Someone should make a longer documentary about the swine flu (H1N1) scare of 1976.
It's clear the government acted from the best motives, but it was a non-starter.
The best writing on this I've encountered is the chapter dedicated to it in Laurie Garrett's stellar nonfiction book The Coming Plague (1994).
A brief synopsis.
Guillain-Barré is scary as hell. It can be caused by the flu vaccine (on the order today of one in a million) but it can also be caused by the flu itself (much more frequently). I've seen accounts of it occurring in a variety of viral syndromes. And yet it still seems to remain a medical mystery when it comes to the mechanics of what is actually occurring in the human body.
It's clear the government acted from the best motives, but it was a non-starter.
The best writing on this I've encountered is the chapter dedicated to it in Laurie Garrett's stellar nonfiction book The Coming Plague (1994).
A brief synopsis.
Guillain-Barré is scary as hell. It can be caused by the flu vaccine (on the order today of one in a million) but it can also be caused by the flu itself (much more frequently). I've seen accounts of it occurring in a variety of viral syndromes. And yet it still seems to remain a medical mystery when it comes to the mechanics of what is actually occurring in the human body.
Some speculate that the government's initial response to AIDs was so lackluster because the epidemiological cognoscenti had only recently sounded the panic alarm for an epidemic which never materialized. Perhaps they were afraid of crying wolf again a mere five years later.
No comments:
Post a Comment