinated against regular winter flu, and never in such a short period.
How many will race for the vaccine depends partly on confidence in its safety.
The last mass inoculations against a different swine flu, in 1976, were marred by reports of a rare paralysing condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome.
"The recurring question is, 'How do we know it's safe?"' said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic.
Enter the intense new monitoring. On top of routine vaccine tracking, there are these government-sponsored projects:
- Harvard Medical School scientists are linking large insurance databases that cover up to 50 million people with vaccination registries around the country for real-time checks of whether people see a doctor in the weeks after a flu shot and why.
The huge numbers make it possible to quickly compare rates of complaints among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, said the project leader, Dr. Richard Platt, Harvard's population medicine chief.
- Johns Hopkins University will direct e-mails to at least 100,000 vaccine recipients to track how they're feeling, including the smaller complaints that wouldn't prompt a doctor visit. If anything seems connected, researchers can call to follow up with detailed questions.
- The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing take-home cards that tell vaccine recipients how to report any suspected side effects to the nation's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system.
"We don't have any reason to expect any unusual problems with this vaccine," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of Hopkins' Institute for Vaccine Safety, who is directing the e-mail surveillance.
After all, the new H1N1 vaccine is a mere recipe change from the regular winter flu shot that's been used for decades in hundreds of millions of people without serious problems.
Nor have there been any red flags in the few thousand people given test doses in studies to determine the right H1N1 dose.
They've gotten the same sore arms and occasional headache or fever that's par for a winter flu shot.
But because this H1N1 flu targets the young more than the old, this may be the year that unprecedented numbers of children and pregnant women are vaccinated.
Then there's the glare of the Internet - where someone merely declaring on Facebook that he's sure the shot did harm could cause a wave of similar reports.
Health authorities will have to tell quickly if there really do seem to be more cases of a particular health problem than usual.
So the CDC is racing to compile a list of what's normal: 25,000 heart attacks every week; 14,000 to 19,000 miscarriages every week; 300 severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis every week.
Any spike would mean fast checking to see if the vaccine really seems to increase risk and by how much, so health officials could issue appropriate warnings.
Very rare side effects by definition could come to light only after large-scale inoculations begin - making this the year scientists may finally learn if flu vaccine truly is linked to Guillain-Barre, an often reversible but sometimes fatal paralysis.
It's believed to strike between 1 and 2 of every 100,000 people. It often occurs right after another infection, such as food poisoning or even influenza.
But the vaccine concern stems from 1976, when 500 cases were reported among the 45 million people vaccinated against that year's influenza A(H1N1).
Scientists never could prove if the vaccine really caused the extra risk. The CDC maintains that if the regular winter flu vaccine is related, the risk is no more than a single case per million vaccinated.
So the question becomes, Is the risk of disease greater than that?
Mayo's Poland cites a study in Chicago that found the rate of preschoolers being hospitalised for the new H1N1 flu last spring was 2 1/2 times higher than that possible Guillain-Barre risk.
However, the flu season turns out, the extra vaccine tracking promises a lasting impact.
"Part of what we hope is that it will teach us something about how to monitor the safety of all medical products quickly," said Harvard's Platt. - AP
For more see the CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1FLU/
Updated: Monday September 28, 2009 MYT 10:31:51 AM
A(H1N1): Intense tracking for vaccine side effects
WASHINGTON: The U.S. government is starting an unprecedented system to track possible side effects as mass influenza A(H1N1) vaccinations begin next month.
The idea is to detect any rare but real problem quickly, and explain the inevitable coincidences that are sure to cause some false alarms.
"Every day, bad things happen to people. When you vaccinate a lot of people in a short period of time, some of those things are going to happen to some people by chance alone," said Dr. Daniel Salmon, a vaccine safety specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Health authorities hope to vaccinate well over half the population in just a few months against influenza A(H1N1) , which doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain.
That would be a feat. No more than 100 million Americans usually get vaccinated against regular winter flu, and never in such a short period.
How many will race for the vaccine depends partly on confidence in its safety.
The last mass inoculations against a different swine flu, in 1976, were marred by reports of a rare paralysing condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome.
"The recurring question is, 'How do we know it's safe?"' said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic.
