The Swine Flu 2009-2010 - Updated

Shortly thereafter, the government pushed forward with efforts to develop a vaccine and set up protocols to handle the imminent outbreak.

Around the same time, I learned that my son and his family in Minnesota had caught the H1N1 and were given Tamiflu. Yet, when I asked if they really had the H1N1, they reported that they had never actually been tested. The doctor merely diagnosed it as H1N1.

Recent discussions with others who allegedly had the H1N1 turned up the same response, "we've never been tested, but I had the H1N1."

Now CBS (with some real journalism - yahoo) has reaffirmed my worst fears. In fact, according to their October 21, 2009 article, "...in late July (2009), the CDC* abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there's an epidemic?"

And that is what is so disconcerting. Just because the government says, "it's already been proven, then it's true," does not mean that it is! And evidence compiled by CBS News suggests that this is the case. Further, even with a Freedom of Information Act request, CDC and other government agencies are balking at providing information to CBS.

I'm not saying that the H1N1 is not important to study and diagnose. It is. But not at the expense of panic, which is what the pandemic label and all the current statistics are making it sound like.

Rather, people need to be tested before they are labeled as H1N1 "victims." And we need to get a handle on who actually died as the result of H1N1 and what type of pre-existing conditions, if any, they may have had that contributed to their deaths. Just saying that so many individuals died of the H1N1, without the statistics to support it, is just bad science!

* the CDC stands for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are several other reasons for my concern about how this "pandemic" is being handled. First, people who really have H1N1 develop immunity. But if they really didn't have the H1N1, then they have a false sense of being safe, according to the CBS report. They may not get an H1N1 shot because of this.

But, equally important, is the push to produce and distribute a vaccine that may not be needed by as many people, at the expense of ensuring an adequate supply of normal flu vaccines.

How much money is this costing the taxpayer and who is making the big bucks because of it?

Finally, the amount of planning for the pandemic, and associated actions (e.g., including closing of schools, canceling events and more), may simply have been unnecessary.

Since almost everything today seems to a crisis or a pandemic - health care legislation, global warming, H1N1, banking system, and the list goes on, it is clear to me that sky really is falling (virtually at least).

Yet, where action seems to be needed most quickly - the "war on terror" - our leaders want to study things some more before acting.

If we can "think" Afghanistan," then why can't we 'think' before we head down an expensive and unproven road on other issues? Just because the government or someone else says there is a proven problem doesn't make it so. Let's plan for the problem initially while we are proving its existence, and then and only then act with the necessary will to really solve it.

Meanwhile, I'll be compiling and addressing the myriad of other "crises" that loom...the list is long, unproven and, unfortunately, growing.