Flu and other senseless deaths

The number of Swine Flu deaths in the United States is rising alarmingly.

The number of children who have died from swine flu has jumped sharply as the virus continues to spread widely around the United States, striking youngsters, teenagers, young adults and pregnant women unusually often, federal officials said Friday. . . . At least 37 states are reporting widespread flu activity, up from 27 a week ago.

Fortunately, we have a good vaccine that's just become available that will handle this. Unless people start acting like morons. Oh, too late.

Yes, the anti-vaxxers are endangering lives again. Now, not only are the anti-vaxxers endangering children from typical childhood diseases, they're endangering children from flu pandemics.

Mary Peterson of Des Moines, Washington, doesn't believe the vaccine for the novel H1N1 flu has been studied enough to get it for herself and her daughters, who are 1 and 3 years old.

"I wrestled with it," she said. "I think the side of caution in this case is just waiting until we have more information."
...
Peterson isn't against all vaccines -- she and her daughters have already gotten the seasonal flu vaccine, for example. But she is concerned about mercury in some of the new vaccine varieties. Thimerosal, a mercury preservative found in the multi-dose vial H1N1 vaccines, has been controversially linked to autism, though no studies have proved that theory. Peterson said she is also concerned about the toxicity of mercury.

I don't blame Ms. Peterson. She's just reacting to all the bullshit floated around the Internet. I blame the anti-vax morons like Jenny McCarthy and Generation Rescue whose lies kill children.

Listen up people: We know a GREAT DEAL about how to produce effective and safe flu vaccines. We've been doing it for decades. This is NO DIFFERENT.

Take this to heart: Vaccinations have saved more lives than any other medical procedure in history.

So get out, get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated, and be safe.