The sky is falling!?? If you read the newspapers and watch national TV news, you would be thinking that we are going to die tomorrow from the latest flu scare.?? Hogwash! (so to speak).
Been to an internationaly airport lately? You will see swarms of workers, especially the government workers,?? wearing surgical masks.?? Of course, the masks don’t do a lick of good. But someone is making a pile of money selling masks.
If you believe the World Health Organization (WHO), then official figures show that 52,000 people have been afflicted with this strain and that 230 people have died from it (mostly in Mexico and the US).
Let’s put the current H1N1 flu “epidemic” in perspective. Compared to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, 20% – 40% of the world’s population were affected and estimated 50 MILLION people died.?? In the US, about 675,000 people died. That was a serious flu.
What about other pandemics? How about the Asian flu in 1957??? This was about a tenth as bad as the flu in 1918.?? About 70,000 people died from that one.
The Hong Kong flu erupted in 1968.?? This affected primarily the infirm and elderly, killing 33,800 in the US.
Remember the Avian Flu threat of 1997??? Just like the current scare, newspaper headlines were saturated with dire predictions.?? SIX people in the entire world died from it.
Of course, the public health authorities will take credit for suppressing spread of the disease and their hot shot vaccines will save the world, etc.?? The efficacy of the vaccine is in doubt, year in and year out, with a consistent death toll of about?? 700 – 900 people that die every year from the flu, unofficially.
I no longer recommend flu vaccines for anyone.?? Vaccines usually “protect” against the wrong strain and have dubious “protection” at best.?? The American population, especially children and more especially, infants, are receiving a barrage of vaccines that probably do more harm than good.?? Can you say “autism”?
In the end, it is all about money.?? Vaccine manufacturers, in conjunction with the FDA and CDC, scare the bejabbers out of everyone to take their dangerous and costly vaccines.
If you are going to get the flu, you get the flu. If your immune system is working, you will survive and do fine. Infirm people with chronic health problems and the elderly don’t do well in any kind of new stress/disease situation.
Rather than advocate vaccines, we should look at the underlying health situation.?? Why does someone have a chronic disease??? I maintain that chronic health problems are the result of a deficiency of something, either caused by dietary insufficiency, alteration in digestion or some combination thereof.
If your car is getting bad gasoline or the fuel line is plugged up, don’t be surprised if your engine doesn’t work right.?? If you fix the fuel and fuel usage in your car, imagine how much better your engine runs.
Don’t lose a lot of sleep worrying about H1N1 flu this year.?? Work on your diet, nutrition and dietary supplements instead.
Andrew Jones, M.D.
Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas