I certainly can't attest to the way that H1N1 is being shilled around the world. I've only been subject to some of the Canadian PR and some of the American PR. And after watching the ongoings for the past few months is... WOW!
We have finally reached the point of the ridiculous. Provincial, State and Federal Medical Officers are scrambling to justify the ridiculous amount of paranoia they've inspired in a populace that is driven by cable news and microblogs. As of this writing "more than 1000 people have died from the H1N1" in the United States. This is since the spring. From April to November (half a year), 1000 deaths in a country of 350 million.
In the same period of time, in the US, over 17,000 people die annually of Septicemia, 22,000 of Nephritis, 60,000 by accident, and 28,000 die of the regular flu. The first wave of H1N1 in Canada, Spring and Summer 2009, resulted in 13 deaths. 13 deaths in a country of 33 million people constitutes a "wave". The Canadian government could pull troops out of Afghanistan and avoid 13 Canadian deaths over the next few months. Instead MY government paid 400 million dollars to Glaxo Smith Kline for 55 million shots that we HAVEN'T EVEN RECEIVED YET as "wave" number two rolls across the country. My government is also paying 5 million dollars to sell the vaccine THAT WE DON'T HAVE!
On top of this, the "early" vaccines that have come in for Canadians, probably purchased through some crazy pharma black market, contain adjuvants. The high-risk patients are the only ones getting the vaccine in Canada, yet pregnant women are not supposed to take adjuvants, so some of the most high-risk individuals in Canada cannot even get vaccinated until the "wave" is over. On TVO's The Agenda tonight, Ontario's PR Doctor, Arlene King, looked so uncomfortable over answering some of the questions that at points she was spewing meaningless drivel. Essentially saying that it would be good to get the H1N1 vaccine, even though it's going to be useless for the 2nd wave, because we still have the 3rd wave to worry about. To date, including the 1st wave, there have been 101 H1N1 deaths in Canada.
I certainly don't mean to disregard the tragedy of any death, but many of the reported H1N1 deaths are tied intrinsically to other illnesses - i.e. medically-fragile people. Quite simply, healthy adults may get H1N1, but they don't die from it. And we have 55 million shots sitting in a Glaxo Smith Kline warehouse while chemical cocktail adjuvants are being pumped through the veins of people who line up at clinics like lambs to the slaughter or Steve Jobs' disciples waiting for a new iPhone.
On the aforementioned broadcast from earlier tonight, King maintained that just because the vaccine was fast-tracked, doesn't mean that GSK didn't do proper testing. Are we really supposed to believe this. Drug companies make billions at getting product to market as soon as possible. To say that short timelines still allow "proper testing" seems ludicrous. Could it be that the reason the vaccines are not available yet is due to the fact they're still testing it? Could it be due to the fact that while GSK was willing to take 400 million dollars for 55 million doses, even though they knew they couldn't produce the vaccine on time without adjuvants, that the screw up would be far more embarrassing to the government who frittered away our tax dollars? Upon being asked if it was a mistake to purchase ALL of Canada's vaccine from a single source, King dodged the question THREE times. She further miffed my sensibilities by insisting that it was more important that the medical and government communities spoke with a common message than it was for people to understand the message... Buh!?! Is this ignorance disguised as honesty or the other way around?
I'll admit, I love a good conspiracy theory. And I'll also admit that I rarely have the time or energy to come up with such things on my own. I do admit, however, that in the light of all of the colossal fuckups and media whoring that I've seen over the past half a year, I've started to ask questions:
1) When I follow the money, where does it lead?
2) What's being done by governments while everyone is fretting over a flu strain that kills less people than seasonal flu?
3) What does it say about mass media that ONE H1N1 death becomes the top story, above-the-fold headline once a week and useless stats get rolled out every night?
4) What does it say about our gullibility that, as a society, we're buying into fear prompted by government-paid full page newspaper ads, tv spots, brochure drops, and fancy websites like www.fightflu.ca?
The government got conned in a game of "you better cover your ass or they're gonna blame you" by big pharma. Now they have to convince us to buy into the con, or else tens of millions of vaccines will expire in a federal warehouse sometime next year and people will wonder why the hell we spent so much money, during a recession, on an unused inoculation that could have created 8000 jobs paying $50,000 a year. Maybe, with a good-paying job, and good nutrition, some of the medically-fragile children they're "saving" with this vaccine, wouldn't have to be so medically-fragile in the first place.
Yeah, I know. In the tradition of this blog, I've glossed over half of every argument and probably got a whole bunch of people pissed off at me... just wash your hands before you punch me.