Comments on: How constant H1N1 breaking news updates may be going too far

By: Carey

Carey — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:18:22 +0000

I agree with Sarahw. First, I don’t care that some 11-year-old is freaking out about the flu. When I was 11, I was freaking out about asteroids or Godzilla, and my parents did the right thing: they laughed at me.

You know what all these flu updates are doing to me? They’re putting me to sleep. Which is a bad thing, because one of these years we will get hit with the big one. Ninguem’s irrelevant references to “socialist medicine” aside, he’s right — cry wolf year after year after year, no one will listen to you.

By: ninguem

ninguem — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:53:04 +0000

“……Our 11-year-old will need counseling, but she will be all right. What may not survive, however, is the trust that we have placed in Public Health Programs that are based on force and coercion and are relics of the 19th century — 21st century public health depends on good science, consistent statements, good communications, and trust that public health officials engage only in apolitical truth-telling…..”

The author is exactly right. Some pompous ass politician gave a talk at our medical association, the clown was one of the people responsible for the rule. I told him my response to the threat of medical board action for giving a flu shot to someone the government considers unworthy, is to stop giving the flu shots.

Cry wolf year after year after year, no one will listen to you.

By: ninguem

ninguem — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:48:23 +0000

I don’t think it’s silly. I am frankly sick and tired of the government and media crying wolf. We’ve had this year after year after year. Swine flu, bird flu, every year is 1919.

About three years ago, the annual flu season that was supposed to be the next 1919 epidemic, many state governments passed various laws so they could show people they were Doing Something.

They passed “guidelines” for who gets the flu shots. Elderly patients (I thought the big flu epidemic cut down otherwise healthy younger people), the debilitated, etc……

I use scare quotes for “guidelines” because they were hardly guidelines. My state passed a law where docs giving flu shots outside the guidelines would get a $500 fine and get reported to the Medical Board. Massachusetts, it was a $2000 fine and potentially jail time.

Frickin’ jail. Felony flu shot.

And it’s not a one-off thing, it’s year after year after year. Maybe it’s because the MPH programs seem to be teaching nothing but policy issues and socialized medicine, I wonder if they learn anything about infectious disease anymore.

By: Sarahw

Sarahw — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:05:16 +0000

Isn’t this a little silly? I don’t think public health advisories should be based on some over-reactive 10 year-olds unreasonable distress. If mother is unable to put the danger in perspective *, then it is either the adult with the problem, or the child might need to be evaluated for an obsessive disorder.

* and the adult might rethink their young child’s exposure to news media, since they control much of it in the home. Although, I have to add the “every fifteen minutes” is so exaggerated it weakens the argument even more.