Classic Rant #147 (December 7, 2009): Swine Flu By Me

What is this hysteria over the swine flue virus anyway?

Every 30 years, we seem to be inundated with reports that a new strain of the swine flu virus--in this politcally correct world, now called H1 N1 so as not to offend pigs, I guess--has come about, and that we all must be innoculated or we will spread the virus to the masses and die.

I didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now.

I am not saying that the virus is one to shun altogether--there are certain groups that should be innoculated, including high risk groups like the elderly and those with weak immune systems.

But this mass hysteria ... well, I don't know about that. The media loves to pick up on a cause, and the cause the past few months has been swine flu.

The Obama administration is also going full tilt into this, and will be getting the innoculation word across through some new ads that we will start seeing soon.

How piggish of all of them!

I guess I am lucky. I am not in a high risk group, and it is really my choice whether I get the shot or not.

But I vote not to get the shot. I don't think I need it, and I don't think the threat is all that great.

True, I am not a doctor, but I just don't feel I should get a shot for a virus that I don't feel I am going to get. And if I do get it, I don't think that it will hamper me that much.

Admittedly, this could be a foolish decree. I could get it, and I could get very sick from it.

But I am willing to take my chances. It seems that most people who do get it recover pretty quick. There is a small minority who get it and get very sick--or even die--from it.

Just like from the regular flu.

I also don't like school children being forced to get the shot. At this stage of the game, I think it is necessary to have a parent's consent before kids get this shot.

Again, my mind could change instantly if the swine flu becomes a threat to myself and my family. But right now, I think it isn't, and thus, I won't be getting the shot.

I take shots enought each year for my allergies--two shots each month for the past nearly 40 years--to be so brazen. I am not afraid of the shot, itself, I am just afraid that the shot is completely unnecessary at this stage of the game.

And I hope it doesn't become necessary any time soon.

I have to tell you, I survived measles when I was a child, several years before they came up with an shot for it. I remember, I must have been about two years old, being quarantined in the house. No one could see me. It was bad, but I survived.

I also had chicken pox in my late 40s. That was not fun, either, but I survived that one too.

I will survive this one, I think, so I will bypass the shot ... at least for now.