Enter the intense new monitoring. On top of routine vaccine tracking, there are these government-sponsored projects:
- Harvard Medical School scientists are linking large insurance databases that cover up to 50 million people with vaccination registries around the country for real-time checks of whether people see a doctor in the weeks after a flu shot and why.
The huge numbers make it possible to quickly compare rates of complaints among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, said the project leader, Dr. Richard Platt, Harvard's population medicine chief.
- Johns Hopkins University will direct e-mails to at least 100,000 vaccine recipients to track how they're feeling, including the smaller complaints that wouldn't prompt a doctor visit. If anything seems connected, researchers can call to follow up with detailed questions.
- The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing take-home cards that tell vaccine recipients how to report any suspected side effects to the nation's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system.
"We don't have any reason to expect any unusual problems with this vaccine," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of Hopkins' Institute for Vaccine Safety, who is directing the e-mail surveillance.
After all, the new H1N1 vaccine is a mere recipe change from the regular winter flu shot that's been used for decades in hundreds of millions of people without serious problems.
Nor have there been any red flags in the few thousand people given test doses in studies to determine the right H1N1 dose.
They've gotten the same sore arms and occasional headache or fever that's par for a winter flu shot.
But because this H1N1 flu targets the young more than the old, this may be the year that unprecedented numbers of children and pregnant women are vaccinated.
Then there's the glare of the Internet - where someone merely declaring on Facebook that he's sure the shot did harm could cause a wave of similar reports.
Health authorities will have to tell quickly if there really do seem to be more cases of a particular health problem than usual.
So the CDC is racing to compile a list of what's normal: 25,000 heart attacks every week; 14,000 to 19,000 miscarriages every week; 300 severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis every week.
Any spike would mean fast checking to see if the vaccine really seems to increase risk and by how much, so health officials could issue appropriate warnings.
Very rare side effects by definition could come to light only after large-scale inoculations begin - making this the year scientists may finally learn if flu vaccine truly is linked to Guillain-Barre, an often reversible but sometimes fatal paralysis.
It's believed to strike between 1 and 2 of every 100,000 people. It often occurs right after another infection, such as food poisoning or even influenza.
But the vaccine concern stems from 1976, when 500 cases were reported among the 45 million people vaccinated against that year's influenza A(H1N1).
Scientists never could prove if the vaccine really caused the extra risk. The CDC maintains that if the regular winter flu vaccine is related, the risk is no more than a single case per million vaccinated.
So the question becomes, Is the risk of disease greater than that?
Mayo's Poland cites a study in Chicago that found the rate of preschoolers being hospitalised for the new H1N1 flu last spring was 2 1/2 times higher than that possible Guillain-Barre risk.
However, the flu season turns out, the extra vaccine tracking promises a lasting impact.
"Part of what we hope is that it will teach us something about how to monitor the safety of all medical products quickly," said Harvard's Platt. - AP
For more see the CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1FLU/
SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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ditto ... the H1N1 strain is not the one people need to worry about ... it's the mutated virus that is the one people need to worry about ... these vaccines are "best guess" fixes - they aren't guarantees ...
Dangers of the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine
Uninformed is Unprepared
The upcoming, possibly mandatory Vaccination program to immunize the American public against the H1N1 Swine Flu presents many serious issues to consider before taking the shot, and especially before allowing your children to take the shot.
* Many medical professionals without financial ties to the Pharmaceutical industry believe the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu is nothing more than a seasonal flu, and nothing like the unique and deadly Spanish flu of 1918 that some claim it will be.
The hysterical fear mongering regarding this flu is universally generated by groups that stand to gain massive profits, power and prestige from the sale and administration of the Vaccine. The voices of those without profit motive often have a very different message for you and your children.
* The checkered history of Vaccines of all types is readily available and should be considered before any Vaccination is taken. Young gilrs have recently been suffereing severe adverse reactions to the Gardisil Vaccine (video).
In 1976 a Swine Flu panic included broad based government scare propaganda, and a complete lack of patient advisory of any potential risks of the Vaccine. Many Vaccine takers suffered serious and permanent physical damage directly from the Vaccine, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome. The conclusion of this flu outbreak proved it to be no worse than any other typical seasonal flu - see 60 Minutes 1976 (video).
