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| Science Forum Index » Science Skeptics Forum » Crying wolf about H1N1? [and big scares]... |
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| Eric Gisin... |
 Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:57 pm |
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http://libertaspost.com/article/2009/10/crying-wolf-about-h1n1
by Martin Masse - 16/10/2009
When I was a teenager, the big scare was being burnt to a crisp in a nuclear attack. Some nerds
interested in astronomy (like me) also imagined the Earth being hit by a giant asteroid, like the
one that is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs some 60 million years ago. These fears were
ever present and rather diffuse, and apart from certain sensationalist films like The Day After and
documentaries about dinosaurs, they were rarely mentioned in the media.
Nowadays, it's just one big scare after another filling up our daily lives. Who could forget the
AIDS crisis, the Y2K bug, global warming, terrorism, SARS, avian flu, the collapse of the banking
system, and so on. The end of the world is announced every six months, unless something is done,
something generally costing billions of dollars and requiring at times draconian restrictions of
our way of life. All of these announced catastrophes come and go, however, and the Earth keeps
turning.
Behind each of these big scares, we find interest groups very much invested in having everyone
believe in this next catastrophe, and having governments take "necessary measures" to prevent it:
the military-industrial complex, the medical and pharmaceutical establishment, or environmental
activists and companies that sell "green" products. These groups are either directly linked to the
State, or they enjoy a privileged access to it and have highly developed networks of influence. And
let's not forget the mainstream media, with airtime or pages to fill, who attempt to hold their
audiences' attention with hysterical reporting.
The pattern is always the same. Those who express skepticism or who challenge the reasoning behind
the big scare are called reckless, irresponsible, or "deniers." Every time, governments take
advantage of the situation to reduce our traditional rights and freedoms a little bit more. And
when a big scare passes, we forget everything, fail to carry out a critical post-mortem, and just
move on to the next one. Is it any wonder that people are starting to be fed up and are actually
less and less likely to let themselves be manipulated?
Quebec's Health Minister, Yves Bolduc, recently expressed his concern over growing popular
suspicion of the massive vaccination campaigns under preparation to deal with influenza A(H1N1),
and the difficulty in getting his message across. The vaccination strategy is in fact "called into
question daily in emails, discussion forums, readers' letters, Internet sites, networking sites
like Facebook, and even public conferences."
"The turn of this past century may well be described by future historians as a bizarre period
during which entire populations were subjected to waves of millenarian fevers."
Yes, it's not easy to brainwash and control the population in the Internet age. Fifteen years ago,
when the obedient media controlled the basic message and could stifle all debate, things were a lot
simpler. Today, they need to take into account everything that takes place outside their little
world and make some attempt to explain it. In the Montreal daily Le Devoir, we can therefore read
the following:
Two kinds of discourse nonetheless short-circuit the official message. The first takes the form of
anti-vaccine suspicions based on conspiracy fears. These attacks for the most part lack any
scientific grounding. Several are downright bizarre, like those allegations of bioterrorist
manipulations aiming to eradicate half the global population via a rigged vaccine engineered in a
secret lab belonging now to American forces, now to Al Qaeda.
Other discussions, however, do highlight real omissions or contradictions in the health
authorities' subtle message. The scientific community itself helps muddy the message. Again this
week, the WHO called into question the validity of a Canadian study concluding that people who have
been vaccinated for the seasonal flu were twice as likely to contract the pandemic virus.
Last week, it was the Canadian Medical Association Journal's turn to contest the effectiveness of
hand washing in breaking the virus's chain of contamination, a strategy which had been the
cornerstone of the preventive measures promoted by Quebec. Amidst this slew of contradictory
studies, even the specialists are confused. In France and England, over half of nurses plan to
refuse the H1N1 vaccine. Here, doctors are no longer hesitant to swim against the current by
expressing their doubts about the Canadian strategy, when they don't speak out explicitly against
vaccination. As a result, one out of two Canadians want nothing to do with the H1N1 vaccine.
Should we deduce that there are some good reasons to be sceptical?! As with global warming, the
more we realize that the "experts" don't even agree amongst themselves and that the supposed
"consensus" on the question is just a myth meant to delegitimize and silence opponents, the less
the population will swallow everything it's told without question.
