The Doggone Flu scare

Sadly, where flu is concerned, all we hear about is the need to get the shot and how many cases of flu there were last year, and how many died.

We are left to wonder in what kind of environment the flu victims existed, and what other health problems they may have had.

Here's a quote from an article about flu that tends to agree: "attention-getting peaks can form easily from a relatively small number of cases."  But it's not about human flu: it's about dog flu. Read the article to see how inventively the Pharmers use fear to make money.

Ottawa Citizen: Century after pandemic, science takes its best shot at flu

• A century after one of history’s most catastrophic disease outbreaks, scientists are rethinking how to guard against another super-flu like the 1918 influenza that killed tens of millions as it swept the globe.
• GlaxoSmithKline and the Gates Foundation are funding initial safety tests.
• “The vision of the field is that ultimately if you get the really good universal flu vaccine, it’s going to work best when you give it to a child,” Fauci said.

[[[Shudder]]]

The very best way to sell something is to make one fear for the tender lives of those you love - your children and your pets.

And now the comic relief:

• ... “it’s folly to predict” what a next pandemic might bring, Fauci said. “We just need to be prepared.”

That, my friends, is an excellent example of a contradiction in terms! How can one be "prepared" if one cannot "predict"? And what else is Fauci naive about? Perhaps the fact that the profiteer is not the one who ought to be paying for the "scientific" studies?

The Pharmers don't hesitate to tell you to see your doctor if you fear your sniffles might mean the flu because, even if you didn't get the flu shot, the doctor will prescribe other stuff the Pharmers sell.

And they know that most doctors don't have a clue about the flu; they just regurgitate the mantra: "get the shot", even if it's acknowledged to be relatively ineffective. In other words, wear a belt plus suspenders and your pants might not fall down -- though a killer could use either to strangle you.

You know, there's a credible theory that improved sanitation, especially sewage disposal, eradicated the major diseases -- not vaccines. But vaccines being a lucrative business, it's not surprising that the benefits theory is upheld by "scientists" who are paid to produce studies for the Pharmers.

And there's this from the NatPost:

• Oh, rats! Dirty humans 'more likely' than rodents to have caused Black Death plague, study finds
• 'While it is commonly assumed that rats and their fleas spread plague during the second pandemic, there is little historical and archaeological support for such a claim'

It may take decades for theories to reverse themselves, but I've been around for close to 8 of them, and have seen "scientific facts" reverse themselves more than once. So sue me for being more than a little skeptical of the most loudly vocal pronouncements.

Sanity from From Miami University: It's the season, so wash your hands

I'm one of those people who say they never get the flu, nor flu shots.  And it's the truth. I wonder if it's because I'm a bit of a clean freak.  As soon as I get home from shopping, I obey an urge to wash my hands. Shoes and boots do not get any farther than the entrance of my home (although I would never insist that guests remove their shoes -- in fact, I don't have to because my friends are generally clean freaks as well, upholding yet another theory -- that like attracts like).

I have also daily taken these three vitamins for most of my life: A, D and C.

I remember when vitamin supplements first arrived on the horizon. I was in grade one and we kids had to line up every day with tablespoons brought from home, into which our teacher, Mrs. Hamilton, poured cod liver oil, which we dutifully ingested -- but only out of love for that fine lady -- and I was very glad when the capsules came on the market.

For your musical enjoyment: in those days there were also frequent radio spots urging women to buy Lydia Pinkham's Pink Pills - a more modern version of an old, completely harmless blend of herbs called a "vegetable compound" for "women's troubles", out of which a bawdy song (YouTube) eventually emerged about a "medicinal compound" that was good for literally EVERYTHING.

And I don't recall any talk of "flu" whatsoever in those days.

Not long after that, we were subjected to the small pox vaccine, even though no one had heard of a single case of it in our country (not since the British infected our First Nations people with it*) because we had proper sewage disposal and bath tubs and soap and all that good stuff. I had a bad reaction to the vaccination, but I survived.

While I strongly suspect that fear-mongering about the prevalence of dog flu is probably just another sales tactic, I do wonder if it's more likely that people who live in close quarters with dogs may be more prone to flu and other respiratory diseases.

Dogs don't wear shoes that can be taken off at the door, and they sniff around outside through pee and poop and old kleenexes, so their noses and feet bring home whatever they've picked up. And after the dog has licked his nose and feet (and various other parts) their owners cuddle up to them and say, "Give us a kiss".

I even knew a doctor who worried that his wife's multiple sclerosis might have been caused by their pet dog. He's dead now, so I can't canvas him again, but he may have gotten the idea from this study.

Not surprisingly, people who own (and breed/sell) dogs are now claiming these creatures have healing powers, and some people even pass their dogs off as service animals in order to take them everywhere they go. (I'm no psychiatrist, but dogs are perfectly okay when left on their own if properly trained, and this could be a projection of the owners' fears of being alone.)

Here's something Oprah is good for, even if not the Presidency. Although influenza is not mentioned (one is left to wonder why), it stands to reason her message would apply to that as well.

And as for dog-petting effectively lowering the heart rate, wouldn't a nice, washable teddy bear work just as well? Or better still, some yoga exercises or walking farther and longer than just letting the dog do its business -- most people do not get enough exercise. You may want to believe that your pet loves you, but it will love anybody who feeds it and rubs its belly.

Before you leap onto your high horse; I'm not a dog hater; in fact, I believe animals deserve a better, more natural existence than being bred on pet farms - and sold off to people who'd do better to learn how to meet their own needs instead of supporting cruel animal mills, crowded pet store cages, and the huge supplementary businesses they engender.

The massive pet industry is just another cynical get-rich scheme from birth to death, and all the necessaries in between - doggy beds, cages, exercisers, toys, flea powder, tinned and bagged food, de-clawing, de-barking, ear-trimming, poodle salons, pet cemeteries, pet trainers - and that's why so many people have been encouraged to believe that pets have innate healing qualities when the truth is more likely the opposite.

Well, whether or not dogs can give people the flu, there is just not enough convincing information out there to support getting the shot; in fact, Canadian flu statistics seem deliberately vague.

American stats are even vaguer, claiming 20 pediatric deaths out of a population of almost 326 million, without any information at all as to what other contributing problems those patients may have had.

But it isn't likely to surpass this kind of statistic (#2 in the List of Stories): Police in the U.S. fatally shot nearly 1,000 people in 2017.

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*History.net: Smallpox in the blankets is one of those stubborn legends that can’t be dismissed as myth because it is founded in a mixture of limited historical fact and widespread circumstantial evidence.

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