* Some or all of the Vaccines are cultured in Green African Monkeys, and then the infected and diseased kidneys are harvested and processed into the live virus culture for the Vaccine. (video)
This process is patented in the United States, with the patent being held by DynCorp, a private contractor performing military duties, including patrolling the US/Mexican border, where the very first outbreak of the H1N1 Virus occurred.
* There are other dangerous ingredients in these Vaccines that have been proven to cause serious harm, and sometimes death. One is Squalene, an oil based adjuvant whose purpose is to further weaken the immune system so that lesser virus components are required. Those that profit from the sale of Vaccines point out that Squalene is a naturally-occurring chemical in the human body, however many medical professionals with no ties to Big Pharma have a very different story to tell.
Also, the multi-dose vials require a preservative, therefore the dangerous and toxic Thimerosol may also be present. Thimerosol is a Mercury based product, and Mercury is a known Neurotoxin.
* Just this year Baxter Pharmaceuticals shipped a stock of Vaccines to eighteen countries in Europe that were contaminated with a deadly experimental live virus. It was just by pure chance that this product was tested before storing for future use this fall, thereby avoiding the infection of patients with some unknown Flu from the Vaccinations intended to protect them against H1N1 Flu.
* There is shocking proof that the major Pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the FDA, cannot be trusted to provide safe products to the market. An episode wherein Bayer Pharmaceutical knowingly sold and distributed HIV AIDS tainted anti-coagulant in their FACTOR VIII product, thereby infecting thousands of hemophiliacs (and their families) with AIDS, with many of those infected having died as a result. Bayer HIV (video) and Bayer HIV Settlement.
Additional proof that major Pharmaceutical manaufacturers will knowingly sell dangerous and unnecessary products is the August 2009 guilty plea of Pfizer in a $2.3 Billion lawsuit that was initiated by a Pfizer sales rep turned whistleblower, who stated "At Pfizer I was expected to increase profits at all costs, even when sales meant endangering lives. I couldn't do that,"
* The Us Government has passed a bill granting liability protection to all authorized Vaccine manufacturers for any harm done by their products, up to and including death, for any reason other than willful negligence (a condition that would require the legal process to assess). This liability protection includes any damage done by accidental contamination or just plain negligence. The government explains this blanket legal immunity by reasoning that Vaccine products profit margins are so low, the only way to encourage companies to produce them is to remove the financial penalties of legal recourse. This immunity has effectively removed all incentives from the producer to perform costly due diligence in the manufacture of an already dangerous and likely unnecessary product.
It appears that at this time it is likely unconstitutional for the Federal Government to forcibly mandate the Vaccination of the population.
However, the is no Constitutional restrictions on the various States preventing mandatory vaccination programs, and there are some States considering doing just that. Massachusetts has attempted to fast track a bill that would require everyone, among other things, to be injected with the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine as detailed above, or face "imprisonment for not more than 30 days or a fine of not more than one thousand dollars per day that the violation continues, or both."
The Massachusetts "Pandemic Response Bill" 2028 was rapidly approved by the Senate, and moved to the House for what was expected to be a rubber-stamp approval into law. However local activists, through intense lobbying efforts, including educating the members of the House on some of the information documented above, have stalled this bill, and actually moved it off the docket. Continual diligence will be required to insure this bill remains dormant, and does not come back disguised in some other form. Profiteer-advocates have every reason, and all of the funding required, to continue their efforts.
Parents are advised to keep in close contact with their children's public school, as unannounced Vaccinations have been conducted in the past, without first advising parents or gaining their consent. There is nothing more precious than our children, and once an adverse reaction to the awful cocktail that is this Vaccine has occurred, there will be no second chance.
Historical FACTS On Dangers and Ineffectiveness Of Vaccines
* In the USA in 1960, two virologists discovered that both polio vaccines were contaminated with the SV 40 virus which causes cancer in animals as well as changes in human cell tissue cultures. Millions of children had been injected with these vaccines. (Med Jnl of Australia 17/3/1973 p555) The horrific "rest of the story" is that even though this was discovered and proven in 1960, the cancer-causing contaminent continued to be given children right up to the year 2000.