In the case of influenza A, there are reasons aplenty to be sceptical. In La Presse, a columnist
explains why she, after believing we were overly concerned for no reason, became very worried after
having interviewed Dr. Redouane Bouali, the former chief intensivist for the Centre Hospitalier de
l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and current Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) Leader for the
Champlain region in Ontario.
After speaking of the Australian experience in which 300 patients had to be hospitalized in June,
the good doctor specified that "The Australian experience does not alter the fact that influenza
A(H1N1) remains a minor disease with very low mortality." Oh, really! Then why create a climate of
hysteria over it? Why expose millions of people to unnecessary risk by administering a vaccine that
is probably useless in the majority of cases? Why buy 11 million doses in Quebec for a population
of 7.5 million? Why the global coordination as if the Martians had just invaded? Why blacken page
after ink-stained page on the question every single day? Why envision extreme measures where health
personnel will be forced to go to work and the population will be herded around like cattle?
There are obviously people, pressure groups, bureaucracies and businesses that are profiting
enormously from this big scare, both financially and in terms of the power trips they can indulge
in. But with every new crisis that ends up not really being one, the level of scepticism rises. And
since it is very easy nowadays both to get informed and to spread information, it takes less and
less time for opposition to get organized.
The turn of this past century may well be described by future historians as a bizarre period during
which entire populations were subjected to waves of millenarian fevers. In the meantime, let's hope
that no actual threats to the security or safety of the world present themselves only to be treated
too lightly and cause more harm than necessary for that very reason. If that should happen, those
who have cried wolf for no reason (or to further their own interests) for decades will be
criminally responsible.
This article originally appeared at Le Quebecois Libre |
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| socialist that fear the truth but want to give up all... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:36 pm |
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Guest
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It's all about getting at your money to fund those criminals in government
and big corperations, so they can get huge amounts of kick backs of money to
enjoy after a fews years of hoodwinking the public and they lay about on the
shores of places that regular peole can't go too and pay for....you see,
everyone get a big pay day except the people themselves who fund everything
and can't feed their kids.
"Eric Gisin" <gisin at (no spam) uniserve.com> wrote in message
news:hbiglu$tec$1 at (no spam) news.eternal-september.org...
[quote]http://libertaspost.com/article/2009/10/crying-wolf-about-h1n1
by Martin Masse - 16/10/2009
When I was a teenager, the big scare was being burnt to a crisp in a
nuclear attack. Some nerds
interested in astronomy (like me) also imagined the Earth being hit by a
giant asteroid, like the
one that is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs some 60 million years
ago. These fears were
ever present and rather diffuse, and apart from certain sensationalist
films like The Day After and
documentaries about dinosaurs, they were rarely mentioned in the media.
Nowadays, it's just one big scare after another filling up our daily
lives. Who could forget the
AIDS crisis, the Y2K bug, global warming, terrorism, SARS, avian flu, the
collapse of the banking
system, and so on. The end of the world is announced every six months,
unless something is done,
something generally costing billions of dollars and requiring at times
draconian restrictions of
our way of life. All of these announced catastrophes come and go, however,
and the Earth keeps
turning.
Behind each of these big scares, we find interest groups very much
invested in having everyone
believe in this next catastrophe, and having governments take "necessary
measures" to prevent it:
the military-industrial complex, the medical and pharmaceutical
establishment, or environmental
activists and companies that sell "green" products. These groups are
either directly linked to the
State, or they enjoy a privileged access to it and have highly developed
networks of influence. And
let's not forget the mainstream media, with airtime or pages to fill, who
attempt to hold their
audiences' attention with hysterical reporting.
The pattern is always the same. Those who express skepticism or who
challenge the reasoning behind
the big scare are called reckless, irresponsible, or "deniers." Every
time, governments take
advantage of the situation to reduce our traditional rights and freedoms a
little bit more. And
when a big scare passes, we forget everything, fail to carry out a
critical post-mortem, and just
move on to the next one. Is it any wonder that people are starting to be
fed up and are actually
less and less likely to let themselves be manipulated?
Quebec's Health Minister, Yves Bolduc, recently expressed his concern over
growing popular
suspicion of the massive vaccination campaigns under preparation to deal
with influenza A(H1N1),
and the difficulty in getting his message across. The vaccination strategy
is in fact "called into
question daily in emails, discussion forums, readers' letters, Internet
sites, networking sites
like Facebook, and even public conferences."
