The world has reacted in various ways to the swine flu scare at presstime. Mexico has basically shut down, recent soccer games being played all over the country before empty stadiums. The fans aren't allowed in, but the games get played anyway. Strange.
Anyhow, the CDC is calling for clear heads and calm. And you know what? The Boomer generation is doing exactly that. You see, we've been here and done this before.
On February 5, 1976, an Army recruit at Fort Dix told his drill instructor that he felt lousy, but not sick enough to see the medics or to skip an upcoming training hike. Within 24 hours, the soldier, 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis, was dead. Doctors determined that he was killed by the same influenza which caused the pandemic (the world's first) of 1918-19, which took a half-million US lives, and killed 20 million worldwide. Two weeks later, health officials disclosed to America that the disease, known as swine flu, had killed Lewis and hospitalized four of his fellow soldiers at Fort Dix.
What followed next was a panic of sorts. Word began spreading around that the 1918 pandemic was coming back.
The CDC ordered that vaccines be produced in numbers never before seen. And the general public was urged to get swine flu shots, as the depicted 1976 commercials demonstrate.
Even President Ford got his shot, and he invited camera crews into the Oval Office to film the event.
According to a doctor of that time, who was among many invited to Washington to meet with the CDC a few weeks after that first soldier's death, the situation was destined to be a mess no matter who did what. The tone of the meetings was that 1918 must not be allowed to repeat. The CDC outlined an unprecedented program to manufacture and administer vaccines against the virulent strain. One of the concerns of the medical community was that all available resources would be diverted to the vaccination program, to the detriment of any other medical research.
But the decision was made, with President Ford's firm backing, to proceed with the vaccination program.
The goal was to get everyone vaccinated before the fall/winter 1976 flu season. The government poured 135 million bucks into the project, a heck of a lot of 1976 dollars. And when October 1 arrived, the vaccinating began in earnest.
Two problems. Two BIG problems. One, the swine flu never showed up. Two, there were side effects from the vaccinations themselves.
The side effects were anticipated, and indeed, the number of them was, as expected, very small. However, the affected individuals received a lot of media coverage. One side effect was Guillain-Barre syndrome. This disease would cause the immune system to attack one's own nerves, sometimes causing complete paralysis. Fortunately, complete recovery is common, if the person survives the initial onslaught. But many don't, and actual deaths came to be attributed to the vaccine for the disease that never showed up.
The vaccinations stopped, after only 40 million inoculations. The goal was to vaccinate all 220 million Americans.
The effect was devastating on Ford's administration, certainly contributing to his November loss to Jimmy Carter. But the effect was also devastating on immunology in general. The pharmaceutical industry had to absorb the cost of the unused 110 million doses of vaccine that had been produced at that point. The government refused to reimburse them. They were also being sued right and left by the families of the victims of side effects.
As a result, the drug companies began pulling out of the vaccine business. Even today, there are not as many vaccine makers as there were in 1976.
Thus ended the swine flu snafu, as it was commonly known in newspaper headlines. Unfortunately for us today, its effects have lasted well beyond that polyester year of 1976.
Comments (7)
There is a lot more that could be said about vaccines. But I won't. They are questionable at best. and yeah, we Boomers are a little bit skeptical and cautious with these type of things. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I will say that vaccines have many questionable things in them. If one is curious, I recommend a search engine for autism and vaccines as well as mercury and vaccines.
But it is my opinion that one might be safest avoiding vaccines. There are a number of nutrients that have very good stimulating effects on the immune system. Ron would probably not like plugs for organizations I believe in and belong to or read and buy from but you can email me. Live long and prosper, right?
Posted by Scott I | May 8, 2009 6:50 AM
Posted on May 8, 2009 06:50
II have not had a shot since 1972 and that was a tetanus booster & was a hypochondriac until about 1974.
I refused to have my children inoculated until forced by state law to have the required shots in order to attend school at age 5. They experienced no ill effects prior to the inoculations but my daughter got a case of the Mumps from the vaccine and my son had a bad reaction to the flu shot and his doctor stated that he shouldn’t get flu vaccinations anymore.
Big pharma is overly (criminally IMO) aggressive in lobbying doctors and congress to mandate compulsory preventative inoculations. They use fear of pandemics (sound familiar?), and the old “We must protect the children” (also echoed by Linda Sanchez HR 1966 maybe even more dangerous than disease) from the scourge of childhood dis-ease and if fear isn’t enough to sway the legislators, bribes to bring around the hesitant.
I believe a healthy psyche and a balanced diet are the most efficacious preventatives and would only visit a doctor for mechanical problems (broken bones, teeth, surgery if death were imminent) unless dragged in unconscious. I have not needed medical intervention for myself and my children haven’t either, however my daughter is in thrall to fear and medicine and has chosen to subject my granddaughter to all the AMA’s recommended treatments.
Posted by Burt | May 8, 2009 5:25 PM
Posted on May 8, 2009 17:25
I got the Hong Kong flu in '68. I remember being so sick I was unable to get up and open presents on Xmas morning.
Thing is, 30,000+ Americans die from regular flu every year, and the pandemic of '18-'19 killed, conservatively, around 40 million worldwide over six months. 300 thou in the US. More than the war.
Funny, my grandparents never talked about it...
Posted by Lee | May 8, 2009 7:43 PM
Posted on May 8, 2009 19:43
What's with all this misinformed hysteria over vaccinations?
Do you want to go back to the days of Polio and Smallpox?
Did you know that measles used to kill millions worldwide every year before vaccines?
Posted by Lee | May 8, 2009 7:55 PM
Posted on May 8, 2009 19:55
Well Lee, who is misinformed and who is not could be up for debate. But there were problems with the polio vaccine as well. And few people have even heard of mycoplasmas, but if you have them, its quite relevant. But it seems questionable to me how much if any good is done by vaccines and there has been lots of harm.
If you do not know of any harm, I suggest you look up the references on a seach engine I suggested and add mycoplasma to that search, maybe adding it with vaccines, contrails, Chronic Fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia.
Also Look for Donald W. Scott and William L. C. Scott - The Extremely Unfortunate Skull Valley Incident. Also try Mycoplasma with Gulf War Illness and Biological Warfare. Even give Dr. Donald M. MacArthur and see if any thing turns up.
I can only say this to finish. What you don't know can still hurt you and we will certainly repeat harmful history if we do not learn from it. be afraid, be very afraid! MOst people today have mycoplasmas in their body which are often dormant till something sets them off. I ought to know.
Trust can be a very harmful thing.
Posted by Scott I | May 8, 2009 11:42 PM
Posted on May 8, 2009 23:42
@Lee:
What's with all this misinformed hysteria over vaccinations?
Do you want to go back to the days of Polio and Smallpox?
Did you know that measles used to kill millions worldwide every year before vaccines?
If one wants to vaccinate or inoculate oneself or one’s wards out of fear of disease then that is fine. If I choose not to that is fine as well. If I contract a disease which was putatively preventable thru the inoculation which I eschewed then I suffer the consequences as does anyone else who failed to avail himself of the preventative.
Those who took steps to prevent the disease may still contract it or not depending on their circumstances.
The misinformed hysteria is in the minds of those who fear that they will become victims of the almost infinite passel of potentially pathogenic entities, and for those I recommend availing themselves of modern medicine’s miraculous placebos as belief in disease is just as responsible for illness as belief in health is responsible for wellness.
@Scott: Trust is only harmful when one trusts another's dicta, unexamined, and substitutes it for one's innate self trust.
Posted by Burt | May 11, 2009 5:02 PM
Posted on May 11, 2009 17:02
I got the swine flu vacination and ended up with a different kind of side effect. I was one of the unfortunate who was sellected to get blood drawn for a test and then repeatedly subjected to additional blood draws throughout the school year. Not a big deal except that I did NOT do well with needles. I nearly fainted a few times while trying power through those dreaded trips to the nurses office...
Posted by Jeff Palmberg | June 13, 2009 7:49 PM
Posted on June 13, 2009 19:49