* In 1967, Ghana was declared measles free by the World Health Organisation after 96% of its population was vaccinated. In 1972, Ghana experienced one of its worst measles outbreaks with its highest ever mortality rate. (Dr H Albonico, MMR Vaccine Campaign in Switzerland, March 1990)
* In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK)
* In the 1970's a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73)
* In 1977, Dr Jonas Salk who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists, that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 "Abstracts" )
* In 1978, a survey of 30 States in the US revealed that more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately vaccinated. (The People's Doctor, Dr R Mendelsohn)
* In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981)
* The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine.
* In the USA, the cost of a single DPT shot had risen from 11 cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The manufacturers of the vaccine were putting aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain damaged children and children who died after vaccination. (The Vine, Issue 7, January 1994, Nambour, Qld)
* In Oman between 1988 and 1989, a polio outbreak occurred amongst thousands of fully vaccinated children. The region with the highest attack rate had the highest vaccine coverage. The region with the lowest attack rate had the lowest vaccine coverage. (The Lancet, 21/9/91)
* In 1990, a UK survey involving 598 doctors revealed that over 50% of them refused to have the Hepatitis B vaccine despite belonging to the high risk group urged to be vaccinated. (British Med Jnl, 27/1/1990)
* In 1990, the Journal of the American Medical Association had an article on measles which stated " Although more than 95% of school-aged children in the US are vaccinated against measles, large measles outbreaks continue to occur in schools and most cases in this setting occur among previously vaccinated children." (JAMA, 21/11/90)
* In the USA, from July 1990 to November 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration counted a total of 54,072 adverse reactions following vaccination. The FDA admitted that this number represented only 10% of the real total, because most doctors were refusing to report vaccine injuries. In other words, adverse reactions for this period exceeded half a million! (National Vaccine Information Centre, March 2, 1994)
* In the New England Journal of Medicine July 1994 issue a study found that over 80% of children under 5 years of age who had contracted whooping cough had been fully vaccinated.
* On November 2nd, 2000, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) announced that its members voted at their 57th annual meeting in St Louis to pass a resolution calling for an end to mandatory childhood vaccines. The resolution passed without a single "no" vote.
http://www.wellnesschiro.com/physicians ... ccines.htm
yes, i shall pass as well.
i will be getting the usual flu vaccine, i have for about 3 years now. it is offered free thru my firm, so sure...thanks! flu sucks and the seasonal vaccine has been around a long while now. i do not like being a guinea pig. someone else can try it out and if this particular flu is still a major threat in a few years, i may rethink my choice, but for now....no thanks.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
Of course your doctor is going to urge you to do it. But, are YOU thinking this thoroughly and researching about it before you make a decision? Or will you just do what someone else tells you to? Know what you're doing, that's all.
While i have a right to refuse vaccination and take that risk for myself, i do not feel i have a right to make the decision to increase the risk of others by interacting with sick people.
I'm with you, Vinnie...
I don't even get the "regular" flu shot...
Why do you say "of course your doctor is going to urge you to do it?" It seems like you have found plenty of evidence to support a conclusion that it is unsafe.
As far as me personally researching the information, I agree that is important and I do that as much as possible. The problem is knowing where to get accurate information. I certainly don't get it on a Pearl Jam message board, any mainstream media outlet, or the other 99.9% of the information on the interwebs. I let my doctor do his job, but that doesn't mean I don't know which questions to ask.
In the end, I trust my family doctor (maybe I'm part of the lucky minority), he has an informed answer for every medical question I've ever asked, and if it is good enough for his family and his loved ones, then it is good enough for me and my family.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
I think this is the first time you and I have agreed on anything... Including the spelling of my name
To everyone this "flu season," A Salut!
But I'm getting the H1N1 vaccination. This flu is not the same as the regular seasonal flu. It's killing young, healthy people. That is a fact, not profit-inspired hysteria. Regardless of my personal feelings about shots, I feel obligated to the people around me to not get sick and risk spreading it to them.
Also, I work with a lot of doctors. They are well-educated, critical thinkers. Even if they did have a profit-driven motive to push the vaccine on their patients (which they don't), they have no reason to put their or their families' health at risk. And they are all getting vaccinations for themselves and their families.
do you have any stats on this? all i've read is that the people that have died that are not really young or old all had underlying medical conditions that made them susceptible to these flus ...
