Those swines.....
In my absence over the past months we have had lots of 'interesting' news but one of the main ones that perked my interest was the emergence of a new strain of 'swine flu'.
Having a background in microbiology I watched the media outlets devote huge swathes of air time to this emerging pandemic from Mexico and it's rapid spread across the globe with infection counts, death counts and all the pandemonium and panic from governments.
Personally I found this story all a little odd. Firstly the resulting strain has genetic elements of swine flu, avian flu and human flu's. The explanation that this little concoction developed in a pig exposed to them and then mutated into the form we see now seems a little bit of a leap of faith. Now there are various conspiracies of this virus being deliberately released, I cannot say but it would seem far more likely this strain was developed in a lab than a 'natural' evolution of the virus.
The second odd thing was the death counts/infection rates and who was being infected (age groups etc). Figures were incredibly inaccurate and still are as some countries were better at record keeping and initial diagnosis. Despite the world wide panic (aided both by the media and WHO) it was occurring to me that the deaths although not in the normal categories of the elderly the deaths primarily were in people with weak or compromised immune systems. Also the deaths compared to infections were far less than seasonal flu which was perhaps due to less elderly catching this 'swine flu'. Actual deaths compared with seasonal flu are far, far less in the case of swine flu.
Thirdly I was shocked at the global response to this emerging pandemic regarding containment, and public health. Specifically the widespread use of anti viral drugs such as tamiflu. All good medical professionals and biologists know that virus's can mutate rapidly and over use of any drug will stimulate the virus to mutate quicker to overcome and develop an immunity to whatever agent you are using to destroy it. It was almost as if this widespread use of tamiflu was designed to fail and cause the virus to develop immunity. The blanket use of this drug in the UK was frightening to me.
In the UK we also had our NHS use call centres and hot lines to 'self diagnose' swine flu. Now I am aware doctors surgeries could be have been overwhelmed in the initial mass hysteria/panic but proper diagnosis will aid appropriate treatment, quarantine was at that stage ineffective so therefore pointless. This again was another mass tamiflu prescribed to the masses example after their initial phone call and 'do you have a cough, sore head, oh must be swine flu questionnaire...'.
Now we have reached a point where we are being warned in the UK of the 'second wave' and people are being on alert for mass vaccinations. This is where I get really scared. To have a properly tested, safe and effective vaccine in the time frame from the first outbreak is highly unlikely. Vaccines take time to test and trial over years not months. This flu is not killing people by the score therefore why should we all be exposed to something that could very well harm our health (and if you are allergic to things such as eggs potentially fatal) over the short and long term. Also in my opinion every single person that has been exposed to or contracted swine flu should not be vaccinated as thier immune system should now be able to respond if exposed again. People would be better off self quarantining whilst they have 'swine flu' and only seeking medical advice should they develop symptoms such as heavy fever and muscle pains beyond what would be expected of seasonal flu (or if they may be high risk such as pregnant woman or those with weak immune systems).
All this adds up to a poorly managed assault on our public health by the very people there to protect it. Conspiracy or not it is shameful that the people that should know better aren't shouting more about this. At least the UK doctors are refusing the vaccinations which is at least a start. If your GP who you trust to know whats in your best interests refuses to take a jab doesn't that tell you something?.
