PatsFanInVa

Let's talk seriously here.

We have a much more virulent flu this season. It's not the black death, but it's a bit more than the usual seasonal flu.

Whereas there are usually 36,000 deaths per season in the US from flu, the CDC thinks the top end for this year's bug is 90,000.

Now then: come October, if you haven't caught it already, there will be flu shots available.

I have not seen political screeds against the seasonal flu shot before. But now there's H1N1, and Obama's the president, so by the transitive principal of conservative paranoia, there's a movement to not get the shot for the H1N1 flu.

Statistically:

- Lazy-azz people like me, who usually skip the flu shot, will probably go get these, if there is enough hype to the effect that this one's worth the trouble;

- My parallel on the right wing will not get the shot, because of the usual irrational fears and fairy tale objections;

- Responsible types on the left will get these shots;

- The same types on the right will disproportionately not get the shots;

- Epidemiologically, we will have a greater society-wide outbreak than we would have if each citizen got their 3 shots.

Politically:

- The worse the outbreak, the more the ranks of the bitter paranoids on the right will be disproportionately depleted.

Of course this most likely will not be enough of an impact on the voting age population for the right to end up screwing themselves in any future election. But it's interesting that the infantile paranoia has jumped the shark into infantile schizophrenia, where the alternate reality is actually beginning to engender mass movements toward suicidal risk-taking (as opposed to the "worse evil" of accepting that you get your flu shot to avoid getting the flu.)

Thoughts, or whatever passes for same?

(One-starring the thread is not a "thought." Just a PSA.)

PFnV

Fogbuster

Huh. Kinda reminds of all those "bare-back" riders we hear about all the time (craigslist, et. al.) ....... after they've passed along the CERTAIN death sentence (stay of execution via VERY expensive drugs, for all the privileged monied types among them) of HIV/AIDS.

Strange world we live in.

Gotta change, I tell ya. Gotta change.


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__________________
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

alvinnf

They rushed this vaccine, so I would wonder if it would be dangerous to give it to the elderly and very young children. Everyone will have to make a personal choice on this one. Having two children the ages of 5 and 6 I can tell you that they will not be given this vaccine. However, we are definately keeping a very close eye on both of our kids.

As far as the rest of your generalizations and stereotypes about how people divided by party lines will react. Labels are for cans, don't cha know!

Fogbuster

Deerfield!!! Great trees in Deerfield. Love 'em.



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__________________
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

Patsfanin Philly

I don't view it as a right-left thing but rather as the 'canary in the coal mine'. Do you want to be the beta-tester for a new vaccine with unknown risks and side effects? Until there is large scale mass vaccinations there may not be evidence of problems.
Do a google search for bisphophonates, those are the bone sparring drugs used by 20 million post-menopausal women to prevent bone fractures. After several years of use suddenly there were reports of nearly untreatable jaw problems with necrosis (bone death) of the jaw and unbearable pain. It was in a small percentage and didn't show up until later. It may be a small percentage that develop it but now women can make an informed decision before deciding to go on these medications. Unfortunately because the flu changes every year, they make a new vaccine. Will there be side effects like the 1975 swine flu vaccine with more deaths from the vaccine than the flu???(see links below)
It's not a matter of distrusting Big Pharma or the gov't, it's the matter of an untested product and a natural aversion....

CDC - Influenza (Flu) | Q & A: Guillain-Barr Syndrome (GBS)

Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Mail Online

“It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:

• More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
• 500 cases of GBS were detected.
• The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
• The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
• The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

Read more: Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Mail Online

Harry Boy

Swine Flu Shots, not for me..............

Regular Flu Shots, been taking them for five years........

When it comes to health related matters I don't want any advice from scumbag politicians.

__________________
Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

Fogbuster

But, Harry, as Jim Wright once said: "(They) only want to help yew!"



(...... just before he got bounced from being Speaker of the House for a phony book deal. )



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__________________
"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing."

sdaniels7114

__________________
Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob everyone.

DarrylS

This is one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't.. not quite sure what to do, on one hand am in a vulnerable group ( age and some lung issues) raising a high school student, who are the most vulnerable.. otoh have a tendency to react to any type of shot...

If I were to guess, probably not going to get the shot... but you never know, sure there will be some who will try to talk me into it.. it is not so much a political issue as it is a life issue.

__________________
"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

PatsFanInVa

An interesting mix of responses.

Labels are indeed for cans, and I am humbled by the reminder.

I do think that across the political spectrum, these facts pertain, as to the reactions thus far voiced:

The concerns -- many repeated here -- about the vaccine, are being taken much more seriously and voiced nearly exclusively by those speaking from a right-wing, anti-Obama point of view, rather than than those speaking from a left-wing, pro- or left-of-Obama point of view.

Two mass reactions are possible:

1) The reaction that one is not one's "label," and the facts of the matter will dictate one's own response to this year's pandemic; or

2) The reaction of behaving in line with one's rhetoric, and simultaneously denying that one is doing so.

Of course, "anti-flu-shot" rhetoric may be appropriate only this year, only to this flu, for various reasons. In that case, there will be no epidemiological downside to opting out.

And if you're wrong, you put your community and family in danger.

So it really depends on whether we believe vaccines should be administered (or as one poster here contends, whether this vaccine should be administered.)

The assertion that this vaccine was rushed would be borne out more persuasively, were it available throughout the U.S. now. It is not; there will be a reduction in the general efficacy due to having the vaccine available in October rather than immediately; clearly, that means that at least one degree of "rushing" was not indulged. However, there is also the argument that whenever the vaccine becomes available, it must have been rushed, because January (inauguration) to October (vaccine availability,) is less than a year.

One must somehow square this observation with the fact that each year's seasonal flu virus is a new one to deal with the projected and observed mutations of that year's flu, however.

The vaccine methodology is the same as for the seasonal flu; the difference in the H1N1 flu is that it is different enough that our natural immunities are far lower than for the traditional seasonal flu variants we see each year.

So, if you usually get your seasonal flu shot, you are getting a shot that is "rushed," because it must be reformulated every year.

General FYI info, guys. I have no doubt that in October, the talking point will be how terrible the administration was to not have more of the vaccine made earlier. But consistency over time is not a hallmark of the idealogical debates we've seen in the last few years (nor do I expect to encounter it at that time.)

PFnV