Another village is missing its idiot

[Monkeyleg]

This letter to the editor from today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel makes my head hurt. Please tell me this guy doesn't procreate.

FLU VACCINE

Guns and vaccine

Wouldn't the public be better served if the government bought one less aircraft carrier and used the funds to build facilities whose mission would be to ensure that the nation will always have an adequate supply of vaccine when confronted by the next pandemic? Which expenditure would better serve and protect the nation?

Peter D______
Wauwatosa

[charby]

Well if that DB would do some homework he'd realized that there are already governmental agencies that already do that.

[brimic]

Most of the letters in the Urinal Sentinel are good for entertainment value but aren't written by intelligent people. I've read some good ones by that Dick Baker guy though

[Perd Hapley]

Oh.  I thought you brought tidings of another czar. 

[Standing Wolf]

Please tell me this guy doesn't procreate.

Well, yeah, but he's begotten only six or eight of them so far, so it's not a massive social problem.

[Sergeant Bob]

Most of the letters in the Urinal Sentinel are good for entertainment value but aren't written by intelligent people. I've read some good ones by that Dick Baker guy though

You gettin' a discount? 

[lupinus]

Perhaps I'm off base here as I am not a doctor and did not stay at a holiday inn express last night, but the H1N1 virus is pretty much useless in my estimation.

To become the big killer everyone fears it would have to mutate alla 1918, starts easy the latter part of winter/spring and the next fall mutates into a pandemic killer.  You need a new flu shot every year because the one from last year will not protect against mutated or newer strains of the flu virus.  So if to become the killer people fear the virus has to mutate, I see limited benefit.

[MechAg94]

I remember back in the Clinton years there was an issue of liability for vaccine manufacturers that affected the number of people making them and then later I believe they set up a govt group to handle purchasing of vaccines.  I don't remember the exact outcome of those issues.  Anyone remember any details of that?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/mics7.htm

[MechAg94]

That is what I was thinking of.  They basically took vaccines out of the free market and put them on the socialist plan and now we have problems.

[seeker_two]

That is what I was thinking of.  They basically took vaccines out of the free market and put them on the socialist plan and now we have problems.

...and it seems that the "red states" are getting far less of the vaccines than the "blue states" are...... 

[Physics]

Perhaps I'm off base here as I am not a doctor and did not stay at a holiday inn express last night, but the H1N1 virus is pretty much useless in my estimation.

To become the big killer everyone fears it would have to mutate alla 1918, starts easy the latter part of winter/spring and the next fall mutates into a pandemic killer.  You need a new flu shot every year because the one from last year will not protect against mutated or newer strains of the flu virus.  So if to become the killer people fear the virus has to mutate, I see limited benefit.

This was my impression as well.  What the hell is the point in me getting a vaccine for a flu that has a lower mortality rate than that of seasonal flu?  If I get the vaccine, I run risks of side effects and complications from taking the vaccine and I'm "protected" from a virus that has shown itself to be not very lethal.  If it then mutates into something really lethal the vaccine that "saved me" would do nothing whatsoever to help me from the new, deadly virus.

I am also a bit curious as to why the WHO changed the definition of pandemic from:

An influenza pandemic
An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity, resulting in several, simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness. With the increase in global transport and communications, as well as urbanization and overcrowded conditions, epidemics due the new influenza virus are likely to quickly take hold around the world.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070106054534rn_1/www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic/en/
To:

What is an influenza pandemic?
A disease epidemic occurs when there are more cases of that disease than normal. A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic of a disease. An influenza pandemic may occur when a new influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity. With the increase in global transport, as well as urbanization and overcrowded conditions in some areas, epidemics due to a new influenza virus are likely to take hold around the world, and become a pandemic faster than before. WHO has defined the phases of a pandemic to provide a global framework to aid countries in pandemic preparedness and response planning. Pandemics can be either mild or severe in the illness and death they cause, and the severity of a pandemic can change over the course of that pandemic.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic/en/

Who cares about a widespread influenza that doesn't kill anyone? 

[makattak]

Who cares about a widespread influenza that doesn't kill anyone? 

Those that can use it for political power and profit?

Otherwise, I, too, am at a loss for why we should care about the swine flu.

[Waitone]

Was it '73 that we had the last swine flu outbreak?  My recollection of the numbers is a bit fuzzy but I seem to remember the swine flu killed something like 5 people but the vaccine killed 500.  Back then it was a convenient crisis used then as now to make the case for nationalized healthcare. 

Nothing new here, people.  Move along.

[lupinus]

...and it seems that the "red states" are getting far less of the vaccines than the "blue states" are...... 

Heh, try being involved with the actual distribution.