Frankly, I don't know which lurker (there must be several of them!) set his twisted mind on launching an umpteenth conspiracy theory about the H1N1 Influenza A, but he's a first-grade sicko.
And thanks to the internet and the worldwide worried mood of the past year, this outlandish garbage was so efficiently relayed, that even a good number of smart people ended up believing in these half-truths and blatant nonsense. Including a large proportion of Doctor colleagues!
So, even though I prefer not to brag by talking about my talented self on my blog, it is time to say it: I am a Doctor, and I'm outraged by these criminal manipulations. Some mentally ill persons are having fun conning people's lack of precise knowledge in order to give themselves the lame feeling of having power and control over the world and "all those fools in it". So it's high time I listed some essential truths, because lives are at stake:
- Vaccination has been around since Jenner and Louis Pasteur (1879). Its principles have been tried and verified for a good 130-something years. Same cannot be said about your cellphone, and yet, I bet very few of you really fear it. (As a matter of fact, you're globally right: cellphones are not that much of a scare cause.)
The dangers of ignorant panic, on the other hand, have been well known for tens of thousands of years, when the Moloch and other fearsome or thundering idols were invented to send the masses to the slaughter of wars.
- Influenza is caused by a particular species of viruses. The same way humans are a particular species, not of mammals, but of vertebrates. This gives you a picture of how specific the thing is.
Every year, new varieties of flu viruses ("races", if you wish) emerge from the bunch, their predominance over the others, in the "stand" made by their targets, being ensured by the novelty of their mutations among the many possibilities of their genes. H1 and N1 are the denominations of two of these possibilities.
Any way the flu changes each year, it's still the same species of critter. To make a comparison, a Saudi or Irish or Pakistani or American Evangelic terrorist, is still basically a human, they always fuck up the same way, you still kill them (or imprison them) the same way. Nothing like a man-eating tiger or a pack of wild dogs, for whom fingerprinting and visa checking in the airports are of no use.
- So, the flu vaccine is, at once, always the same thing, and never the same thing.
It is always a vaccine designed, and tested ages ago, to thwart a flu virus (actually, 2 to 5 gathered strands, generally). Always made the same way.
It's never the same strands, because every year new "terrorist cells" emerge, after the certain but more or less costly victory over the previous rabid murderers.
- Influenza A, inappropriately dubbed "swine flu", is a bit like 9/11: a change in the details which breaks from our habits and causes greater damage. Again that tactical advantage of novelty. This new brood of flu scoundrels spreads efficiently in fair weather, and its mortality doesn't always target the usual victims (Iraqi christians, Danish cartoonists, American Embassy staff, reporters, women...)
The principle of the vaccine against this new "fad" remains exactly the same. You prepare it just the same way, it should be just as efficient, it's no more dangerous or less protective than any other seasonal flu vaccine.
There's just this small problem, with the unorthodox timing of these new bombers (normally, they let loose during the month of Ramadan), that reaction was demanded in an emergency setting, instead of having a well-prepared agenda. Selecting antigens for the vaccine, clinically testing its immunizing efficiency, making sure its significant side effects are very rare... all these steps that occur every year with the seasonal flu vaccine had to be speeded up, confronted with the truly serious threat of an impromptu pandemic.
Because the Flu still kills. Be it type A or Z or Lambda or Yôd or Qâf, not everybody is certain to heal from it. This is why we need to get vaccinated every year. To save thousands of lives with an almost embarrassingly simple gesture.
Oh, sure, ONE BATCH of vaccines, in Canada, turned out to be inadequately prepared because of this need to hurry, which facilitates Headquarters mistakes. It's like asserting, after an ambulance accident, that "these vehicles kill, they ought to be suppressed". Don't shoot the ambulance! (Or the pianist, either, it was hard enough finding one who would work in THIS saloon.)
- As for the polemic over adjuvants, I give you my professional word it's purely academic in reality. If they were seriously harmful the way they are being used, we'd know about it decades ago. Leave us, the qualified pros, check whether it's possible to ensure their efficiency and innocuousness even better. If the MASSIVELY POSITIVE ratio between the dangers of Flu and the exceptional risks from the vaccine, may not be further improved, in the neverending quest of Science towards a perfect world.
