To those doubting amalgam fillings are bad (earlier in this thread):

US issues health warning over mercury fillings
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...gs-856582.html

On swine flu:

This is ridiculous. The vaccination situation in Canada is a mess; Glaxo is for whatever reason unable to supply the amount of vaccines that they promised, and it's making an already horrendous vaccine program even worse. Various governments are passing blame, and the buck.
Clinics had been scheduled for people to show up and get shots, and initially all were welcome. People lined up in droves. Then, when the shortage materialized, it became that only "high risk" people were to be accepted for shots (and I have my own opinion on their determination of who's high risk and who isn't (I think it's B.S.), but that's another thing..) and people were lining up in BIGGER droves; folks were assembling early in the morning, and average waiting times (out of doors, mind you) were from 5 to 9 hours, with most people being turned away sooner or later.
Finally, when clinics ran out of vaccine, the clinics were closed and signs put on the doors reading such stuff as 'closed until further notice', and the whole vaccination scheme is being re-worked now.

Here's the totally retarded part, which I really wanted to write about:

People were/are selling their positions in line-ups, for cash!! Heh.. Crazy! And now that those few clinics and other locations that are currently open to 'high risk' people only, are experiencing people jumping the queue and otherwise doing what they can to get ahead, the clinics are doing a triage sort of thing, and are giving out orange bracelets to those who are high risk, so that they are "guaranteed" a vaccine-- and now, officials claim they are having to deal with "scalpers" who are accumulating these orange bracelets somehow, and selling them to the highest bidder!

*$#@% humans...

That reminds me of that goofy girl that was interested in buying an Iphone when they first came out. She even told the reporter, after she paid some kid a lot of money for his spot in line, that she was going to buy a whole bunch of em and sell them on ebay.

Shortly thereafter, she was introduced to the company policy regarding the sale of Iphones, and that policy is ONE PER CUSTOMER!

Someone apparently took the time to capitalize on those types of people, just like the kid she paid did.

He not only got an Iphone, but all of the accessories, and still had some change left over.

To relate it to the vaccine - Dude probably doesn't care one way or the other, cuz he got enough $$ just by being there to keep his bowl filled for the duration of the illness and/or not illness.

Yeah, the service delivery is a mess here. Could be a little worse (not much) and could be a whole lot better.

The problem is that multiple levels of jurisdiction are involved. Federals set policy and the legal framework. Province pays for product and sets distribution availability/triage policy. Municipalities are responsible for inoculations. Charming. It's tough enough to get private industry to hit the mark on something like this and harder still to get even one level of government to hit the mark consistently (some are better than others), but three? It's an ugly coordination gig and clearly it has been handled badly. The good thing is that this should help straighten things out for the next time - however many years down the pike it may be.

Indeed, they are saying this will be a learning experience for "next time", and that's great, but I *thought* that's what they said "last time" when there was the SARS 'epidemic' a few years ago -- so how many 'next time's will it take, I wonder?

Sasha

I dunno. Houston said, after the last hurricane, that they'll do better next time. They did pretty well with Ike, not so well with Rita, so third times a charm, right?

You know it's interesting, but many students at my school also doubt the existence of any swine flu.

Here's my reasoning so far (let's say I'm not trolling for this little bit):

1) I've never had the flu.
2) I've never had the flu vaccine.
3) Swine flu is LESS deadly than regular flu.

-> Why should I take the vaccine ? Because the gubmint says so ? F*** them !

... well, ok, maybe I was trolling there too, I can't be sure.

By the same means:
I have never had any of the things I have been vaccinated for
I never had those things before I got vaccinated
Those things must not exist

So why should I get vaccinated? Oh yeah, that's right [i]because I could be a carrier without being affected[/b].

Ah, but then if those who were concerned would be vaccinated, they wouldn't have to worry about it. Besides, most vaccines do NOT prevent a carrier state, actually ... which is very bad. My microbiology teacher said this, and that it may actually do more harm than good. Because you can look normal and not show symptoms, but be secretly carrying a disease and spreading it, and nobody has a clue ...