"The turn of this past century may well be described by future historians
as a bizarre period
during which entire populations were subjected to waves of millenarian
fevers."
Yes, it's not easy to brainwash and control the population in the Internet
age. Fifteen years ago,
when the obedient media controlled the basic message and could stifle all
debate, things were a lot
simpler. Today, they need to take into account everything that takes place
outside their little
world and make some attempt to explain it. In the Montreal daily Le
Devoir, we can therefore read
the following:
Two kinds of discourse nonetheless short-circuit the official message. The
first takes the form of
anti-vaccine suspicions based on conspiracy fears. These attacks for the
most part lack any
scientific grounding. Several are downright bizarre, like those
allegations of bioterrorist
manipulations aiming to eradicate half the global population via a rigged
vaccine engineered in a
secret lab belonging now to American forces, now to Al Qaeda.
Other discussions, however, do highlight real omissions or contradictions
in the health
authorities' subtle message. The scientific community itself helps muddy
the message. Again this
week, the WHO called into question the validity of a Canadian study
concluding that people who have
been vaccinated for the seasonal flu were twice as likely to contract the
pandemic virus.
Last week, it was the Canadian Medical Association Journal's turn to
contest the effectiveness of
hand washing in breaking the virus's chain of contamination, a strategy
which had been the
cornerstone of the preventive measures promoted by Quebec. Amidst this
slew of contradictory
studies, even the specialists are confused. In France and England, over
half of nurses plan to
refuse the H1N1 vaccine. Here, doctors are no longer hesitant to swim
against the current by
expressing their doubts about the Canadian strategy, when they don't speak
out explicitly against
vaccination. As a result, one out of two Canadians want nothing to do with
the H1N1 vaccine.
Should we deduce that there are some good reasons to be sceptical?! As
with global warming, the
more we realize that the "experts" don't even agree amongst themselves and
that the supposed
"consensus" on the question is just a myth meant to delegitimize and
silence opponents, the less
the population will swallow everything it's told without question.
In the case of influenza A, there are reasons aplenty to be sceptical. In
La Presse, a columnist
explains why she, after believing we were overly concerned for no reason,
became very worried after
having interviewed Dr. Redouane Bouali, the former chief intensivist for
the Centre Hospitalier de
l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) and current Local Health Integration
Network (LHIN) Leader for the
Champlain region in Ontario.
After speaking of the Australian experience in which 300 patients had to
be hospitalized in June,
the good doctor specified that "The Australian experience does not alter
the fact that influenza
A(H1N1) remains a minor disease with very low mortality." Oh, really! Then
why create a climate of
hysteria over it? Why expose millions of people to unnecessary risk by
administering a vaccine that
is probably useless in the majority of cases? Why buy 11 million doses in
Quebec for a population
of 7.5 million? Why the global coordination as if the Martians had just
invaded? Why blacken page
after ink-stained page on the question every single day? Why envision
extreme measures where health
personnel will be forced to go to work and the population will be herded
around like cattle?
There are obviously people, pressure groups, bureaucracies and businesses
that are profiting
enormously from this big scare, both financially and in terms of the power
trips they can indulge
in. But with every new crisis that ends up not really being one, the level
of scepticism rises. And
since it is very easy nowadays both to get informed and to spread
information, it takes less and
less time for opposition to get organized.
The turn of this past century may well be described by future historians
as a bizarre period during
which entire populations were subjected to waves of millenarian fevers. In
the meantime, let's hope
that no actual threats to the security or safety of the world present
themselves only to be treated
too lightly and cause more harm than necessary for that very reason. If
that should happen, those
who have cried wolf for no reason (or to further their own interests) for
decades will be
criminally responsible.
This article originally appeared at Le Quebecois Libre
[/quote] |
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| Liberals are vermin... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:49 pm |
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Guest
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On Oct 19, 3:57 pm, "Eric Gisin" <gi... at (no spam) uniserve.com> wrote:
[quote]http://libertaspost.com/article/2009/10/crying-wolf-about-h1n1
by Martin Masse - 16/10/2009
When I was a teenager, the big scare was being burnt to a crisp in a nuclear attack.
