Did You Get A Flu Shot?

Today's poll question; did you get a flu shot this winter? I don't bother with flu shots and this Christmas my whole family got sick except for me. I was certainly exposed to the virus, but it was never able to gain a foothold. I know lots of people who never get flu shots and never get sick, but I do believe that the people at risk of harm from the flu should be vaccinated. I have been vaccinated against polio, tetanus, hepatitis, maybe even smallpox, I just don't personally believe that I need flu and cold vaccine because I rarely get sick despite frequent exposure.

Certainly the pig flu has not been a story this year, but there have been a number of outbreaks of other bugs restricted to certain geographic areas that hasn't been getting much press.

What Ever Happened To The Pig Flu?

I seem to recall one year ago right before Halloween, Bob Rae appeared on the Soloman Show and proclaimed that every man, woman, and child in Canada must be provided with a pig flu vaccination or many would die. "Spooky Bobby" was trying to stir up some mass hysteria ahead of the annual day of fright. Stephen Harper would then have blood of innocent Canadian children on his hands, except that the crisis never happened and was completely blown out of proportion. Swine flu is less lethal than the normal flu. I haven't caught the flu in 10 years, and over that span I have had zero flu shots. You don't hear the Liberals doing the same fear mongering one year later; kind of makes you wonder whatever happened to this crisis?

On Halloween I am going to run the poll question: "which opposition member would you put on your front lawn if you really wanted to scare trick or treaters on Halloween?" Last year I asked:

WHAT IS THE SCARIEST COMBINATION OF WORDS THAT YOU COULD EVER HEAR ORIGINATE FROM THE MOUTH OF BOB RAE?

“As your newly elected Prime Minister…” (70%)
“I accept the honour of Finance Minister…” (11%)
“Your daughter and I are…” (6%)
“You will die from the flu…” (6%)
"I have been managing your retirement portfolio, and…” (5%)

Failed EI Program?

I read in the National Post that a Federal EI Program has "fallen flat", and is now being labelled as a failure. There was no fraud or mismanagement, just that the government had expected to take about 50,000 people on this retraining program, but there were only 6,000 "takers". Let me get this straight, we came in dramatically under EI spending projections and this is a failure? The spokespeople over at CAW are decrying the program as too restrictive, such that many unemployed don't qualify. I ask what percentage of currently unemployed people qualify for the retraining grant? If that number is lower than it should be, ease restrictions by 10%-20% to apply to the appropriate number of unemployed and extend the deadline for application. End of story.

The government claims that a substantial number of qualifying applicants did not know about the program. Is then to suggest that the government should have been running television and radio commercials about information about the economic recovery program? Because I can remember watching the Liberals in Parliament demand that the government pull commercials informing people how to claim grants and instead run thousands of ads reminding you to wash your hands before or after you touch anything. I even wrote about this, back before the hysteria over the pig flu was inflated by the CBC. You can view my thread on H1N1.

If more people need to know about the plan, run commercials and inform people who have applied to normal EI that they might be eligible for a retraining program. I certainly pay close attention to the news and had not heard of this grant until this morning when I logged into the post. Remember when the Tories were running commercials on how to claim the home retrofit grant and other information about the economic action plan? The Liberals became outraged that they were running those commercials instead of wash your hands commercials. They were using this as a talking point to prove that the government was responsible for deaths. This was while we had a minority parliament with the opposition threatening to collapse it if demands are not met. The government switches advertising resources, and now are getting hammered for it? That is damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Sometimes I look around and can swear the world has been flipped turned upside down.

Calgary Flames Competitive Advantage

I certainly believe that professional athletes should not be vaccinated against the flu while higher risk of harm people are not inoculated. Babies and old people should get a flu shot before Jarome Iginla. Of course I don't blame any of the Calgary Flames for allowing themselves to be inoculated, but rather the public health official (likely a hockey fan) who designated the rations for the Flames players. As a die hard Red Wings fan, if I had the resources at my disposal to ensure that Lidstrom, Zetterberg, and Datsyuk don't miss any games, it would be awfully tempting but that doesn't make it right.

And as one of the pundits who has been frequently writing about pig flu in Canada, just let me state how hilarious it is that the Liberal Party slammed the governing Conservatives for having only a single provider of vaccine when a Liberal Government signed the fucking contract that expires next year! It doesn't get much funnier than that, though they don't seem to be talking about that on the CBC. The CBC would much rather convince you that swine flu is killing babies.

Pneumonia V Swine Flu

This being International Pneumonia Day, I thought that I would statistically compare mortality risk with the number one viral killer of children in the world against the "sexier" pig flu that elicits all the TV time. Not once in the 3 hours that I spent watching CBC Newsworld today did I see a story about Pneumonia Day, about deaths and prevention. They were so pre-occupied with H1N1 that they hardly had the chance to break away to Pneumonia.

Two million children die every year from Pneumonia. The WHO estimates that nearly 5000 people have died from the swine flu this year. Let's assume that 60% of swine flu deaths are children (which is a guess, but even if it were 100% the final analysis is virtually unchanged) then 3000 children would have been claimed by H1N1 in the past year. 3,000 versus 2,000,000. For each child who has died from the pig flu, 667 have died from Pneumonia. Across the Planet, a child dies from swine flu about every two hours, and a child dies from Pneumonia every 15 seconds. See how many times you can count to 15 in two hours. One illness gets all the attention on my national broadcaster, and the other is virtually ignored.

If you have lost a loved one to H1N1 I am sorry for your loss, but on the risk of mortality scale the virus is very low on the list. There is no probable cause for Liberal induced mass hysteria. How many children have died in the past year in the world in motor vehicle collisions?

The CBC has a new H1N1 Logo

"The Politics of H1N1" is certainly not lost on the CBC, as they have designed a new Logo for H1N1 that is being prominently displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the screen on CBC Newsworld. That's right, somebody behind the scenes at the CBC recognized the "production value" of the flu and set to creating a Logo with a little production loop to run repeatedly all day. They even have a flash of light that illuminates the word "H1N1" in a constant loop. It is unfortunate that the team at CBC have set out to maximize the PR effect of a virus that is so far down the checklist of "things that could kill you tomorrow" and adding to mass hysteria which can grind economic activity to a halt doing more harm than the bug itself.

The Liberal party of Canada stands to gain if the hysteria catches on. It is another instance where what is best for opposition parties is not what is best for the country. A child dies of pneumonia every 15 seconds on this planet. How many children have died of pneumonia in the past month? How many have died from pig flu? And yet, where are all those PSA's telling parents how to keep their children safe from pneumonia?

The Canadian Economy also added thousands of jobs in October. Do you think they talked about that on the Soloman Show today?

Reporting Death

I have spent the last 30 minutes wondering how to write this without seeming brutally insensitive, but I have a problem with how the Canadian media is reporting death in recent weeks. I could tell you the name rank and serial number of everyone who has died from swine flu, but over that same period how many Canadians died of other causes that received no national media attention whatsoever? How many Canadians have died in car accidents in the last two weeks? Is the CBC talking about vehicle safety and how to reduce risk of a fatal collision? I don't have the exact statistics in front of me but I am comfortable predicting that when any Canadian leaves the house tomorrow morning, they are at least 1000 times more likely to die in any sort vehicle collision than they are to die from pig flu. At least, if not more. Even if you don't drive, you are at least 1000 times more likely to be struck by a vehicle to death than you are to die of the pig flu.

How many Canadians have died of cancer in the last few weeks, and why don't I know any of their names? Is cancer not sexy enough to make a news story? How many people drown in backyard swimming pools last year? Is the CBC discussing pool safety? How many workers died in heavy industrial accidents in October? How many people died from bee stings this summer? And so on and so forth.

