It should come as no surprise to the readers of this blog that I have a certain love for sarcasm. I blame my maternal grandfather, who when he would give me a kiss would always follow it up with “…and I hope it makes you sick.” At first I just thought he was a dick, but then I learned about sarcasm.
Today on Effect Measure is a post by one of the Reveres that drips with delicious sarcasm, almost as if it had been marinating in said sarcasm all day, much like the delicious pulled pork slow cooked in Dr. Pepper my roommates surprised me with last night. The post is entitled Open Letter To The Pandemic Influenza Virus, and you’re going to need to look long and hard to find a more enjoyable read on this particular Wednesday.
Jim
I remember a cartoon from Bloom County or Outland a long time. Ronald Ann (pictured to the left, the adorable little scamp) was talking about how sometimes she felt frightened and scared at the sheer size of the earth, at the almost overwhelming nature of problems that were out there, and how small she felt in the face of it. And at those moments late at night when these fears would hit her, she would slip quietly downstairs and watch Morton Downey Jr. to see people even littler than herself. Right now I kind of feel like that, having just read this HuffPo article about how the World Health Organization obviously faked the Swine Flu.
Partly, though, I must admit that I’m impressed with my overall brilliance. Some time ago I wrote a post here comparing the Y2K bug and the Swine Flu, and I called this reaction. Still, as much as I saw it coming, I still have the capacity to be let down when the stupid folk bring my cynical prophecies to fruition.
The World Health Organization has released a rebuttal to this¬†which I think very clearly responds to the allegations, and there’s a great look on this by one of the Reveres over at Effect Measure. Still, being a prick with a blog, I felt the need to comment.
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Okay, so Science Based Medicine is on a roll today. In¬†an article by Joseph Albeitz entitled Can We Hide In The Herd, he gives a breakdown of what herd immunity is and how it works. Without properly understanding it, a lot of people are choosing not to immunize against a variety of diseases because they don’t kill anyone anymore, but the concept of herd immunity isn’t a get out of jail free card. One clear example of this is the story of Dana McCaffery, a four week old baby too young to be vaccinated against pertussis¬†(whooping cough). All newborns must rely on herd immunity, and an outbreak of whooping cough in her area brought about by the effective anti-vax campaigns in Australia resulted in her death.
Dr. Albeitz clears away some of the false ideas we have about herd immunity, and explains very effectively why it’s a good thing and why abusing it is dangerous not just to newborns and chemo patients, but to the unvaccinated on the whole.
Jim
I’m often left annoyed by the attitude people hold towards the concept of testing. This can refer to any number of scenarios of course, but in specific I’m talking today about the attitude I’ve seen a lot of lately around testing in medicine, and in it’s bitch-sister, the mighty borg that is alternative medicine.
Those who subscribe to the alt-med end of things are quick to dismiss things like vaccinations and medications as being “untested”, or not tested well enough to satisfy their fears. Of course, nothing gets through FDA approval without having been rigorously tested, so this argument seems ludicrous. Obviously if we are talking about an off-label use of a medicine or protocol then there’s some truth to be found, but this is generally not the case.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Being concerned that the things we put inside ourselves are safe is just good practice. And it’s a practice we’ve had instilled in us for ages, with programs like Mr. Yuk and those adorable Don’t You Put It In Your Mouthmuppet kids. I for one want to know that the medicines I’m getting are “safe”, or at least stand a reasonable chance of not causing me brutal side effects. But there is no magic. Nearly anything we take into our body can have a harmful reaction, and those things that do not have that reaction generally don’t have any curative powers either.
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This woman is seriously starting to piss me off. I won’t bother rambling about the lunacy of Desiree Jennings and her claims of dystonia, or her sudden and amazing woo-covery. Both Orac and Steven Novella have done a fabulous job of deconstructing her fantasy here and here. But I’d like to suggest you read both these explanations of her treatment, and the person responsible for it.