Meanwhile, one thing's for sure: catching the Influenza A is significantly dangerous. Plus, this danger seems rather unpredictable. My latest data, from the buzz among colleagues, suggest that besides the usual risk categories, young people aged 34 and below are most affected, and much less after that point.
Probably because elements of this genetic variant may have circulated worldwide around the late Sixties.
Another thing is equally certain: a properly prepared Influenza A vaccine will protect you AT LEAST 10,000 times more from the risks of falling sick than it will create risks. Maybe even 100,000 times.
Car seatbelts also have their downsides. Sometimes, they CAUSE injuries. Sometimes. But VERY VERY OFTEN, they mostly save lives. I know firsthand. The choice is clear.
Know that I'm waging my Doctor's reputation on this recommendation: GET YOURSELVES VACCINATED.
I heard talk about "mutations of the virus". Yeah, yeah... IF EVER you encounter some, maybe the vaccine will protect you less than planned. But it'll still be useful to you. Be it complete or just partial immunity, in any case, if you still do get sick, thanks to the vaccine it will be less severely. Which can mean the difference between life and death.
FYI, I myself almost always have some side effects from vaccines: local pain for a week, swelling, and some fever. But I'm glad to have my vaccine. Because the only year when I was prevented from having it (it sold out in Lebanon), I had a full month's time to bitterly regret it! Sick as a homeless (doghouseless?) canine.
This season, I already took my seasonal flu shot as soon as it was available. So far, so good. :-) And for Influenza A, I'll also take it as soon as I can. And then I'll inform you in this here post, I promise.
Speaking of the "swine flu", which turns out that the only pigs suffering from it had been contaminated by humans, there's news from Egypt. Where, as you recall, the inept Government ordered the eradication of suidae in a transparent bid to please their national islamists. (As you can guess, this last part failed brilliantly!) A complete genocide, I mean, sui-cide.
But guess what? No good deed goes unrewarded. These rustic beasts, sole meat source of the underprivileged and malnourished Christian, used to feed themselves, like big boys, on the organic refuse of Cairo's monumental garbage dumps. Pigs aren't picky critters, they eat almost anything! Including snakes, after softening them up (it's a tough dish) by meticulously trampling them, be they poisonous or not. Rats, too; rats are edible (what do you think the snakes eat, huh?). Fruits and vegetables unconsumable to a primate, peels, binned leftover dishes... lots of organic stuff, converted into future ham. But now that all of this is halalishly over, what do you think is happening?
Well, considering that Cairo's sanitation employees are a lot less efficient at cleaning (they're not paid by the mouthful...), the fine capital city has turned, forgive my saying so, into a genuine pig-sty! (Makes you wonder sometimes who the real pigs are.) Flies and other vermins are swarming in the pestilent stench of the decaying refuse, which no helpful animal recycles into useful proteins no more. Smells, diseases... Allah got his message through loud and clear. Egyptian Plagues for the suicides! (Etymologically: the "swine killers". Check by yourselves if you don't believe me!!!)
Frankly, I don't like Egypt. Politics today have made that country highly unappealing.
Visit Lebanon instead, I'm serious! We've got historical beauties less "in your face" than the Pyramids, but in the end they're a prettier sight. Over here, you'll be assured of a good welcome. If we know each other, I can give you plenty of good tips. To get kidnapped HERE, one needs to really be asking for it, and deliberately go into the hickest holes in spite of the warnings from everybody you'll encounter (for the Lebanese man has a sense of hospitality and takes good care of his guests). Our tribal zones, in this country, are measured in acres, even in Corsica there's more of 'em, by golly! As for bombings that target tourists... there's about as much of them as morality in a politician's heart.
But IYP, be well-mannered, and do get your shots before you come over. Thank you in advance, my friends. :-)
[Hunh, whaddayaknow. I've barely put this post online, and with just the French text, and already Google's automatic advertising offers me to "Stop swine flu infections". Yes, yes, I know. I *AM* going to get vaccinated, man, ease up already! Oink-oink!]
Tha-tha-tha-tha... that's all, folks!
Hong Kong Fluey, parodic cartoon about the SARS "asian flu".