I got the regular flu shot. I got the flu 3 years ago and really don't want to deal with that again. I ended up in the E.R.. They did one of those nasal swabs to make sure it was the flu, and it was. I was very sick. They kept me in the hospital 2 days.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
Completely. How many are getting them know personally someone who has it? That may be hitting close to home, so I understand that. But to put faith in our doctors to make decisions?? The doctors who are in cahoots with Big Pharma (all western medicinal doctors very much are) are NOT going to tell you not to get it. Actually, I'd love to find a doctor who thinks objectively on this. There seem to be none.
They're trying to make this H1N1 vaccine mandatory for many people (nurses, hospital admin, they're still talking about making it mandatory for school children, very young and very elderly, and those with poor immune systems). I question when they talk about making a shot mandatory when it's still in its birth phase. It's still NEW people, and not widely tested. Someone who's healthy and does not need one has got to be crazy to just volunteer no problem for a vaccine that is still in testing!!! And the poor souls who are already ill and getting it. I don't know which one is worse. Anyone who gets it is walking blindly.
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/surveillanceqa.htm
59% of people who died from H1N1 in the CDC study at the link above were under age 50, with only 9% being 65 or older. Usually 90% of people who die from the seasonal flu are 65 or older.
http://www.who.int/wer/2009/wer8421.pdf
The study from the article above shows that only 46% of H1N1 deaths in Mexico were of people with underlying conditions, and the median age was 31.
I think this is a little over-the-top. Of course I put faith in my doctors to advise me in making medical decisions. That's why I have doctors. I wouldn't go to a doctor I didn't trust. And this isn't blind trust. I am a well-educated critical thinker who does her research. And so are my doctors.
Not all doctors are in cahoots with Big Pharma. At the health sciences center where I work, we are pharm-free and proud! I was even made to get rid of my Viagra pen, even though I can't prescribe anything. I am 100% sure that my doctors, who are also my friends and co-workers, have nothing but my best interest at heart when they tell me to get a flu shot. And I am confident that they wouldn't tell me to get one if they didn't know what they were talking about. Plus, once again, why would they themselves get dangerous vaccines?
What's that quote? Something along the lines of, "First an idea will be ridiculed, then violently opposed, and then finally it will be widely accepted as Truth."
I think most Americans are still in the ridicule stage about vaccines. In the past two decades, children have gotten more and more shots. They have more and more chronic disease: Obesity, allergy, asthma, learning disorders, diabetes...
But it can't possibly be connected to vaccination! Mercury and aluminum are safe! The live cancer viruses in green monkeys are killed by nonoxynol-9 or antibiotics added to shots. So what if the Squalene in the Swine Flu shot is more than twice as much as the amount that killed Gulf War soldiers given Anthrax jabs? The Pharmaceutical companies are your dear Friends! They love you. They're not out to make money. They want to go out of business by having no one on the planet ever be sick ever again.
My sister in law is a doctor and has already gotten her vaccine last Monday. Amazingly, she's still alive and practicing medicine and everything. I do agree that people get very hysterical about vaccines. I read that there are basically two types of people when it comes to vaccinations, those that worry about what could go wrong if they don't get the shot and those that worry about what could go wrong if they do. People make emotional decisions about getting the vaccine instead of taking a cold, hard look at the stats. On the vaccine, chances of death or disability are far higher for those not getting the vaccine than those getting it. Some people are convinced that they have low immune systems, whatever that means, and they do or will get the flu with a flu shot. I am convinced that most people who say they have the flu really mean they have a bad cold. I also think that a lot of people are terrified of needles. The immediate fear of receiving a poke is so overwhelming that the pain of the poke becomes so magnified in their minds that it is worth getting a disease substantially more painful than any poke because you are not guaranteed to suffer the disease, whereas you are guaranteed to get poked if you opt for a flu shot.
I admit I'm a weird one myself...I understand the poke, but I have trouble with FluMist. Stick a live virus up your nose? Are you NuTz? I know it's attenuated, but what if they didn't quite attenuate the thing completely? It's sheer idiocy, I'm aware. But, we are all very emotional creatures. What we believe is more important than any facts you can float.
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/featu ... accine-faq
"OK, you talk a good game. But would YOU get the swine flu vaccine yourself?
This WebMD reporter was a guinea pig in the swine flu clinical trial. You can watch me get my first shot.