I feel sorry for the families of the people who had loved ones die of H1N1, but I don't feel as though the media and Bob Rae inciting mass hysteria benefits the country. Sure it might benefit Bob's political career to unravel the fabric of our society. I was living 45 from Toronto when SARS hit. I remember what the hysteria did to economic activity. The harm inflicted on the economy was far more destructive than the bug itself. Bob, I understand how this benefits your political career, but looking into the camera on our public broadcaster and telling people that they are going to die from swine flu is abhorrent. They are 10,000 times more likely to be struck by a car crossing the street to get to the bus stop.

Everybody calm down.

Spook 'em with a Bob Rae costume!

If you really want to strike fear into the hearts of trick or treaters this Halloween, go down to your local costume store and buy your very own Bob Rae outfit! When the little rascals ring your doorbell, you can open the door and scream "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE OF THE FLU AND IT IS THE GOVERNMENT'S FAULT!" or perhaps something even more scary like "I HAVE BEEN PROMISED MINISTER OF FINANCE!" or even scarier "LET ME DO YOUR TAXES", or if you really want to give them nightmares "I WANT TO BE YOUR PRIME MINISTER!"

This is of course in reference to Bob Rae going on the Soloman Show and telling Canadians that they are going to die of the flu and it is the government's fault that Glaxo couldn't make enough vaccine for a bug that is less lethal than the normal flu. I understand how it benefits the opposition to create a mass hysteria, but it hardly benefits the country. The hysteria over SARS did far more harm than the virus itself, and SARS was far more lethal than pig flu. We should be promoting calm, not doing what Bob Rae is doing trying to frighten people.

Pig Flu Commercials?

Iggy is on my TV talking right now about how abhorrent it is for the Government to spend more money promoting their Economic Action Plan than on commercials to warn people of the pig flu. This is intended to cement the argument that the Liberal Party cannot possibly negotiate legislation with the Tories. Seriously? We need to run television commercials to warn people about the pig flu? The virus is no more lethal than the normal flu. Do we really need to whip the public into hysteria over the flu? Remember what happened to Toronto with SARS? It paralyzed the economy. The harm inflicted by the hysteria did far, far more damage than the virus itself. The Government should be buying vaccine for distribution to high risk citizens, yes. But television commercials? If we have never run ads for the regular flu, why should we do it for a bug with comparable mortality?

This brings me to the promotion of the Economic Action Plan. Have you ever heard of something called “consumer confidence”? When consumers are confident, they are more likely to engage in commerce. If we want to help speed this economic recovery, we are going to need to have the people of Canada participate. Setting up a webpage to tell people how they can save money or qualify for grants is a noble venture. The “sky is falling” PR strategy of the Liberal Party does more harm to our economy than the absence of “wash your hands and be afraid” commercials about the pig flu.

I do agree with Michael on the HST. That may not have been the brightest move by the Feds. Gordon Campbell says he only did it to extract the bounty from Ottawa.

I hope they remembered to wash their hands...

As I was casually surfing through the channels on my television set today, I did happen to catch Michael Ignatieff making his way through a crowd of adoring Liberal delegates, shaking the hands of every person he passed, even blessing some with a hug and a kiss. The first thought to go through brain? Didn't the WHO recently advise people against shaking hands while this pig flu is spreading? I get that the mortality rate for this virus is not much different from the normal flu; nor am I accusing the Liberal Party of negligence by behaving in a manner en mass that could further spread a potentially volatile pathogen in a Province that has already amassed 22 cases. Mostly I am just concerned about the health and safety of all those Liberal foot soldiers and Field Marshals. What a devastating tragedy it would be if a mutant pig flu was spread through the ranks of the Liberal Party of Canada at the coronation of Michael Ignatieff...

PS: "..." is the only way I know to lyrically express sarcasm...

One more thing, I also noticed that Mr. Iggy has adopted a particularly annoying behavior that I first noticed in Hillary Clinton. I'm sure Hillary wasn't the first politician to do this, it was simply the first that I noticed doing because she looked so ridiculous doing it at a crowded rally. "The Point" where the politician walks through a crowd or stands on stage and does the point to someone they know, raised eyebrows, and smirk look. At least Iggy stopped short of the awkward clap and waddle back and forth; so at least he wasn't quite so foolish looking as Hillary was, but it was creepy none the less.