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2021-06-08 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

The Long Shadow of the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccine ‘Fiasco'

[Smithsonian] In the spring of 1976, it looked like that year’s flu was the real thing. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t, and rushed response led to a medical debacle that hasn’t gone away.

"Some of the American public’s hesitance to embrace vaccines — the flu vaccine in particular — can be attributed to the long-lasting effects of a failed 1976 campaign to mass-vaccinate the public against a strain of the swine flu virus," writes Rebecca Kreston for Discover. "This government-led campaign was widely viewed as a debacle and put an irreparable dent in future public health initiative, as well as negatively influenced the public’s perception of both the flu and the flu shot in this country."

To begin with: You should get a flu shot. You should certainly get all of your other vaccines and make sure your children get them. They will protect you and others from getting deadly and debilitating things like mumps, whooping cough, polio and measles. But this is a story about one time over 40 years ago when poor decision-making on the part of the government led to the unnecessary vaccination of about 45 million citizens. We can't blame it for the modern anti-vaccine movement, which has more recent roots in a retracted paper that linked one vaccine to autism, but it certainly had an effect on the public's view of vaccines.

On February 4, 1976, a young soldier named David Lewis died of a new form of flu. In the middle of the month, F. David Matthews, the U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare, announced that an epidemic of the flu that killed Pvt. Lewis was due in the fall. "The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus that is the most virulent form of flu," he said, reports Patrick di Justo for Salon. He went on: The 1918 outbreak of "Spanish flu" killed half a million Americans, and the upcoming apocalypse was expected to kill a million.

Posted by Besoeker 2021-06-08 07:15|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top

#1

We got the Hog-Flu vax when it got to GA finally. We were both mildly sick the next day, for about 48 hrs.

Since then we have avoided the growing all too common cycle of Panic Virus Vax's and just practiced common Flu environmental precautions.

Maybe Lucky, maybe just being more cautious.
But no infections from flu or etc... since 1978

Posted by NN2N1 2021-06-08 07:47|| 2021-06-08 07:47|| Front Page Top

#2 Wife & I both got that swine flu vaccine. I had a little soreness at the injection site for a few hours, same as with any other such shot. Wife was so sick she was afraid to go to sleep for fear she wouldn't wake up. (We believe my great grandmother died of the original 'Spanish' flu version.)

Posted by Glenmore 2021-06-08 09:30|| 2021-06-08 09:30|| Front Page Top

#3 expected to kill a million.

Big deal! The China Flu was going to kill 2.2 million Americans.

Our elitist betters have kept that down to about 600,000, so far. Trust the CDC! /sarc

Posted by Bobby 2021-06-08 10:54|| 2021-06-08 10:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Hmmm, the 'off sarc' tag disappeared.

Posted by Bobby 2021-06-08 10:55|| 2021-06-08 10:55|| Front Page Top

#5 ...My mother was about halfway through a 42-year career as an RN when this happened.

She refused to let us get it, swearing we'd never get it.

Mike

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2021-06-08 11:26|| 2021-06-08 11:26|| Front Page Top

#6 My wife and I were 'sicker than dogs' with this flu and mostly down and in bed for about 2 weeks.

Of course the kids were just fine and still had to get to school.

NOTHING closed. Never did get the vaccine.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2021-06-08 12:46|| 2021-06-08 12:46|| Front Page Top

#7 the 'off sarc' tag disappeared.

I deleted the angle brackets, Bobby. When you put something inside angle brackets, the program thinks it’s something that it needs to execute, not just display.

Posted by trailing wife 2021-06-08 12:56|| 2021-06-08 12:56|| Front Page Top

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