Is Doing Something Better Than Doing Nothing?

The rush-rush emergency supplies of anti-viral nose spray and injections to protect against the predicted world-wide H1N1 flu pandemic are on the way across the USA, paid for courtesy of the federal government, which to many recipients means that it's FREE! My county has already received 2-1/2 billion dollars from the federal government to distribute the doses to eligible recipients. Whoopee! The targeted demographic is individuals between the ages of 2 and 49; new-borns aren't as much at risk because they are usually cared for in a more isolated environment and senior citizens (which I guess means anyone age 50 and older; sorry those who think that 50 is the new 40) require an injectable dose, rather than a nasal spray, which takes longer to bring to market than a nasal spray.

Why am I concerned that this rush to protection may not be all that it's hyped to be? Primarily because the vaccine has been developed since April: that's 5 months to research, develop, test, approve, package, and distribute a drug, and that's simply not enough time. We have drugs that took a decade to develop that have caused irreparable harm to consumers and death for some victims of the side-effects of the drugs. A TV viewer cannot spend an hour in front of the flat screen without being subjected to ads run by legal firms that target the failure of popular medical treatments for common ailments: call 1-800 Sue the Bastards and we'll both make big bucks. If we don't win, you don't pay, and we wouldn't waste our time if we weren't going to win.

If every school-age child is mandated to receive the H1N1 anti-viral and the rest of the population is frightened into believing that death is imminent without H1N1 flu protection this year, the potential for harm is magnified beyond what anyone can imagine. If it works, great, but when it doesn't, here come the personal horror stories, the deaths, and the inevitable lawsuits, with the harm of using the vaccine out-weighing the good idea behind it.

A friend who is driving cross-country called her physician to ask if there was anything she should do before leaving: she has issues with chronic back pain and her question targeted that condition. Her doctor, however, advised her to be protected against H1N1 as she's in the target demographic, with a pre-existing medical condition that adds to her risk assessment, and she gave in to his persuasive argument about her potential exposure to H1N1. Her reaction: she's never been so sick from a flu shot! She's used to maybe having a reaction to a flu shot, but she said this reaction was worse than just having the flu and dealing with it: 5 days in bed, sicker than a dog.

We require two flu shots this year: the regular flu shot and the H1N1 anti-viral spray or injection (age-based). Nowhere can I find publications that discuss the interaction between these two products, which concerns me because many patients react to the annual flu shot and many others are going to react to the H1N1 anti-viral. What's going to happen with two vaccinations fighting internally to protect me from the annual flu season? Will they exacerbate the onset and severity of flu, leading to a higher mortality rate, or cancel each other's effectiveness? Can anyone answer that question?

Flu kills, regardless of what we do to protect ourselves in an attempt to prevent the bug from using us as its host. In what are commonly called third-world nations, the everyday living conditions almost guarantee that there will be more victims in those demographics than in a country that has one of the best medical care systems in the world. It makes sense to protect high-risk individuals, but I'm not sure it makes as much sense to target all US citizens because the basic health threshold is higher in this country. I'm not aware of national panic in other nations, so what do they know that we don't know?

Doctors are charged to do no harm, so medical professionals believe that doing something is better than doing nothing, especially when the federal government is paying for the vaccine. I lack faith in the pharmaceutical industry and do not believe that it's beneficial to use the hastily-concocted H1N1 vaccine. When the list of contra-indications and possible side effects require a page of disclaimer, doing something cannot be better than doing nothing.