Do Vaccinations matter? A
fascinating article from the Atlantic Monthly.
And an even more fascinating
article in
Wired which draws the opposite conclusion.
Which is more persuasive? Right now, I lean towards the Wired article
because one of it's main points is that the public has a foolish tendency to
ignore the science and go with their feelings. It was the government--
not the scientists-- that announced that vaccines would no longer use
thimerosal even though it was safe, so that the vaccines would be safer.
They might have also announced that they were making witchcraft illegal, not
because there are witches, but because we will all be less likely to suffer
from magic spells.
Bill on SARS.
Now this one tops them all: the CBC is doing an online poll to ask
viewers what story Wendy Mesley should cover tonight. One of her
possible topics is this: can the public be trusted in a pandemic?
I am not kidding. (Unfortunately, it is winning.)
What the hell is that supposed to mean? That the government should not
compel people to get vaccinated?
November 2, 2009
The contemptible CBC: my wife and I have watched the CBC national news for about 15 years now. I used to think they
were reasonably sober and serious and comprehensive, aside from occasional hysterics about SARS or Princess Diana... I don't know--
maybe they never were. We want some Canadian news, so I was reluctant to switch exclusively to McNeil-Lehrer but maybe it's time.
I was disgusted with their coverage of the SARS crisis back in 2003 and I am even more disgusted with their coverage of
H1N1 now. The CBC has gone absolutely hysterically over the top this time.
From Wikipedia: As of 22 April, all Canadian SARS cases were believed
to be directly or indirectly traceable to the originally identified carriers.
SARS was not loose in the community at large in Canada, although a few infected
persons had broken quarantine and moved among the general population. No new
cases had originated outside hospitals for 20 days
You would think we all would
have learned about hysterical over-reactions from the hysteria surrounding
SARS in in 2003, and the even more over the top hysteria over Avian
flu in 2006.
But then, many people don't think it was an over-reaction. Many people believe we
were almost swept by a deadly virus that could have killed ... well.... I have no idea. I have no idea how
many people many people think it might have killed. Nobody will
say. Nobody will say because if they did say, they would quoted
frequently when we find out that the real numbers are not quite anything
like the predicted numbers, or the monumental solemnity with which Peter
Mansbridge intones the phrase "pandemic".
All we know is that
SARS actually killed about 774 people
world wide. Avian flu? When is the last time you saw a
headline on that? Right-- way before Michael Jackson died.
Now you may think that 774 is a big number. And it is-- by all means. That's a lot of death.
It may sound rather clinical to observe, however, that compared to a number of other causes, it's not really a very
high number. Car accidents? Cancer? Homicide? Starvation? Every year about 4,000-5000 people die from seasonal flu alone
in Canada, and about 40,000 to 50,000 in the U.S. When is the last time you saw twenty headlines in a row about those
deaths? Why? Don't they matter?
The problem is that every few years-- on schedule, it seems-- the media whip us all into a frenzy over some new virus
that supposedly is going to decimate the population and destroy our civilization. Do you recall
Legionnaire's Disease? SARS, of course. Avian flu. With the notable exception of the AIDS virus, none of these actually had much of impact
beyond the usual seasonal swell of flu deaths. SARS is reported to have been "contained". What on earth does that mean? Sports and other events were cancelled; anyone
with a temperature was quarantined; nurses wore masks; thermal scanners were installed at airports. Did any of this
actually have any effect on the spread of SARS? I don't believe it.
I'm not sure yet about getting vaccinated myself.
Fear drives bad politics. When people are willing to wait in line for eight hours to get a flu shot, you know that they
will not countenance a government that says "the media are exaggerating the problem-- there's really not much the government
can or should do to prevent the spread of H1N1". The government knows that it better look like it's doing something. The media
know that the government knows that it better look like it's doing something. Both of them want to feel important, so we have
the sober Peter Mansbridge solemnly intoning that "Canadians are concerned"-- as if he had some hotline to the brains of 30 million
people-- that not enough vaccine is available for every Canadian.
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