As I type this, BILLIONS are being spent on buying up…….err, BILLIONS of Flu vaccinations in the hope that they will make us all feel like our respective governments love us very much, and are doing something to protect us from the horror that is H1N1. The horrific virus that has so far claimed the lives of about 1500 people worldwide, and made countless others take days off work. I’m not trying to make light of these deaths, my sisters have both contracted and beaten the virus, I’m just amazed at how quickly this huge mobilization to buy up vaccinations has occured. Flu vaccines in the past have made very little impact to the spread of the virus, and have certainly done less to contain it than hand washing and common sense has.
It just feels like WHO and the world have been itching for a pandemic for ages, and now they’ve got their wish. Now all these agencies look very important as they race to save us from the nasty germs. First it was SARS, then Avian Flu. Sadly, these two failed to play ball and quietly whimpered away. Step in H1N1……. Piggy Flu. A much needed distraction from the worst economic climate in a century, and a much needed shot in the arm (Pun not only intended, but I actually high-fived myself) for the drugs companies that normally don’t make much money from seasonal Flu vaccines.
How many people die each year from smoking related illnesses?
Or dirty water?
Or guns?
Yet on the (sad and untimely) deaths of a few thousand people, the world is throwing billions away on vaccines that have NO proven worth against a virus that so far has killed less than ordinary influenza kills each year. This virus just appears to have a better press agent than the ordinary Flu. Call me cynical, but unless the governments know something that we don’t about this virus, then it just smacks of them doing something for the sake of it. Yes, the virus could still mutate and become deadlier than it has been. But guess what? Nearly every virus mutates, some get stronger, some get weaker, yet we seem to have picked this one as the biggie because it likes cheap air fares and people that are too busy to wash their hands after they tinkle.
I have no idea what I am trying to say? And I’m not a doctor (although for all you know, I am), I’m just fed up of being told ‘Don’t panic! We’ve got the vaccines on back-order! Now can you stay alive until next June?’
I don’t mind them doing things to protect us, that’s what they’re supposed to do, I just think that, sadly, the vaccines will do little but reassure us that everyone is doing everything that can be done to keep us safe. If that is the intention, then maybe the billions are being well spent?
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