The problem with that is that your immune system is built against the things you already had. Such as the normal flu/influenza, cold, etc. The swine flu is new and thus your immune system won't really know how to handle it, no matter how many times you've been sick as a child.

From the sounds of it, swine flu isn't any worst than the regular flu. I eat the regular flu for breakfast (I was a very sickly child). Maybe it does affect different people differently, but according to the ol' doc, there's no difference.

11 years ago I had the flu... as in the real flu. Reading the fuss over swine flu makes me laugh a little on the inside because my trip to the ER over the flu I was barely able to keep focused and had not been able to eat anything for two days. I forget what they did to me, because I wound up sleeping for 12 hours and finally feeling somewhat better. If I waited another day to go to the ER it was possible I could have perished from your average standard old flu.

(Your yearly flu can be just as deadly as swine flu, I can only guess the fuss is that H1N1 is... more bad?)

> going to refuse getting various shots that will keep you alive.

LOL @ swine flu vaccine keeping me alive, you're a real sucker !!! drink it up, dude, enjoy that vaccine it was MADE FOR people like YOU ! We'll take our chances with diseases and our immune systems in my house. ( and we've already done the swine flu anyway )

p.s. people usually live to be about 85 in my family and 90 in my wifes family and most of them dont take any of your "life extending" pharmaceuticals at all.

So remember kiddies, eat those pills, drink those cocktails, accept your injections! The medical industry may be wholly profit driven on your symptoms and despair, but you can rest easy they're doing the best they can for their stockholders.

>> ^nach0s:
That's why I love the sift. We can love and hate our political commentators/figures at the same time. Frist is not perfect, he has his own issues (Terry Schiavo, anyone?) but Maher is wrong on this issue, imo. Frist makes a good argument, and it isn't a shouting match.


This is just what I was thinking.

Still, I wish I knew what to think about this. I normally lean towards not bothering with a flu shot, but I heard on NPR yesterday that 40% of the people being hospitalized for swine flu had no pre-existing conditions.

I have seen someone get extremely ill after getting a flu shot though, and even though I know that it's unlikely, it still comes to mind every time I think about vaccinations.

On the topic of swine flu vaccines, Maher doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. And that's even with some major issues to criticize, especially with pretty significant gaps being jumped in the FDA's clinical trials (relying instead on foreign trials, which are of variable reliability) right now because of the rush to get vaccines to market in preparation for if/before shit can hit the fan.

Maybe he's reasonable in questioning the many biases (social, governmental, corporate, etc.) that can influence the adoption of particular vaccines, but it's easy to handwave and fingerpoint without examining any clinical data, the kind of stuff Maher clearly hasn't even farted in the direction of much less mulled over himself.

Also Frist is delusional if he thinks the US has the best healthcare in the world. Then again, this is the same asshole who gave a completely incorrect, uninformed opinion on Schiavo's PVS based on an hour or two of video footage of her.

How many deaths in recent years have there been from the regular flu vaccine (shot)? Have they determined the shots as a cause or just coincidental. I've tried looking a little but couldn't find anything solid. The only thing I found was something from 1976 about swine flu vaccine from the CDC:

"In 1976, there was a small risk of GBS following influenza (swine flu) vaccination (approximately 1 additional case per 100,000 people who received the swine flu vaccine). That number of GBS cases was slightly higher than what is normally seen in the population, whether or not people were vaccinated. Since then, numerous studies have been done to evaluate if other flu vaccines were associated with GBS. In most studies, no association was found, but two studies suggested that approximately 1 additional person out of 1 million vaccinated people may be at risk for GBS associated with the seasonal influenza vaccine. FDA and CDC will be closely monitoring reports of serious problems following the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccines, including GBS."

This video has been declared a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by Sagemind.

*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Swine-Flu-Conspiracy

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Swine-Flu-Conspiracy

Americans think of medical insurance as end-to-end coverage because that is how the medical insurance industry markets itself to consumers. Blame your private market.

Illegals are here because of the private market as well, and their lobbyists. The laws aren't enforced because they would hurt the bottom line of the agri-industry, and disrupt the whole food supply chain.

But I bet you blame the government or the consumer for both issues.

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It makes sense to have end to end coverage because in the long run routine checks prevent problems from exacerbating, and thus becoming more expensive.

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The nativists in our country totally lose it if they think a chicano (citizen or not) will get any benefit, even if having such a program would ultimately help the nativist.

With swine flu and all the other recent bugs floating around, it's rather short sighted to refuse health care to mexican nationals. I don't want an epidemic to spread because some nativist barred a coughing migrant worker from a clinic.

That was the best part of a great concert. Much love for Wil Wheaton. Gamers couldn't ask for a better spokesman, unofficial or otherwise.

I just hope he didn't catch the H1Nerd1 virus.

So what exactly is the point here? A conference is held, apparently to discuss what to do in the unlikely event swine flu turns out to be a serious epidemic? All of these are rational responses to an outbreak of a dangerous, contagious disease. What should they be discussing? Making informational packages containing instructions on synthesizing swine flu vaccine so everyone can make their own, in their own homes? Reminding everyone to stock up on bullets so they can shoot the infected?

Seriously, if you anticipate a widespread epidemic of a potentially deadly disease, it is prudent to discuss what to do with the bodies and how best to curb the spread of the disease. I don't see what the issue is here, apart from rampant paranoia.

First things first -- Medicare is more efficient. The rate of cost inflation for Medicare and Medicaid have been slower than the inflation costs of private insurance.

As for the "moral" question, why indeed should I care about anyone else? I mean, if my neighbor's house catches fire, surely there's no chance mine will catch too.

Surely if my neighbor loses his job, and then loses his home, my property's value won't decline.

Surely if my neighbor catches a communicable, dangerous disease like swine flu, I'm sure I'll never catch it from him.

Even people to which selfishness is a virtue should realize we're all invested in each other's fates.

Plus, are conservatives utterly convinced that they can't lose their job, or lose their insurance, and that even if they do that they're immune to serious illness?

I just don't understand why they're so dead set against a safety net, when they're as likely as anyone else to get cancer, or hit by a drunk driver.

Bullshit, first of all. Second of all, this is Russia Today News, and if anyone here has been to Russia other than me, you might know how happy Russians are to throw around cock-eyed conspiracy theories (especially about the US) that border on peasant fables. Sorry, I'm not a Slavophobe, I just know a lot of Russians.

Third, this is coming from Wayne Madsen, whose views seem to be highly controversial, such as the idea that swine flu was man made, or that israel was secretly planning to invade iraq. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Madsen

"What evidence do you have to suggest?"

"I've actually seen documentation..."

Sorry, wayne. Even if I like your facial hair, I don't like your credibility.