Hey dummies, get your swine flu shot
Sanjai Tripathi
Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: Forum
Get a swine flu shot. If you don't, you're a dummy.
While making that argument should be simple in a rational world, those of us trying to make it now face an uphill battle. Partially, that difficulty is self-inflicted.
When swine flu first emerged, talking heads like myself told the world about how bad it could possibly get.
We shared apocalyptic visions of worst case scenario flu pandemics, like the H1N1 "Spanish flu." That one infected 28 percent of the U.S. population and killed around 600,000 Americans, mostly in just a two month span starting in October of 1918. The devastation was even worse in the rest of the world, with an estimated 50 to 100 million casualties globally.
Those numbers are amazingly, unfathomably and almost unbelievably large, but they are real.
Knowing that, it made sense last year to talk about what could happen when the swine flu virus first emerged, bearing some very important similarities to the 1918 strain.
Now we know that despite genetic similarities, the modern H1N1 strain is much less virulent than the Spanish flu. It appears that for most people, it causes an illness no more severe than the regular seasonal flu strains that comes around every year.
So now we talking heads have a problem. We rang the alarm bell and no crisis emerged - the American public has now become desensitized to flu fears.
Unfortunately, it seems people have become desensitized to fear, to the point that they might do dumb things, like choosing not to get vaccinated against swine flu.
Most of us haven't had the chance to make that choice yet. Swine flu vaccine, like every flu vaccine, is produced by incubating the virus in chicken eggs. This low-tech method works, but is slow.
So the first batches have gone to people like medical professionals and emergency responders. But more is being made and it should become available to the general public very soon. When it is, Student Health Services here on campus will be offering it for $10.
While making that argument should be simple in a rational world, those of us trying to make it now face an uphill battle. Partially, that difficulty is self-inflicted.
When swine flu first emerged, talking heads like myself told the world about how bad it could possibly get.
We shared apocalyptic visions of worst case scenario flu pandemics, like the H1N1 "Spanish flu." That one infected 28 percent of the U.S. population and killed around 600,000 Americans, mostly in just a two month span starting in October of 1918. The devastation was even worse in the rest of the world, with an estimated 50 to 100 million casualties globally.
Those numbers are amazingly, unfathomably and almost unbelievably large, but they are real.
Knowing that, it made sense last year to talk about what could happen when the swine flu virus first emerged, bearing some very important similarities to the 1918 strain.
Now we know that despite genetic similarities, the modern H1N1 strain is much less virulent than the Spanish flu. It appears that for most people, it causes an illness no more severe than the regular seasonal flu strains that comes around every year.
So now we talking heads have a problem. We rang the alarm bell and no crisis emerged - the American public has now become desensitized to flu fears.
Unfortunately, it seems people have become desensitized to fear, to the point that they might do dumb things, like choosing not to get vaccinated against swine flu.
Most of us haven't had the chance to make that choice yet. Swine flu vaccine, like every flu vaccine, is produced by incubating the virus in chicken eggs. This low-tech method works, but is slow.
So the first batches have gone to people like medical professionals and emergency responders. But more is being made and it should become available to the general public very soon. When it is, Student Health Services here on campus will be offering it for $10.
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Linda Fast
posted 10/23/09 @ 3:58 PM PST
Excellent points for common sense, Sanjai. Unfortunately, the vaccine was not available before 3 of my grandchildren got swine flu last week. (2 in Portland and 1 in Renton. (Continued…)
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