Swinery
I've been rather ambivalent about the whole swine flu vaccine issue. Here's why:1. I see people who are anti-vaccine in general as well...rather delusional. The chances of a negative side effect from the inoculation are minuscule compared to the dangers of the the disease itself. In the mean time their irrationality is endangering the rest of the population.
2. From everything I've seen, the swine flu doesn't have a higher mortality rate than the "regular" flu, so why all the freaking out? Additionally any injection that hasn't been subjected to the years of rigorous FDA testing to which we are accustomed does give me pause (though a rather short pause).
So what to do? Do I get the shot or not? Just about when I decided that I should get the shot (despite my overwhelming phobia of little pokey things), they're all out of it.
In the mean time, I'm not freaking out.
Comments
2. The drug approval process and FDA are ridiculous. There are like five phases of clinical trials and if the FDA discovers there's an error of some kind they make you redo the phase. They have all these testing centers all over the U.S. Needless to say, It's crazy expensive and takes 8-12 years. Only the first phase (or two) of trials has anything to do with actual safety. Most the phases have to do with the efficacy of the drug. Why do we need the FDA to protect us from placebos?
Another problem with the FDA is it gives insurance companies a reason to deny coverage for treatment. I once had a client who wanted these back implants covered, but the insurance company denied coverage under an efficacy clause in the insurance contract because the treatment was in phase IV clinical trials. Of course, the implants had been used in Europe and Japan for years with no adverse side effects. The alternative was fusing the clients bones together, which likely would have been covered, but again was not always effective, and once done, it could not be reversed.
John Stossel writes about how when the FDA announced the approval of a particular drug it said the drug would save 10,000 lives a year. Everyone applauded; no one said anything about how it took the FDA 12 years to approve the drug, or about all the people that died in the mean time.
To get around the FDA and all the regulations controlling access to drugs, a bunch of illegal markets have arisen. Doctors have underground networks where they try approved drugs for condition "A" on conditions "B" "C" etc. Here is an interesting podcast about this phenomenon by Professor Epstein:
Podcasts.http://www.law.uchicago.edu/node/1549
Not enough vaccines? Of course, the government is running the H1N1 vaccine program. Not sure why, as this is clearly something the private market can do, although there may be reason to subsidize it due to the negative externalities due to communicability.
If I remember correctly, (and I could be wrong) flu shots used to be a private enterprise, but then the Government (I think the Clinton administration) sets price ceilings because companies were charging "too much." Most companies producing the shot went out of business, and shortages resulted.
Another over-length post.
H1N1 has been an annoyance at work since it's tying up people and resources at the state and county health departments . So even though I don't plan to get the vaccine, it would be nice if everyone else did so that it would go away.
-Theresa