I post this because it’s important to me that my friends (and really, society as a whole) understand that this snake-oil is an insidious lie. I’m not saying that the believers don’t believe, but belief hardly makes truth. There are people who believe that we never landed on the moon. There are even people who believe a righteous and good father figure created everything there is, was, and ever shall be and infused within us through words written by barely literate savages a morality that only the father figure can shit all over.
And in case you want to know more about psychogenic illness and what it really is rather than the dismissive “it’s all in your head” answer, you can read Steven Novella’s excellent article on the topic.
Please, understand that this is a miraculous claim for a miraculous cure, and that miracles are never what they seem to be on the surface.
Jim
So here I sit on day three of feeling the effects of the swine flu. It started with a cough that was far too consistent to be ignored. Then congestion and muscle cramps hit, which is hardly a big deal. Today I add low grade fever and diarrhea to the list. And no, I did not get the vaccine.
I would have, though. The vaccine was released here in Calgary a while before I became symptomatic and it occurred to me that I should go get it, but the altruist in me decided to hold off until those more needy received it. Then there was the threat of not having enough vaccine, and then I developed my symptoms. It was the right decision and despite the gross feelingI’m enjoying right now, I’m glad I didn’t try to get it earlier. I’m sick, but I’m still an altruistic bastard.
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There’s a lot of really important talk about vaccines these days, people questioning the pros and cons of using advanced medical knowledge to get rid of diseases that we don’t need to get. Sitting here in my house suffering the coughing and congestion that I am assuming to be swine flu, I know why some people might want to avoid this disease. But are we kidding ourselves?
Shouldn’t people just accept illness as a part of Jesus’s plan for them? Our lives are written in His Father’s book before we even begin them, so aren’t we trying to Cliff Notes out the bad parts? Certainly, with an argument that cogent, I think it makes sense to assume that vaccines are works of not the good lord, but his dark and evil enemy who I will not name here for fear that Satan would then have access to hurt me. Of course he’s an avid blog-reader.
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We’ve all seen the video of the Cheerleader girl who developed dystonia right after getting her seasonal flu vaccine, and we’ve seen the headlines glaring out at us telling us that you’ll get this disease if you get the H1N1 swine flue pandemic vaccination. Well, like all stories there are two sides, and Steven Novella does a fantastic job of expressing the other side of the coin.
There’ s a media machine chugging out misinformation about the topic, so hopefully more people will pass this on and share the other side. I would love to see this argument stopped in it’s tracks by smart people with facts. The threat to public health in spreading the misinformation is great.
Jim
My son Jake is in the hospital with what appears to be H1N1 Swine Flu. He has brittle asthma and it’s kicking the shit out of him right now, though he’s doing better than it could be, and his oxygen sats are nice and high. They’re also testing him for MRSA, though my understanding is that’s pretty much not a concern. He was not vaccinated, because the vaccine was not available before he became symptomatic.
I do not want your prayers, just your understanding. The vaccine, had he been able to get it, would have kept this cute little bugger out of the hospitals and back in his school. I only wish he had been able to get it. For those of you who have children, don’t make the mistake of doubting good science.
Jim
My buddy Steve sent me this beautiful article knowing my stance on the vaccination issue. I felt absolutely compelled to pass it on. This argument often is portrayed as the Pharmaceutical Industry versus the rights of my baby. That is a watering down of the actual argument, which is the good of society versus the rights of the mother, and at least in my opinion, it’s the rights of the mother to endanger her child through her own narrow ignorance.
This article, however, is about a little boy who has leukemia, and how the unvaccinated children directly impact his life. It’s well written and passionate, and it highlights other sides of the argument often unconsidered. Your child has the right to have whooping cough, but what about this child? Why does your child have the right to threaten the life of another? Because that’s what your ignorance and arrogance are doing. Rubella or Measles may not be (in your opinion) a big threat to your child, but what about the children they encounter who it is a significant threat to?
Jim
