I do so agree with you. Another thing that would help would be at least *minimal* health checks for international travel *before* you board the plane. I've heard of airplanes on a transatlantic journey arriving with most of the passengers actively sick (the air recirculates so many times on a journey of that length that no one can be unexposed & this was a remarkably swift-acting virus--fortunately not a killer-- but it could have been.
Also it would help if the US didn't rely on other countries to produce vaccines. When ONE company in another country was shut down some years ago (because they violated heath standards, IIRC) it reduced the US flu vaccine supply to the point doctors were told to assess people requesting it, and only give it to those at high risk.
The pool of non-immunized people has grown to the point that 'herd immunity' is at risk.
It also doesn't help that we're not applying the immunizations intelligently - for instance one at a time rather than multiples at once. In my opinion the body really should only have to deal with those on a single-hit basis.
So both the anti-immunization and pro-immunization people are right in one form or another. :-(
Yet another reason I don't like the current vaccine regime. From what I can find on the web there were 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome after those vaccinations in '76 that never were truly explained.
I still can't believe that they use a live vaccine in some cases:
At least at the moment, the risk from the current swine flu seems to be vastly exaggerated in the public mind. All the reported cases outside of Mexico seem to be a rather mild illness, as flu strains go, and highly responsive to modern anti-virals like Tamiflu. (And who knows how things might have gone in previous flu epidemics if we'd had such drugs earlier?) And the latest I've heard regarding why the death rate in Mexico seems to be so high has to do with the way Mexican health authorities record and report deaths from disease. Meanwhile, I'm trying to stay away from people who just came back from Mexico
( ... )
Comments 6
Also it would help if the US didn't rely on other countries to produce vaccines. When ONE company in another country was shut down some years ago (because they violated heath standards, IIRC) it reduced the US flu vaccine supply to the point doctors were told to assess people requesting it, and only give it to those at high risk.
The pool of non-immunized people has grown to the point that 'herd immunity' is at risk.
Reply
So both the anti-immunization and pro-immunization people are right in one form or another. :-(
Reply
Reply
I still can't believe that they use a live vaccine in some cases:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/nasalspray.htm
It makes some sort of sense but for my money it's another chance for the virus to adapt to our immune systems and spread.
Or does it not work that way?
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment