Illogical Logic, Irrational Fear?

The story of the 13-year-old boy from Ontario who died on Monday is enough to scare any parent.

Almost enough to scare this parent into reconsidering the vaccination issue for her kids. After all, Kit Kat has mild asthma and the Blue Jay has a neuro-developmental disorder, which presumably puts them both at higher risk. Hell, even my own MS, some might argue, might put me in a higher risk category.

But here's my problem.

There's still everything Dr. Mercola has to say on the subject. And although this video interview is quite lengthy, it's worth a listen. He makes a lot of sense. And the interview will tell you a lot more than the text on the page, which makes some valid points on its own.

My two problems in particular have to do with the fact that although we are told repeatedly ad nauseum that flu activity is increasing in the United States, with most states reporting "widespread influenza activity", a three-month-long investigation by CBS News revealed some very different facts.

The CBS study found that H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared. A CBS article even states: "If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn't have H1N1 flu. In fact, you probably didn't have flu at all."

Apparently in late July 2009 the CDC advised states to STOP testing for H1N1 flu, and they also stopped counting individual cases. Their rationale being that it was a waste of resources to test for H1N1 flu because it was already confirmed as an epidemic. Okay, fair enough.

But. Just like that virtually every person who visited their physician with flu-like symptoms since late July was assumed to have H1N1, with no testing necessary because, after all, there's an epidemic.

Before beginning their investigation, CBS News asked the CDC for state-by-state test results prior to their halting of testing and tracking. The CDC did not initially respond so CBS went to all 50 states directly, asking for their statistics on state lab-confirmed H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July.

What did they find? CBS reported:

"The results reveal a pattern that surprised a number of health care professionals we consulted. The vast majority of cases were negative for H1N1 as well as seasonal flu, despite the fact that many states were specifically testing patients deemed to be most likely to have H1N1 flu, based on symptoms and risk factors, such as travel to Mexico."

In other words, the diagnosis of swine flue is being repeatedly made NOT based on any lab tests. In fact, the diagnosis is made even when the test results prove otherwise.

And just to back up that little observation, last night I was watching the CTV news. Which was where I first heard the tragic (to say nothing of scary) story of Evan's death. But that piece was followed by another piece on the mass immunizations programs now beginning in which it was stated that you can self-diagnose the swine flu.

Get this. Supposedly, if you have fever and two or more of the following symptoms, you can diagnose yourself with swine flu. The additional symptoms included things like

• cough
• sore throat
• extreme fatigue
• headache

Well, excuse me, but based on those criteria, I must have had the swine flue at least 500 times in my life. In which case, I should have built up a whack of immunity and pretty well be swine flu proof by now, right?

Yeah. And that logic seems to make as much sense to me as the constant non-ending hype demanding that I must vaccinate myself and my family against this great pandemic.

By the by, I'm sick. Have been for two and a half weeks.

It sucks. It's very hard to get through the day without a two-hour nap. Sinuses, bad. The cough is intermittent. But I think a fair bit of it is coming from my nose draining, if you know what I mean. Fever? Maybe. I think so. Sometimes.

I have no doubt my doctor will tell me tomorrow that I have swine flu. But I won't buy it unless he can prove it to me with a blood test. Because, personally, I am 99.5% sure that I don't. That last 0.5% only because anything can happen.

Although if I do, I would actually be okay with that. Because I can get it over with and forget about it. And everyone else in the house has been exposed, too. So we won't have to worry about that any more, will we?