Sunday, August 23, 2009

Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste

And if you don't have one available, make one up.

Like the swine flu. H1N1. By most accounts no more dangerous than your average garden variety annual flu. And how much have we really heard about it lately?

Until now.

The Washington Post states:

WASHINGTON - Government health officials are mobilizing to launch a massive
swine flu vaccination campaign this fall that is unprecedented in its scope — and in the potential for complications.

The campaign aims to vaccinate at least half the country's population within months. Although more people have been inoculated against diseases such as smallpox and polio over a period of years, the United States has never tried to immunize so many so quickly.

But even as scientists rush to test the vaccine to ensure it is safe and effective, the campaign is lagging. Officials say only about a third as much vaccine as they had been expecting by mid-October is likely to arrive by then, when a new wave of infections could be peaking. . .

. . .Among the unknowns: how many shots people will need, what the correct dosage should be, and how to avoid confusing the public with an overlapping effort to combat the regular seasonal flu. . .

. . ."This is potentially the largest mass-vaccination program in human history," said Howard Markel, a professor of medical history at the University of Michigan who is advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it spearheads the effort. .
.

. . .As schools reopen, the number of cases could jump sharply within weeks, sparking a second wave potentially far larger than the outbreak last spring. Although the swine flu appears no more dangerous than the typical seasonal flu, the new virus — known as H1N1 — is likely to infect many more people because most have no immunity against it. . .

. . ."This is an overreaction," said Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center, which opposes many vaccine policies. "There is no national security threat here. Why are we operating like this? This is not polio. This is not smallpox."

Peaking in October. School kids are going to spread it. But the government is going to take care of you. Sure are. Just as soon as they can figure out if it's safe. What the dose should be. Who should get it.

Hmm. And it comes out now just when support for Obamacare is going around the bowl and down the hole. Convenient.

"Hey look" will Rahmadan say "Obamacare will work! Look how the government saved so many lives by giving flu shots! Trust us!"

This is not the Spanish Flu of 1918, but the analogies will be made. Got to make those Tamiflu sales. Got to make the Fed look good. Scare the bejesus out of the public. The government will take care of you.

Well, it scares me. Gives me very little confidence that the government wants to rush a massive innoculation campaign when they don't even know the correct dosage yet. Or the side effects. Or if it's even needed. Makes one want to rush right out and support Obamacare, doesn't it?

Why all the rushing from the current crop of pissants and nitwits in D.C.? Uncle Barry needs to learn to enjoy life. Maybe he should sit back, relax, and have a beer.

13 comments:

midnight rider said...

Thank you, kind sir.

Epaminondas said...

FYI and also here

Caveat ..Dr. Blaylock also thinks aspartame is poison (It probably is to a few people ...but the federal govt is not paying for its distribution and pushing its use) ..but Dr. Blaylock also appears on the Alex Jones show. A sure sign of warning.

I would simply watch carefully for signs of a rush to the vaccine ignoring or minimizing side effects.

revereridesagain said...

This situation has brought the conspiracy theorists out in force. However, this time it's not that surprising, because the manufactured hype over the swine flu is bizarre. It is actually less virulent than the usual flu we get every year. This isn't even close to what the polio epidemic was like, never mind 1918. It's probably not over the line to suspect that somebody is taking "never let a good crisis go to waste" to heart with this thing.

Epaminondas said...

I have no doubt that there are many people who look to this as a moment to prove the govt can be your friend and do good, and believe that they are doing good by pushing such a process.

The USA has, despite the hype, a well developed medical system, a well nourished and generally healthy, if overweight population, and is not in danger of losing much besides man-work days.

I see no real greater danger from this flu than any other flu - to this population

Anonymous said...

And it's not like we had an almost identical manufactured crisis with the Swine Flu and a hurried vaccine that was much more dangerous than the H1N1 virus in the '70's - oh, wait. . .


Ro

Pastorius said...

I certainly do not pretend to understand immunology or medicine in general, but as I understand it, there is some basis for worry about H1N1, in that it is a type of flu which, having come from Pigs, we have no built-up immunities to.

And, in fact, as I understand it, the 1918 flue came around in 1917, many people had it, and then it mutated into an even more potent form over the course of the following year.

That being said, it would seem that the fact that many are already getting it, and not dying, would mean that we would build some sort of immunological resistance to it.

And, I agree with Epa, we have very healthy and well-taken care of people here in the U.S.

I don't spend my time worrying about it.

I guess the best that can be said here is Obama is out to prove once again that government is our friend and ought always be there to help out with any problelm, which is a thoroughly unAmerican idea.

nunya said...