What happened? Nothing. There wasn't even soreness at the site of injection. I did catch a cold (sniffles, cough, no fever, no muscle aches) about three weeks after my first shot -- unfortunately, flu shots don't protect against that. But I haven't had the flu, even though I live in a city (Atlanta) that's had a lot of cases."
Really? Let me tell you my experience. When I was pregnant, the Drs. found 2 soft markers on the baby for Down syndrome. I wasn't interested in getting an amnio (which would guarantee the probability of the baby having DS). But several doctors urged me to get one; I should know these things and if it turns out positive (that the baby has DS), that I'll regret not terminating. That's right, no factual information, just doctors urging me terminate while I had the chance and to at least get an amnio. Yes, several doctors, too. Since then, and my daughter does have DS, I've done lots of research into how doctors treat pregnant women who's prenatal test show some chance that their child has DS. It's been found that doctors, across the board, have NOT been telling us the facts, but rather the downsides and that we really don't want these babies because of the "trouble" they may cause, the extra care and possible heart conditions.
Just three years ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have conceded that false or no information has been given to pregnant women, as 90% of all women pregnant with a child with DS terminated. 90%. Senator Ted Kennedy and another senator got a bill passed to amend the Public Health Service Act to increase the provision of scientifically sound information and support services to patients receiving a positive test diagnosis for Down syndrome or other prenatally and postnatally diagnosed conditions. If it weren't for him, doctors would continue giving their "opinions" rather than factual information.
This is just one area where the truth has been told. H1N1 is too new to really know any factual info.
I guess it's completely another topic, but the record number of meds being prescribed for depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders, along with over-prescribing children, is part of the whole equation, also. How about Big Pharma advertising their drugs directly to the patient on TV!
I'm pro public health, but I'm also pro natural remedies before resorting to western medicine.
Joe Camel says... "EAT THE SUGAR CUBE KIDS!!! POLIO IS YUMMY"
I'm sorry you had a negative experience with your doctors. But I still don't believe that you can accurately make such blanket statements about healthcare professionals as a whole.
I also don't agree that we can't know any factual information about H1N1 yet. Of course there are limits to epidemiologic knowledge, but we still know what we know. We just need to be sure to ackowledge the limitations, and I think our public health organzations do. No one is making any end-all-be-all statements about this flu; they are only saying "Here's what we know based on the data we have collected so far." So far, the data shows that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks and there is not yet any idication to the contrary.
If you decide to hold out for more data before making your decision - or if you've already decided to never get vaccinated regardless of any medical data - that's fine. But I don't think it's fair to suggest that healthcare providers across the board are not to be trusted or that we have absolutely no factual information.
I think the fact that overprescription of other drugs is part of the eqation is part of the problem. If I want to know whether or not the benefits of a flu vaccine outweigh the risks, the prevalence of people on meds for depression is comletely irrelevant to that medical question. But people let their emotions about Big Pharma cloud their judgement.
I, too, am anti-Big Parma and even anti-anything that mixes profits with healthcare. I do see the conflict of interest there. That's why I ask my doctor, who I trust, about the risks and benefit of the flu shot instead of asking a drug rep, an insurance company, a politcian, or a TV commercial - and I also do my homework.
Also, I'm not some pro-vaccine sheep. Until today, I hadn't received a vaccination for anything in probably 20 years. And I am pro-natural remedies. But I also understand that vaccination (along with sanitation) has been the best thing for public health since... probably ever.
You are correct, and have been one of just a few with sound/balanced reasoning in this thread. Obviously the person you've been debating with has a personal bias, which is both sad and unfortunate....I too have friends who happen to be in the medical field, and guess what, they are not trying to kill me, my family or theirs..Of course, any logical person would rather take advice from their physicians instead of a message board, but that's not what we are dealing with here
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I'm very, very frightening
and I'll overdo it'
Well that settles it then! [/thread]
I hear ya! I got the seasonal flu shot today (partly inspired by this thread) and almost didn't go through with it. But I'm trying to be more responsible and do my part to promote public health, especially since I work with pregnant women. You still won't find me getting vaccinated for anything that's not communicable though. Although I can rationally acknowledge the benefits of vaccination, I'm still just too chicken-shit. :oops: