Are you not aware that the US Government has officially indemnified (made safe from lawsuits) both all federal lawmakers and the H1N1 vaccine suppliers?
That's just one of the many suspicious circumstances surrounding the untried vaccines & the program to inoculate everyone.
The real question is: Why are we getting vaccines for this flu? It's a lot less deadly than previous seasonal flus. Why the concern?
> The real question is: Why are we getting vaccines for this flu? It's a lot less deadly than previous seasonal flus. Why the concern?
Actually, there is no evidence to support the claim that it is less deadly than previous seasonal flus and several bits of research that suggest it might be a bit more deadly than we thought. The first pass of this flu early in the year included some really, really bad reporting out of Mexico that at first made it appear to be the second coming of the 1918 flu and then made it look like a very mild flu strain.
So far, what we know is that it spreads very quickly because the general population has very few antibodies that can defend against it. In its current form it is not significantly more deadly than seasonal flu, but its mortality profile is a little different. It is leading to more pneumonia than most seasonal flus and it is also tending to kill more young people than standard seasonal flu, which usually kills the very young and very old but seldom kills people between those two extremes.
Given the rate at which flu mutates (and the possibility that this flu could pick up a particularly nasty mutation) and the lack of any significant herd immunity in the general population it is prudent to prepare for the worst and also to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
Apparently, some of the difference in mortality profile is because there hasn't been a major H1N1 flu in quite a while, so older people have some immunity to H1N1 that younger people don't have because their immune systems have never faced such a virus.
From what I had read (a New Scientist synopsis of a Univ of Wisconsin study, so my facts may be muddled) it was exposure to the 1918 pandemic that provided H1N1 antibody response. Since that flu variant lasted until 1920 we are talking about people who are at a minimum 89 years old. This is not a large enough cohort to appreciably tilt the mortality profile on its own, there is something else at work here as well.
The reason for the indemnification (happened here in Germany as well) is obvious: Without "enough" (a topic for endless discussions) research and trials, the pharma firms don't want to face potentially bankrupting class action law suits in case there is a minor defect with their vaccine - which they could have found if they have had more time to test it. As a business, I would do one of two things: (1) demand indemnification, or (2) raise the price high enough to cover potential damage awards; as the government doesn't want to pay (2), they go for (1).
The concern isn't that tens of millions of people will die. The concern is that enough of the population could get sick to ground society to a halt. If 10-20% of our hospital staffs and firefighters and police and teachers are sick (or missing work to care for sick relatives), that creates a major strain on the fabric of society. The deadliness of this flu isn't the concern, it's virulence is.
And that's ignoring the "it might mutate into something killer" issue.
This flu still kills some people. And even for those people who don't suffer serious complications, they are still sick for a few days. If there's no vaccination and the strain becomes epidemic, then you can expect to see at least a 1% drop in GDP solely due to everybody having to miss out on three or four days of work.
That's just one of the many suspicious circumstances surrounding the untried vaccines & the program to inoculate everyone.
The real question is: Why are we getting vaccines for this flu? It's a lot less deadly than previous seasonal flus. Why the concern?