[/quote]
The death rate is about 1% for the disease. Which means a kill of
about 60 million, if everyone on Earth was exposed. However, the
virus is nothing compared to the 1918 virus which attacked mostly
young, fit people, turning their immune systems on them. Now THAT was
a virus! |
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| Catoni... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:40 pm |
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On Oct 19, 8:49 pm, Liberals are vermin <rander3... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
[quote]On Oct 19, 3:57 pm, "Eric Gisin" <gi... at (no spam) uniserve.com> wrote:
http://libertaspost.com/article/2009/10/crying-wolf-about-h1n1
by Martin Masse - 16/10/2009
When I was a teenager, the big scare was being burnt to a crisp in a nuclear attack.
The death rate is about 1% for the disease. Which means a kill of
about 60 million, if everyone on Earth was exposed. However, the
virus is nothing compared to the 1918 virus which attacked mostly
young, fit people, turning their immune systems on them. Now THAT was
a virus!
[/quote]
How many die each year around the world just as a result of the
regular Flu Season. Apparently H1N1 is not near as bad as good old
regular flu.
It seems that in most cases, the regular flu hits you harder then
H1N1 Swine Flu does.
For H1N1 Swine Flu "...in the US it appears that for every 1000
people who get infected, about 40 people need admission to hospital
and about one person dies."
- ref name="Crikey - Take a deep breath, Swine Flu’s not that
bad">"Take a deep breath, Swine Flu’s not that bad". Crikey.
2009-05-25. http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/25/take-a-deep-breath-swine-flus-not-that-bad/.
Retrieved 2009-05-225. |
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| James... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:20 pm |
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Guest
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Eric Gisin wrote:
[quote]http://libertaspost.com/article/2009/10/crying-wolf-about-h1n1
by Martin Masse - 16/10/2009
When I was a teenager, the big scare was being burnt to a crisp in a
nuclear attack. Some nerds interested in astronomy (like me) also
imagined the Earth being hit by a giant asteroid, like the one that
is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs some 60 million years ago.
These fears were ever present and rather diffuse, and apart from
certain sensationalist films like The Day After and documentaries
about dinosaurs, they were rarely mentioned in the media.
[/quote]
I think this was done back in 1976 when swine flu was also the one to take us all out. Never happened. That was an election year. |
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| Alex... |
| Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:43 pm |
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Just think about it.
Leading cause of death in almost all western countries in the world is
cerebrovascular disease (CVD).
US Statistics from American Heart Association
CVD
Claimed 864,480 lives in 2005 (final mortality) (35.3 percent of all
deaths or 1 of every 2.8 deaths).
Other final 2005 mortality: total cancer 559,312; accidents 117,809;
HIV (AIDS) 12,543.
Nearly 151,000 Americans killed by CVD in 2005 were under age 65.
2005 final death rates from CVD were 324.7 for white males and 438.4
for black males; for white females 230.4 and for black females 319.7.
(Death rates are per 100,000 population. The rates listed use the year
2000 standard U.S. population as the base for age adjustment.)
And now try to compare spendings on each cause of death, relatively /
person. And does the media supports a healthy lifestyle, or preventive
care? Tons of money invested in therapeutic treatment, but how much
money are they investing in prevention?
High BP, western world diet, anxiety, etc. a bunch of risk factors
that could prevent CVD and most of the tumours... Yeah not that simple
I know. But if you think again deeply, prevention and thus low
morbidity means a loss of valuable PROFIT. And nowadays in the tight
grip of economical trusts, a human life is meaningless, not worth a
penny... everyone is a slave, in a very well designed circus.
So watch for yourself is my advice. Absorb the information and
knowledge. Raise your consciousness. That is the only way. |
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| Duncan Patton a Campbell... |
| Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:43 pm |
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Guest
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On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:43:19 -0700, Alex wrote:
[quote]Just think about it.
Leading cause of death in almost all western countries in the world is
cerebrovascular disease (CVD).
US Statistics from American Heart Association
CVD
[/quote]
Ya but there's just so many yogurt-peanut (Asbestos-Free!)
broccoli bars you can sell and the market's saturated.
Dhu
--
Duncan Patton a Campbell is Dhu |
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