Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Yo, don't believe the hype.

Okay - has the wold gone nuts? Why is everyone freaking out about the flu vaccine shortage? I can't believe this has actually become a campaign issue now. Can you not see how strong the pharma lobbies have gotten?

Seriously, I have *never* gotten a flu vaccine. First off, it wasn't even offered to me until a few years ago. Secondly, when it was, it was understood that the vaccine couldn't and wouldn't cover all strains and mutations of the virus. With so many strains of flu every year, why bother? And won't a vaccine just cause a resiliant virus to mutate further?

Which brings me to why I won't get the vaccine -- or give it to my kids. The number one reason? It's made with thimerosal, a mercury-based binding. (See Wikipedia on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thimerosal) Thimerosal has been linked in some studies the enormous surge in autisim over the past few years.

Another reason, Asthmatic Bryn (who, by the way, can't get the shot because he's allergic to eggs) got the flu last year. And it developed into pneumonia (natch). And guess what? The nasty strain he got would not have been covered by the vaccine.

So, by giving him the shot, I would have put him at risk by taking him unnecessarily to the doctors office where, undoubtedly other sick kids would be running around, and at risk(small risk, granted) for autism. And he would have gotten the flu/pneumonia anyay.

But to my original point, when did the flu become so incredibly dangerous that we all need an annual vaccination? Isn't this just pharmaceutical companies capitalizing on the SARS scare?

Or am I just a paranoid, fanatical lunatic?

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