Naturopathic Idiocy

Becca — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:33:39 +0000

Sometimes idiocy occurs naturally, and sometimes it takes a lot of work to happen. Case in point, the folks over at “Natural News,” promoting the idea that flu vaccines are “worthless.”

The article starts out with a tenable premise, but then works hard to come up with this asinine statement:

Consumer health advocate Mike Adams, author of “Conquering the Common Cold,” called flu vaccine shots “one of the greatest medical cons perpetrated on the populations of the world,” and questioned new U.S. policies pushing the vaccines on young children and expectant mothers.

“Flu shots only prevent colds in about 1 percent of people who get them, making them 99 percent useless,” Adams said. “They also inject unhealthy substances such as mercury preservatives directly into tissues, poisoning the patient with a chemical burden that accumulates with each flu shot.”

Dear Mr. Adams, as a “consumer health advocate,” you suck ass.

Do you even know the difference between the viruses that cause the common cold and influenza viruses? Because they aren’t the same. How about using something like Wikipedia as a start to understand that the common cold is caused by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Influenza viruses, on the other hand, are an entirely different line of illness.

In fact, the basic scientific premise is pretty much spelled out for you:

Although it is often confused with the common cold, influenza is a much more severe disease and is caused by a different type of virus.

The least you could do, as a “consumer health advocate,” is address this simple fact. I’m not a scientist by profession, but I’ve studied enough biological science to understand this basic premise of virology.

Influenza vaccinations are meant to treat only a single strain of an influenza virus. They are not a panacea for all influenza viruses. If we were to extrapolate your thinking, then you should argue for not receiving the polio vaccine since it doesn’t prevent the flu. However, I think that Jonas Salk may disagree.

WHO stops using term “Swine Flu”; Media says, “What?”

Becca — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:06:09 +0000

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that they will stop using the term “swine flu” to refer to the current influenza outbreak, in favor of the more technical term, influenza-A (H1N1). This was primarily in response to the Egyptian government—a government so profoundly stupid that there are no words in any language to properly mock them—for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of pigs to stop the spread of the disease.

… and the response from the media? Total fucking Retard-o-Rama:

WHO to stop using term ’swine flu’ to protect pigs

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term “swine flu” was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs.

“Rather than calling this swine flu … we’re going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A,” Thompson said.

The article then continues …

Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs Wednesday even though experts said swine flu is not linked to pigs and not spread by eating pork. Angry farmers protested the government decree.

…

China, Russia, Ukraine and other nations have banned pork exports from Mexico and parts of the United States, blaming swine flu fears.

…

WHO also reported the number of confirmed swine flu cases rose to 257 worldwide Thursday, with cases in Mexico rising to 97 from 26, with seven deaths. The WHO confirmed tally from the United States now stands at 109, with one death.

I find it utterly fucking amazing that the human race has been able to exist as a viable species for this long. The Egyptian government slaughters pigs to prevent the spread of a disease that isn’t related to pigs. Russia and China ban imports of pork because of fears about a disease that isn’t related to pigs. And when the WHO officially stops using the common name of the disease to help curb the stupidity of governments such as has been seen with Egypt, Russia, and China, the report on the change in terminology goes on and repeatedly uses the unnecessary and inappropriate term.

Of course, science doesn’t mean diddly squat to morons that have flipped into mob-rule/mass-panic mode. And it becomes necessary to issue statements such as this.

The Madman Speaks » Influenza-A (H1N1)

Naturopathic Idiocy

WHO stops using term “Swine Flu”; Media says, “What?”