Long as I'm at it, your claim that, "in any given year, about 36,000 people can be expected to die from regular seasonal flu," the source of which, as is evidently your habit, you neglected to cite, comes straight from the CDC and is total bullshit. The British Medical Journal called the CDC's bluff back in 2005:
So, don't panic, but do get vaccinated? You mention two groups (by no means the most important ones, neither of which are professional scientific groups) who "say vaccines are dangerous and put children at risk" with no mention of why, or what risk, or of the facts which prompted these concerns, before blithely dismissing them, giving Beigi the last word (and vaccine proponents the only word, vaccine-wise, in this disinformative article).
"The proven maternal, fetal and neonatal benefit of maternal influenza vaccination far outweigh any unproven and/or theoretical concerns for safety."
I love it that you couldn't even be bothered to ask Beigi to cite this "proof." We all just get to "trust him, he's a doctor," when in fact it is the safety and efficacy of vaccines which are theoretical and have been mythologized, not their well-documented potential for public health disaster. Perhaps you missed Baxter's live bird flu "laboratory glitch" weaponization of their 2009 flu virus? Did it even occur to you to ask what company or companies will be producing the vaccines we'll get here in the 'burgh when swine flu season rolls around? For shame, Melissa.
Maybe for future swine flu coverage, CP should just print CDC press releases and be done with it. Less work for yinz, right?
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http://hermetic.com/bey/taz3.html#labelTAZ
Were these comments along the lines of, "Old Man's right, nothing is true, all really is permitted!"?
Solid piece, otherwise.
http://thinktwice.com/BMJ_Flu.pdf
"2009 flu virus?" works too, though.
"The proven maternal, fetal and neonatal benefit of maternal influenza vaccination far outweigh any unproven and/or theoretical concerns for safety."
I love it that you couldn't even be bothered to ask Beigi to cite this "proof." We all just get to "trust him, he's a doctor," when in fact it is the safety and efficacy of vaccines which are theoretical and have been mythologized, not their well-documented potential for public health disaster. Perhaps you missed Baxter's live bird flu "laboratory glitch" weaponization of their 2009 flu virus? Did it even occur to you to ask what company or companies will be producing the vaccines we'll get here in the 'burgh when swine flu season rolls around? For shame, Melissa.
Maybe for future swine flu coverage, CP should just print CDC press releases and be done with it. Less work for yinz, right?