Swine Flu Vaccine May Go To Kids First
Schools in the U.S. may become the front line of defense against swine flu this fall by providing students with vaccinations against the H1N1 strain, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. I'm encouraged to hear that the government won't laying poolside this summer, but will instead closely monitor the progress of the ongoing influenza outbreak, which was declared a pandemic last week the World Health Organization. While H1N1 has yet to prove itself more lethal than the usual flu that arrives towards the winter months, officials want to take extra precautions, especially with young children as the strain has affected otherwise healthy individuals and could develop into a stronger threat.
Concerns over the safety of some vaccines and the uncertain nature of how the flu will spread, have likely made the government to take a more cautious approach, but nonetheless laying the groundwork for vaccinations sounds like a resonable plan. It would certainly be awful if the very plan designed to protect individuals from the pandemic, ended up causing more harm than good. Stay tuned here for more updates, and learn more about the connection between the swine flu and factory farming here.
Photo: rob shenk's flickr photostream (creative commons)
Guess that's the norm now - kids as guinea pigs. The US can't get the adult population to take its worthless seasonal flu vaccine, so we know adding a second worthless flu shot isn't going to fly...way around that? Use the school system as an arm of big pharma/big brother to get those kids vaxied up! And since the WHO has declared the piggly-wink cold a 'pandemic', schools can oust kids whose parents refuse the vaccine. Expect much homeschooling - and who knows what side-effects for the poor school age kids that become part of this experiment.