what a surprise

[peacocks]

-Euro-health-chief.html can't believe this hasn't been posted yet

I wish I'd laid bets now -- why do people fall for it every time?

"He also claims that to further push their interests, leading drug companies placed 'their people' in the 'cogs' of the WHO and other influential organisations."

this is the head of health Council of Europe

now who was it taking the piss out of the idea that the WHO might not be entirely whiter than white

I posted in chat before but it was the middle of the night.. maybe am flogging a dead horse but I think it needs saying.

most people I know who have had it, or think they have, haven't bothered to tell anyone so those figures about how many have got it/have had it will be totally incorrect.

So will they stop the jabs for the under 5's?

They've bought them all Poppy -- I don't think it makes any difference to the programme for administering them, though it might make people think twice about whether they have them.

Fox, completely agree.

flippin heck conflict of interest if ever there was one

All that said, there are still an awful lot of very sick children in the hospitals - mild for most, but un-mild for more than usual.

Not based on anything I've read, but what doctors (trusted ones) have told me.

I don't regret vaccinating my dds one bit. And I agree with Fox.

But at the dishonesty, and any scaremongering - ugh.

I'm suprised anyone is shocked at the scaremongering. You could see it a mile off. We've been here before. It's vested interests all the way. So many people said it, predicted it, saw it.

But it will work next time too -- everyone will collapse in fear when some greasy pharmaceutical suit says the sky is falling.

who's to say he's right though?

He may have a political skew we don't know about.

I agree with Elibean. It's the risk groups I worry about as they seem to have been hit the worst, even if it's mild in everyone else. I would still hope that asthmatics/babies/those with other issues had the vaccine if it meant they didn't end up in hospital with some horrid complication. But I am, in general, pro vax .

Of course its shocking. Not surprising, but shocking.

That said, I don't think its nearly that black/white and I wouldn't trust the 'its all been hype' line any more than I would trust the 'we're all gonna die' line. Extremes are rarely accurate, IME.

I would appear on unofficial stats for swine flu as came up on questionnaires as having all the symptoms, and was given code for Tamiflu. I didn't take it as I was convinced I didn't have it.

I was actually diagnosed with pneumina, community aquired, not as a result of flu.

I was tested for swine flu, and for the first 36 hours or so in hospital I was seen my medical staff covered with aprons, gloves and masks, just in case. But I didn't have it - test was negative.

I would appear on unofficial stats for swine flu as came up on questionnaires as having all the symptoms, and was given code for Tamiflu. I didn't take it as I was convinced I didn't have it.

I was actually diagnosed with pneumina, community aquired, not as a result of flu.

I was tested for swine flu, and for the first 36 hours or so in hospital I was seen my medical staff covered with aprons, gloves and masks, just in case. But I didn't have it - test was negative.

It's not extreme to say there was new virus which could be dangerous but was usually not: and was not a pandemic with that label being pushed by pharmaceutical companies for profit reasons. With the help of placemen at the WHO.

Will people be more suspicious next time? It's all completely predictable.

True.

But lots of people (me included) have been suspicious of the hype from the start - but still couldn't be sure what was hype, and what wasn't. And more confusingly, trusted medical opinions have not made me think it was 'harmless to most', if you include young children. Because you do'nt know who 'most' are, even though there are higher risk groups.

I also think that early on, there was much more to it than hype: no one really knew how dangerous the virus would be, or how best to act. My uncle is a (retired) consultant microbiologist, and had constant internal emails to that effect - not from drug companies, but from colleagues all over the world.

Either way, since my dc are in a higher risk group, I'd have vaccinated. Hype or pandemic or no hype or pandemic.

I have felt very strongly from the beginning this was a scaremongering exercise. As a consequence, I haven't had my lot vaccinated. Even though one of them falls in a higher risk group. I got a letter this morning from the GP offering the vaccination to my 13 month son and again, it is a no. More people die from seasonal flu - it is just as simple as that. I am pregnant now but I will not have it either. The long term studies on this vaccine have not been done and I am left feeling uneasy to a point of not wanting any of it near my family. Life has attendant risk, I do all I can on a daily basis to protect my children from harm but this is a no-go area for me. I live my life on probablity rather than possibility and this whole episode has been an exercise in manipulation of parents in particular.

Mind you, this cold snap should slap the virus down a bit!

That's the first time I have ever agreed with anything in the Daily Mail!

Interesting how subjective it all is, really (the vaccination angle, not the hype)

I suppose, if I hadn't seen dd2 nearly die from an upper respiratory tract infection (that doesn't hospitalize most children, doesn't kill most, etc etc) I might have felt differently. But seasonal flu does NOT kill more children, thats the difference.

So I still have no regrets re vaccinating (then again, I'm not anti vaccination and dd2 is vaccinated against seasonal flu anyway).