article from alternative media

[japa]

[img]uploads/images/japa/527_pg1.jpg[/img]gazine,

[japa]

[img]uploads/images/japa/B2A_pg2.jpg[/img]

[japa]

This is an article from Harper's Magazine, an alternative type of media, about influenza. Just to let you know up front, it is a very liberal magazine. I think that the article is interesting because it can stimulate thinking about the differencebetween real and perceived threats. Is it true that some illnesses are everywhere? Or do people want us to believe that?

[crimgoddess]

Well, moral panics are created all the time about crime and the perceived threat of victimization (FYI- since 1990 crime rate in both the US and Canadahave been going down- yet media reporting of crime has gone up over 700%) because it reinforces conformity, us vs 'them', and the need for tough government-initiated crime-control. I can see the benefits for certain groups and the state for creating a similar moral panic in regards to illness- it's everywhere, you're ALL going to get it no matter what, it's deadly, and you must put faith in the government to protect you from this horrible, horrible plague. That, and I'm assuming it also ends up being profitable for those companies that create over the counter cold and flu remedies- does anyone else think that they advertise them much more over the winter months?The media (which is notoriously conservative and often influenced by the government 'spin' on things) tells you that you are going to be ill- the drug companies go "hey, I haveTHE solution for you"- perfect partnership. I'm sure that people who aren't ill, or just wake up with a little tickle in their throat go out and buy some of these medicines 'just in case' they may need them. I know I am sometimes guilty of this.


I find it really interesting what the article says about the manipulation of statistics- I always found the higher number extremely suspect. With numbers, it's extremely easy to massage them to fit your needs- collapse certain categories to make one variable seem more important.


Thanks for posting the article Japa- it really made me think.


*amber*

[thegooddr]

japa,



As amber said, thank you for posting this article, it does make for
interesting reading. I must read it a few more times to really
absorb it but I agree it is exerting moral pressure on the masses
saying how we are all going to get wiped out etc. It is
interesting in the article when you get into it an you see that the
government were saying that 65681 deaths were due to flu and pneumonia,
but then you find out that it is 64931 due to pneumonia and 750 due to
flu.



The story of swine flu in 1976 is a very interesting one, and one that
shows real 'spin' by the government rather than the scientists.
The scientists recognised that the swine flu that was found in the dead
soldier was very similar to that of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic
(estimates of which now say that 50-100 million people were killed
worldwide with it) and correctly passed this info to CDC and the
government, who in a very short time went from saying "this is like the
1918 flu" to "there is a strong possibility of a swine flu epidemic" to
"there is a 1 in 2 chance of a swine flu epidemic" to finally stating
"1 million americans will be killed by this flu in 1976", and all this
in the absence of any further scientific data. The scientists did
say that it was unlikely to be a pandemic as the strain had not been
emerging in the southern hemisphere, which if you ever see patterns of
infection of flu pandemics/epidemics is ALWAYS the case. So was
the government correct to proceed with the vacination schedule. I
as a scientific researcher of vaccines and viruses for the past 13
years would probably say yes they were right in planning a mass
vaccination but wrong in the way it was executed. I think they
should have made and stockpiled the vaccine, and distributed it to the
country with a readiness plan for its mass use, but wait until the
epidemiological data said that the swine flu was indeed starting to
mutate and pass from human to human. Only at that point should
the vaccination have taken place.



I agree with the CDC, there should be a stronger encouragement for
those people who feel they are 'at risk' from flu and its effects -
elderly, healthcare workers, teachers etc to receive the flu
vaccine. It is not necessary to vaccinate every single person in
the world to prevent an epidemic, if you can limit the spread during
flu season then you will kill off the virus quite quickly. OK, by
giving the flu vaccine it may not have reduced the overall mortality
due to respiratory disease, but then would you really expect it to, you
are only vaccinating against a single disease, not all the others, and
as said earlier out of 65000 deaths, only 750 were flu related (would
love to see demographics of those 750, and also see if they were
offered vaccination but refused). As for toxic mecury being in
the vaccine, yes there is a small, trace amount of a mercury containing
compound, Thimerosal (used as a preservative) in the vaccines, and even
that is being reduced to small if not non-existant levels, and as such
I do not see this as an argument for avoiding vaccination.



So sort of back to the article and comments made on it, government is
VERY good at over reporting of disease (and crime) stats and making it
look like there are serious problems, and yes I agree big business does
ride on the back of this and exploits the weakness in everyones disease
perception and we go and buy meds as soon as we feel ill (and like
amber I am just as guilty) and personally I think that the media has to
take a more responsible line on this and get its facts right. We
have all seen the reporting of sv cases and how the headlines have read
'vomiting bug to infect all' and 'hospitals and schools closed all over
the country due to bug' when in fact there were maybe 40 schools closed
out of 10s of thousands in the UK, and it wasn't just sv, influenza B
was the main culprit, but that didn't sound frightening enough for the
m

[shiva]

Japa,


Thanks for posting that. It really made me think about how the media has been perpetuating so much fear lately about the bird flu. Not to mention recent years that we have been told a pandemic is coming, yet nothing.


Kind of off topic:


My sister is studying to be a holistic nutritionist, so we've been reading through some interesting articles and books lately. It's eye opening to see different studies that have been done that completely contradict one another. It's like.. who do you believe. Everything from whether medications help or hurt people to the politics of cancer. And it's really scary that society is most likely to believe the study that is spreading the most panic.

[japa]

Thanks for posting responses crim, shiva, Iain.


Thanks for the info. Iain on the swine flu back in the 70's. I grew up listening to my mother talking about the swine flu all the time, but I was just a kid and didn't understand what she was going on about ..lol ..It had her pretty worried though.

[thegooddr]

japa,


I think it would have had me worried aswell with all the media hype going around with it. Also if it had turned nasty and the virus was just that bit closer to the 1918 strain then it could have got ugly. I reserve judgement on the current situation with avian flu, I am just not too sure which way it is going to go yet. If there is a pandemic, I am not too sure if it will be this year, I think a lot of the 'experts' have said next year because apparently it needs a time to build up its mutations in the poultry and then pass to humans and then have human to human transfer within the flu season and that is most likely going to be the end of 2006 by the time this all happens. Of course it may not, and as I said, I reserve judgement on this one.


Iain


shiva, couldn't agree more about the politics of health care, it is exactly that politics, and somewhere in the middle of it all, the true picture of public health sort of gets lost and we are no longer in the hands of science but in the hands of politicians - and for me that is VERY VERY scary.


Want a good read - Laurie Garetts two books, The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust (warning - you may never go outside again after reading them !!)