News/Commentary

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said in an NPR interview yesterday that he understands people bring emotion to the subject of vaccination.

He can’t help with that, he said. He can help with facts.

Of course, scared and sense don’t go together. If you are scared, you’re scared. Your brain stops there.

In part due to the Internet, the U.S. government is communicating more often and more fully about what infectious disease experts are finding than ever before.  There is all of the information anyone could want at Flu.gov, a website designed to make it easy for people to get all of the influenza information the government has from one source.

In addition to that, there is the World Health Organization (WHO), whose statements have been in sync, for the most part, with the CDC. When the whole world’s public health leadership is in agreement on the big points, it is time for the whole world to listen.

There has been and will be a lot of back-and-forth among experts. First, they had to decide what it was.  Then they had to do the work to identify what groups of people were at highest risk. Does anyone know why those groups’ risks may be higher? Treatment discussions also are a back-and-forth process as doctors see what patients are responding to or are not.

A pandemic is different from other infectious disease events. It changes as it attacks, retreats and attacks again on a larger scale than usual.

Fortunately, this pandemic influenza has not yet mutated, or changed, picking up new strains in its travels. For that, we should all be thankful. Fortunately, a separate, seasonal strain has not emerged. For that, we should all be thankful.

Think of H1N1 like a hurricane. It may hit land. It may not. It may gather force as it goes or not.  Still, most people prepare. Then there are others, though, who have a hurricane party or who declare they are not going anywhere. The H1N1  pandemic and Hurricane Katrina have a lot in common.

Both gave notice they were on the way, although not a lot. Both killed.

H1N1 still is killing.

Hurricanes, through the forces of nature, do not last long. Pandemics can last a long time.

A pandemic is an unusual event by its definition. This is the first one in 40 years.

It may be that this is part of what has people so unsettled. It is so rare.

The symptoms of a true H1N1 case potentially are so serious, even life-threatening, that the continuing resistance to protection is puzzling but it has remained steady and unquestionably real.

Perhaps a poll could tell us this: What would it take for you to want to get the vaccine if you have not planned to before?

“What is it that would help you think it is safe?”

That is a fact no one appears to have the answer to—-not even Dr. Fauci.

The Washington Post

“Americans have become increasingly alarmed about the swine flu, but many are wary about getting vaccinated against the disease, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

“As the H1N1 virus continues to spread nationwide, a majority of those surveyed — 52 percent — now say they are “a great deal” or “somewhat” worried that they or someone in their household will be infected with it, up from 39 percent of those polled in August. Concern is rising fastest among young adults, one of the groups most vulnerable to the virus. In August, just 26 percent of those ages 18 to 29 said they were concerned; now 47 percent are worried.

“At the same time, however, many Americans are hesitant about being vaccinated or having their children inoculated. More than six in 10 say they will not get vaccinated, and only 52 percent of parents say they plan to have their children vaccinated, even though parents tend to be more worried about the flu.

“The findings illustrate the dueling challenges the federal government faces in its unprecedented effort to protect Americans against the first influenza pandemic in more than four decades. Federal officials have spent at least $2 billion to buy enough vaccine to inoculate at least half the population and pledged to provide the immunization to everyone who wants it.”

Washington Post-ABC Poll

Source: Washington Post, October 22, 2009