Talentless
Perhaps it's an error in my English, but I don't think I specifically said it was. The it was meant generally in reference to the overall early spending plan, or the concept thereof, to try to stave off a hypothetical pandemic,
And I have no problem with this.
...but, still, even so, I am curious, do you have a reference debunking the possible effectiveness of the vaccines and explaining their insignificance in terms of being beneficial, aside from the apparent illogic of their use which you've pointed out?
Will
President Bush's own words be enough?
President Bush
One of the challenges presented by a pandemic is that scientists need a sample of the new strain before they can produce a vaccine against it. This means it is difficult to produce a pandemic vaccine before the pandemic actually appears. And so there may not be a vaccine capable of fully immunizing our citizens from the new influenza virus during the first several months of a pandemic.
To help protect our citizens during these early months, when a fully effective vaccine would not be available, we're taking a number of immediate steps.
Researchers here at the NIH have developed a vaccine based on the current strain of the avian flu virus. The vaccine is already in clinical trials.
And I'm asking that the Congress fund $1.2 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to purchase enough doses of this vaccine for manufacturers to vaccinate 20 million people.
This vaccine would not be a perfect match to the pandemic flu because the pandemic strain would probably differ somewhat from the avian flu virus it grew from. But a vaccine against the current avian flu virus would likely offer some protection against a pandemic strain and possibly save many lives in the first critical months of an outbreak.
This is the part I have a problem with. The rest of it appears to be fine. I am having troubles with money being spent on this specific disease when there are plenty of diseases just waiting to mutate into something that can cause a pandemic, including well known viruses such as the seasonal flu or common cold. One mutation allowing it the immune debillitating factor of HIV and we are all screwed. I can imagine a ton of doomsday scenarios that are much scarier than the Avian Flu. At the same time I don't go around telling everyone that this my scenario is the one to be afraid of, because I don't know. I cxan catch all kinds of deadly crap from animals without spreading it to other humans but we don't fear those. Why?
I want us to prepare for a pandemic in general, not a specific disease. When Avian Flu disappears and the pandemic ends up being something unexpected ten years down the road (hypothetically of course) there will be $1.2 billion wasted that could have gone towards general preparedness and helping stop the actual pandemic.
I still have to stay with my contention that some hyperbole is better than complacency, and, though you might have the facts in your favor, looking at it from what I think is a broader spectrum, any government not acting proactively to, yes, lessen the fears of the public, would be remiss in its duties.
This could be done without aiming specifically at one disease. Everyone knows what Tamiflu and antiviral drugs are by now. By just saying they bought and stockpiled some of this (What's the shelf life?) would have succeded in easing most public fears.
Also, we know there exists a variety of sources and opinions on this matter, and only the phobic, irrational mind runs around in a mad panic over hypothetical problems. Such stupidity is difficult to ease. And the media could barely report anything if it worried about the unknown quantity of dimwits that overprepare and blame some random secret society for the problems the media reports on.
Reporting that the CDC and WHO are watching this closely is journalism. Having hour long specials with the station's/network's resident doctor/medical reporter as the expert on the subject is sensationalized journalism. They did it with SARS and now they are doing it with Avian Flu.
This is a matter of journalistic integrity, or the lack of, by almost all news networks. Why do they turn some stories into giant specials while others of the same nature are completely ignored? For example; Hundreds of Americans disappear in other countries while on vacation yet when Natalee Holloway disappears in Aruba it is the main story of news for months, with some shows devoted solely to the story. Now there are Aruba boycotts. Why? Because some news channel picked up the story and made a big deal about it.
Hundreds of children go missing every day, but we get our one special one of the month. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of parents lost their children in the war and protest the war and President Bush now, but we only hear (or heard) all about Cindy Sheehan. What made her special other than a news special?
Why is this done? Working in media research I have one theory; make an everyday story a big story and then you have just filled in hours a day for the next month or more with a story that grabbed the audience's attention. Now you don't have to work as hard to get the ratings up.
This is also unofficially known as the "if it bleeds it leads" theory. Cindy Sheehan and Natalee Holloway have died down and now we have Avian Flu: The deadly pandemic.
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) is always appealing to me when I'm sick. In my experiences, lemon-lime soda and very cold water are the easiest drinks to get down; milk and warm beverages are the hardest. Typically when I'm sick, the only symptom that really bothers and irritates me is the sore throat. The carbonation in the lemon-lime soda sort of numbs the throat as it goes down, so swallowing isn't a problem, and it's easy to drink. Cold water has the same effect. As far as replacing fluids with soda, that doesn't work. Soda is good at dehydrating, which is not desirable when ill. But in my case, once my throat is soothed a bit, I can slam down some water with no problem. Also, the sugar in soda is cheap calories for your immune system, which might help if you aren't eating as much during illness. Just a thought.
As someone mentioned, millions die each year from normal colds and flus, yet that gets almost no response from anyone. I heard a "statistic" that predicted 5-150 million deaths from avian flu. I'm sorry, but an estimate that covers over two orders of magnitude is completely useless. Let's try to relay meaningful information to the public, shall we?
