Comments on Billy Rubin's Blog: Effects of the Anti-Vaccine Campaign

Leave it to the limeys. Okay, where to start, ano...

2009-07-14T10:13:17.258-04:00

Leave it to the limeys.

Okay, where to start, anonymous? First, I work pretty hard at writing my own thoughts and not simply repeating someone else's blather; I humbly ask the same of my readers when they comment, because Cut & Paste doesn't impress me a great deal.

The letter you quote from "Jennie p" is your typical viral internet nonsense, and although I cannot tell whether or not it is a hoax, it certainly has features in common with a hoax, such as personal stories that can't be verified, a "pass this on" imperative so that people may save their lives, and a fuzzy-at-best logic that's rich on scare tactics and low on reasoning.

That said, "Jennie p" does include a link to a Toronto Sun article about the contamination of an experimental vaccine produced by Baxter International, a corporation based in Illinois though the contamination occurred in plants in Europe. The vaccine was supposed to have components of the H3N2 strain (which is a common human strain) and the H5N1 strain (this is the Avian Influenza strain), which it did, but the H5N1 component was apparently a live virus (it should have been either dead or "attenuated," but was not). A few lab ferrets died, though the vaccine was not given to humans. I can't say I find the whole episode terribly reassuring, and insofar as that I share Jennie p's and Anonymous's concerns.

However, fear induces a scattered mind, and poor Anonymous is all over the place. The experimental AVIAN flu vaccine (H5N1) is not the same as this year's SWINE flu, or the vaccine they are working on for it. Just because there have been some serious errors in the production of one vaccine has nothing to do with the other. Alas, Jennie p's letter discusses avian flu, and Anonymous has grafted that onto the current swine flu scare. Anon. may wish to take his or her chances with the virus; for my part, while I consider the risk of dying from avian flu pretty low, I strongly encourage everyone to have seasonal influenza shots, and the current "swine flu" is just a new variant of the H1N1 strain that humans see year-in-year-out. Recall--in the US, 40,000 people each year die from flu, and that's just an average year. We don't know if the new strain's going to be more dangerous, but even if not, it still is likely to kill at least this many.

Just got this email from a friend in cardif This m...

2009-07-14T05:38:18.775-04:00

Just got this email from a friend in cardif
This may be cobblers . . . but better safe than sorry..

Pass on to anyone who may be offered a swine flu jab

>>>--------------------------------------
>Hi everyone!

>Anyone that knows me well will know that I don't believe in much. I don't believe in ghosts or all that, and if I get one of those "Pass this email on to 50 million people and you will be rich, if you don't you will die etc etc" emails, I just delete them. I want you all to pass this email on to as many people as you know, its not a chain email, but pass it on all the same.

>Right then, I got home from work last night and went round to my best mates. The first words his mum said to me even before she said hello was "don't get the swine flu Jab".

>She explained to me that a woman from her work was in Birmingham on saturday afternoon, and she was in one of those cash and carry warehouses where you can buy cheap stuff, and anyway, there was an guy in a white lab coat in front of her who was struggling to get enough money together to pay for everything in his basket, so she gave him a pound coin so he could pay the 68p or whatever he owed.

>When she left the shop he was waiting for her outside. He asked her for her name and address and said that he would give her the money back, but she told him not to worry about it. He then said "Ok, you have done me a good turn today so I shall do you one back, dont get the Baxter Flu shot when it comes out"

>She didn't take much notice of him, but like me, the more she thought about it, the more she worried, so she looked Baxter up on google ( http://tinyurl.com/9f5v5y ) and found that they are being investigated on biowepon charges after sending Deadly birdflu conatminated vaccines to europe.
>they were only found out after a lab Ferret died. really scarry stuff.

>So, i'm just warning you, if you or offered the experimental flu vaccine be very carful,
wasn't going to send this because I didn't want to worry people/look stupid when nothing happened , but I thought that if I didn't say anything and something happened then I would never forgive myself, so its worth the risk of looking a bit daft.

>Please pass this on to anyone you think might be offered an experimental jab.

>Jennie p