Pen Meets Paper Nov.23'09

Opinion by Helge Nome
This week, beginning on Monday, November 23, the H1N1 Swine flu vaccine is available to the general population of Alberta. In October, when the vaccine was first used, there were long lineups for shots and many unkind words were uttered.
That was not the case on Monday. Few people bothered showing up now that the scare has subsided.
As it turns out, the only thing “pandemic” about this flu are the letters “H1N1” that have appeared in the media across the world.
What lessons can be learned from this exercise? Here goes,

No 1: If you want to make a lot of money quickly, spook people into believing that something you have (H1N1 vaccine) is vital for their very survival. By the time they figure out that it is not necessary, you have made your inventory their inventory and have the cash to show for it. Big Pharma didn’t have to learn this lesson. They have had this knowledge and used it on more than one occasion in the past, the last being the 1976 Flu Pandemic panic.

No 2: Some people react adversely to the vaccine. One of my own neighbors fell unconscious five minutes after having received the vaccine at a local hospital and was rushed to the medical station for treatment. She was kept overnight in the hospital and a family member was told to stay by her side for two days and two nights afterwards. Of the countless thousands of other people immunized, how many others have or will develop serious reactions to the vaccine? There are likely some lawsuits in the pipeline.

No 3, and this is a really serious one: Every time you cry “wolf!” and there is no wolf, you are immunizing people against the next similar message. That’s exactly what the shepherd in Aesop’s famous fable did. And when the wolves came, nobody did anything about it.
Now, that’s really scary!