We've built up no immunities to this flu because it was manufactured, like all animal flues which infect people. That's why it brings out conspiracy theorists: because it's necessarily a conspiracy.

I want to catch it soon and avoid the immunization. If anyone wants to come over and cough on me, please do.

Pastorius said...

Jdamn,
What do you mean it was necessarily manufactured? Do you have specialized knowledge in this field, or did you read that somewhere?

Either way, please provide links because I have never heard or read any such thing.

Anonymous said...

Uh, yes we have built up immunities to this. I had it in the 70's - as did lots of other people. That is one reason they are not putting otherwise healthy adults over 27 in the high-priority group for vaccines.

They think many of us were exposed to some degree to the last round of H1N1, which is also the reason that they think it has been harder on people under 27.

Swine and bird flus that mutate and cross over to humans have been know about for years.

The conditions in the west are so different than they were in 1917 / 1918, that I cannot understand why people keep going back there for a model.


The Hong Kong flu of the late 50's and the Russian (Swine Flu) of the 70's are better predictors, I would think.

RRA and others have observed that scientists and public health folks think that the 1917-18 mortality / morbidity was likely related to a "SARS"-type pneumonia that was an opportunistic result of the flu.

RRA also pointed out that our abilities to deal with pneumonias and SARS-type illnesses are light-years ahead of what they were in the early 20th century.

This government vagueness and panic-inducing is really freaking annoying.

Wash your hands at least five times a day. Clean doorknobs and computer keyboards.

nunya said...

It's simple pathology. Animal viruses simply do not have the ability to infect people. They can mutate into something that can infect people, and then into something that can be passed easily from person to person, but that, dear, is accomplished artificially in a lab.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/04/27/virus-mutate.html

"More than 100 people have died in Mexico as a result of an outbreak of swine flu, a strain of the influenza virus that normally targets pigs but has occasionally mutated enough to infect and spread in humans."

"Viruses spread from one animal to another through close contact, in whatever manner it normally spreads, such as coughing or sneezing in the case of a respiratory virus. Normally, these infections have no impact on the new host since they were not built to infect them. But when one host is infected by two or more strains of a virus like influenza, new combinations can result."

That doesn't just happen on its own. That's accomplished in a lab.

Watch this video of Dr. Nancy Cox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDxJgJRqPng (fast-forward to 5:00)

Or read what NIN says ( http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=2745 ):

"Although there is indeed a swine component in this current virus, it is inappropriately named as this incarnation is actually composed of a combination of at least two separate swine flu types, one avian and one human type. It is a recombinant virus that is sufficiently rare enough to legitimately question whether the virus occurred naturally, or was perhaps created or otherwise subjected to some form of genetic engineering or manipulation at some level."

and don't take their poison, either:

"All drugs have known side effects, but Tamiflu seems to be a cut above. It is manufactured in part with cyclohexane, which just happens to be one of the main ingredients in PCP (also known as “angel dust”). It is reported that Tamiflu can cause suicidal tendencies and irrational behavior."

"Better yet is that the US government is looking to companies like Baxter International for the vaccine for this flu. Baxter made headlines as the company that “accidentally” contaminated flu vaccines with the bird flu virus and shipped the vaccines around the world."

I'll stop there. For the record, I'm no NWO freak, more of an X-Files geek than anything, but I don't trust this administration, and I know that labs all over the world are working on biological weapons. I don't know that there's any huge agenda here. It could be a simple accident by a government lab somewhere or a 'brilliant' Al-Qaeda biological weapons specialist who thinks that the earth is flat. But I'm pretty sure this thing is man-made.

Anonymous said...

Well, in my microbiology class we learned that mutated animal viruses have been infecting human beings for years, and it has been known about long before the technology existed to create the viruses.

Some human viruses infect animals, too, but not as frequently, I don't think. (I will look it up.)

Viruses are just strands of RNA; they mutate all the time.

Most of the time to no particularly ill effect.

I had H1N1, and although I am not particularly attractive, I am not a piggy. (oh, ok, I may resemble one at the buffet line once in a while.)

Anonymous said...

Ah - yes, remember the story of the smallpox vaccine? People who got cowpox from cows were observed to be much more resistant to smallpox. Jenner worked on a live vaccine for smallpox based on that observation.

That was way before anyone was "manufacturing" viruses.

Ro

Pastorius said...

Jdamn,
I think you are wrong on your comment.

I'm going to ask people who know more on the subject than I.

Ro, obviously, also thinks you are wrong.

I don't enjoy pointing out that you are wrong, but that's a dangerous piece of disinformation to spread, on the level of the idea that 9/11 was in inside job.