But having taken reasonable steps to prevent outbreaks, I will certainly feel like I'm doing my part. Saying "never mind the vaccine, it only prevents 80% of catching it" is stupid, saying "I have a greater chance of not catching it or passing it on if I get a very quick injection" is more responsible and sensible.

@ Dogs -- interesting you mention the hurricanes; on TV here, somebody likened Prime Minister Stephen Harper's reaction to the Swine Flu thing, to G.W.Bush's reaction to the Katrina situation. And while "they" often make such analogies and toss a lot of rhetoric in the legislature/whatever up here, they don't usually stoop to that sort of extreme (of comparing anything to Bush's reign of- whatever it was..)

@ Typhoid Ray -- or maybe more like Swineoid Ray! heh...

I have had "the Flu" in my lifetime; the last time I remember was so long ago that I can't exactly remember how old I was. And I'm not sure which was longer ago: last time I had "the Flu", or last time I had any kind of vaccine for something.

I tend to agree with (3) above, though without any scientific basis for my agreement-- it's just what I think. And, I'm also of the mind to agree with -> above too. Just because. I don't like to listen to the gubmint either, because they are full of a lot of sh*t, a lot of the time.

Sasha

Well, one thing is clear ... they are blowing this thing more out of proportion then anything I've ever seen within my lifetime. Seriously, they are up to something here. Now, to figure out what ...

Ok..

Let's pick it apart then.

What are all the items we can consider to be part of the same school of thought?

Reporters saying the world is gunna end?
.gov saying the world may end?
.gov pushing for unprecedented levels of power?
.mil in America?
.edu saying the world may end?
The stock market being full of con men and pyramid builders?
The increase in paramilitary activities conducted by law enforcement throughout the nation?
What do unions have to do with it?
The public in general, being without morals or ethics, lacking in virtue, and knowing nothing of honor or respect?

Keep adding stuff to that list. I betcha there's an algorithm just waiting to be discovered.

PERHAPS it's not even what it is.. PERHAPS, we're just worried about the bullshyster news that's directed towards these people, and no one really reports to anyone else.. because damn, I haven't met anyone that thinks like me in the 7 years I've been in Houston. I've met a lot of people, too. Maybe they know that people like me don't sum up to a huge number, therefore we may be omitted in the best interest of the company.

Similarly, other people don't read the same kind of news I do, and in saying that I mean - I get news from all over, I revisit old news articles from all over.. I don't have favorite sources of information, I only care about information.

I get the feeling that the majority of the world watches the same channel, or a few different channels, and they "trust" that channel. In doing so, that channel makes a lot of money from "regular" viewers, and, well.. that's what it's about (for the owners anyway).

Now, what's interesting is when .gov gets a say in how these channels operate. What happens when .gov has a machine that the masses trust, and this machine is used to disseminate information supporting the going's on in the world (perhaps only by omitting its control over the machine from the headlines)?

Well, I've never met anyone that thinks like me either, never, in fact, not even close.

I'm so sick of this propaganda, I don't want to hear it anymore. But, they keep pushing it. It's like everyone around me is a tape recorder, they record from the central propaganda network, move about the city and play back the tapes they have recorded. Not only that, but they all agree on the info they present to each other (oh it's so silly as to make it hilarious and extremely depressing). Many are lucky to have enough tape to record it all ... much less, to record it accurately or to play it back accurately. I seriously feel like punching them in the face sometimes, it might just stop the tape from playing...

In our media based society we have created a position where they are more watched by more people than at any time in history. So, if they sit by and people die and they do nothing, is the effect less than if they do something? The answer is no. Governments cannot win until they free themselves from the media's influence, act rationally not in a way to garner votes or money and start to listen to their expert advisers.

Unfortunately, over the last what, 50 years? we have developed the government that we, as a worldwide people, seem to have wanted. Well done us.