statism watch

Dr. Schabas is in the position of being at a remove from the public health industry – and make no mistake, it is an industry, with a marketing arm. That’s why he is able to get away with saying things like “A healthy child in Canada is about 20 times more likely to be killed by a car than by the H1N1 virus” while the nation’s chief public health officer is out selling the thing to the media.

Flashback: Ask military to help with H1N1: Ottawa councillor | Special H1N1 vaccine for pregnant women now here | Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Vaccine scarcity claims don’t add up | ‘No reason’ to delay seasonal flu shots, global health panel says | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Washington Man Paralyzed After Routine Flu Vaccination | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | Deaths Associated With Swine Flu Vaccine Reported In Europe | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | Swine flu vaccine approved in Canada | German Government to get special swine flu vaccine | Harper’s hedge on H1N1 shot sparks confusion | Higher instance of severe H1N1 cases in natives, women | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | US: Hospitals fear ‘Flumist’ H1N1 nasal vaccine could spread swine flu | New swine-flu wave hits GTA: Provincial Health Official | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Second wave of swine flu pandemic begins to hit US | Seasonal flu shots delayed for non-seniors on fears of increased H1N1 risk | Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses – with adjuvant additive | Genetically modified Swine Flu hybrid may provide vaccine yield solution | Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | Swine flu ‘related’ to 1918 pandemic virus – survivors exhibit resistance | Did leak from a laboratory cause swine flu pandemic? | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

CBC News
November 6, 2009

‘It amazes me that Evan’s death has captured a nation trying to find answers to a disease that is currently wearing the face of our beautiful son,’ his father, Paul Frustaglio, said in his Facebook eulogy for the 13-year-old Toronto boy.

Public health officials and journalists have overstated the importance of the swine flu, a former Ontario chief medical officer of health says.

Dr. Richard Schabas, chief medical officer of health for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in eastern Ontario, said the H1N1 influenza outbreak needs to be put into proper perspective.

About 200,000 people die in Canada every year from all causes combined, including about 4,000 from seasonal flu.

“By the time all the dust has settled on H1N1, somewhere between 200 and 300 people will have died in this country,” Schabas said Thursday during a panel on media coverage of H1N1 on CBC News The National.

Schabas criticized the media for not trying to put the story into perspective, and for being “a little too easy to spin sometimes” by public health officials.

“I’m not letting the media off the hook totally, but I think the real villains of the piece here have been those public health officials who have consistently overplayed and overstated the importance of what is happening,” he said.

“By the time all is said and done, this is not a major public health event, but you’d never know that from what some people are saying.”13-year-old’s death

The panel also looked at the front-page coverage given to the death of Evan Frustaglio, a 13-year-old hockey player from Toronto. Evan died on the eve of the H1N1 vaccine becoming available, and demand for the vaccine jumped overnight, catching health officials by surprise.

“It was very clear when we were reporting the lines that most of the people in there did say, ‘We came because we saw the story about that little boy,’ ” CBC reporter Ioanna Roumeliotis said.

Evan’s death and his grieving father’s plea to parents to consider vaccinating their children was a tremendous human interest story, agreed Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

But “I’m quite sure that the people who were reporting that didn’t necessarily think about what the consequences of that would be or the context that was in,” McGeer said. “What we saw afterwards was that it caused an enormous amount of fear and anxiety that we would all like not to have seen.”

A healthy child in Canada is about 20 times more likely to be killed by a car than by the H1N1 virus, Schabas said, but that isn’t going to make the national news.

“Children actually die of flu every year and a few more die of H1N1. This was not unexpected, and the way it was presented — as if this was a sudden bolt out of the blue, some change in our perspective of H1N1 — that’s what created the anxiety. It was the way it was presented.”

Source | See also under Health: Ask military to help with H1N1: Ottawa councillor | Special H1N1 vaccine for pregnant women now here | Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | Judge OKs Challenge to Human-Gene Patents | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Vaccine scarcity claims don’t add up | ‘No reason’ to delay seasonal flu shots, global health panel says | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Washington Man Paralyzed After Routine Flu Vaccination | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | No TV for tots under 2, says B.C. pediatrician | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | Deaths Associated With Swine Flu Vaccine Reported In Europe | Canada enters 2nd wave of H1N1 | Specialists now say H1N1 vaccine safe for pregnant women | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | Swine flu vaccine approved in Canada | Ottawa braces for own eHealth pain | German Government to get special swine flu vaccine | Woman Says Seasonal Flu Shot Triggered Seizures, Rare Disorder | Television – not in front of the children? 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