And happy new decade. The first decade of the 21st century was quite an experience, beginning with the contested presidential election here in the US, and now ending with the fight for healthcare reform, a would be terrorist who managed to get an explosive on a plane due to the stupidity of our so-called intelligence agencies, and hope for economic recovery.

Oh yes, and the selection of an obese surgeon general at a time when obesity is fast becoming the number one health issue in this country (what were you thinking, Barack????).

I don’t have any predictions for this year, other than I hope that the healthcare reform bill is miraculously transformed into something that resembles reform and not a sweetheart deal for the insurance industry. It is difficult to say what this year will bring for nurses, but regardless, nurses need to stand up for themselves and make an effort not to take abuse and to demand respect.

Really, I hate to call names, but I have to wonder about the mental stability of those who are occupying Senate seats and trying to reform the nation’s healthcare.

One of the wunderkind had a brilliant idea of taxing people undergoing cosmetic surgery and procedures in order to “pay” for healthcare reform. Not that these people are already paying for these services out of pocket, and they have nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand. But I suppose it was the idea that only rich folks get their faces tightened and tweaked, so why not milk them a little more.

Well that didn’t go over well with the plastic surgeons, derms, and others who make money from this. And healthcare reform needs the support of the medical community, so they dropped the “Botax.” Next victim–tanning salons.

Now, we have elected officials, who supposedly have some degree of intelligence, who believe that they are going to solve the money problem by taxing tanning salons. And here’s where the eyes roll round and round and round.

If the bill is passed in its current form, a 10-percent tax would be placed on individuals buying tanning services. Who are paying for these services out of pocket already. But they think that taxing tanning salons are going to raise $2.7 billion over 10 years. Are they totally daft? First, why should someone using a tanning salon, paying out of pocket, be taxed for it?

Second, unlike cosmetic surgery, which can be quite expensive, tanning salons are quite cheap. A session in a tanning bed cost about $10 or $20 dollars. Unless someone is a really heavy duty user, it isn’t gong to add up to much. And with the tax, people may just use it less often. But really, getting a dollar or two here and there is just not going to raise a lot of money.

So here’s a brain twister for them. If they want to raise money and improve health at the same time, slap a tax on McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Coke, Pepsi, candy bars, sugary breakfast cereals, pesticides, and all foods that you need an organic chemistry textbook to decipher the ingredients with. Tax commercial agriculture, tax the commercial beef/chicken industry (put a hefty tax on the hormones and antibiotics that they feed to the animals), etc.

Tax all the unhealthy stuff. This way, people can pay in advance for their future diabetes and heart disease care! Or their future cancer.

But these are powerful industries, so they get treated with gentle loving care. Preventing disease in the first place is the single most important thing that real reform needs to look at, but unfortunately, politicians will be politicians.

Anyway, I am so fed up with this. What we need is real reform of the insurance industry, and then real measures to lower healthcare costs. But that would mean stepping on a lot of toes, so no one wants to go there.

Yes, I will be so politically incorrect and utter those forbidden words….Merry Christmas. Not Happy Holidays, Not Seasons Greetings, but Merry Christmas. Because like it or not, today is Christmas Day.

This message is from Daily Word, December 24:

In a transforming moment, thoughtfulness becomes my practice in life and generosity becomes my expression of love. As I give birth to new ways of thinking, feeling and being in the world, the love and life within are renewed and revealed, in large acts of generosity and love or in simple acts of kindness. These are the sacred experiences that bring life and love to my family, community and humanity.

The spirit of Christmas….

…or the nearly dead. That is a common and worn out ploy used in many movies and TV shows–the person who is suspected dead suddenly rising up and ready for another round of battle. It is generally so contrived and so expected, and generally so silly and unbelievable, that it is a wonder why this gimmick is still so widely employed.

Well, today Dr. Jollywood is going to visit something similar that was employed in a book. Yes, a novel that was meant to be “real world” as opposed to sci-fi or fantasy. Although, reading this book, you have to wonder what reality the author was living in.

I feel a little bad about criticizing the book because the author is deceased, and died before any of the 3 novels of his trilogy were published. I’m talking about Steig Larsson, the wunderkind Swedish journalist and editor, who wrote three books and started a 4th before he finally sent them to a publisher.

He died suddenly of a heart attack, or so its said. There is a bit of controversy about his death, as he was a bit of a socialist militant, undoubtedly made many enemies, and his death was rather sudden.

At any rate, it was because of his obvious intellect, intelligence, education, and ability to do research that I was so astoundingly horrified by his second books, The Girl Who Played With Fire. No, I am not going to put in the link to Amazon–I refuse to perpetuate awful books that somehow make it to bestseller lists.

As a caveat, I enjoyed the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and was thrilled that he had written 2 more books before he died. But Fire was as if a different person had written, one who was too ignorant even to figure out that during flood conditions, people do not go and hide in basements (yes, there is a mind numbing chapter, the first, of a hurricane scenario on a tropical island–I should have stopped reading then).

The book plodded along at a frightening slow pace, filled with cartoonish one sided characters, shopping lists of what characters purchased at the local 7-11 (Billy’s Pan Pizza is a favorite), a dull plot, and one of the most moronic endings in the history of publishing. Can you tell how much I enjoyed this?

But it is obvious that the author got so caught up in his own agenda, that he neglected the idea of doing the simplest bit of research, or using basic common sense or his own life experiences (Steig, ever got an injection? More on that). The ignorance is most apparent in his rendition of human physiology and healthcare settings, police investigations, and weather.

Even though I’m starting to get carried away, I will climb down from the soap box and concentrate on what Dr. Jollywood does best–pointing out the faux pas and idiocies in the media, as it relates to health and medicine.

The Girl Ignored

The first medical idiocy is Larsson’s rendition of life in a psychiatric hospital. The protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, is a violent, non-communicative, and maladapted girl of 12. Now, do you think that this person is a candidate for oral medicine? Well, Larsson thinks so. In this story, they try to force pills into Lisbeth, undoubtedly to treat her psychotic and dangerous behavior (she just set a person on fire). Lisbeth makes herself throw up. The old hand down the throat and gag routine.

Next, the profoundly stupid doctors tie down her hands when they force pills down her, but Lisbeth outsmarts them and learns to make herself throw up without physically gagging herself. Of course, Larsson doesn’t explain what happened in the interim–between the time that they were forcing pills down her and when she learned to do insta-puke without her hands. I mean, surely the drugs would have kicked in and subdued her?

But at any rate, since Lisbeth has become so adept at throwing up her drugs, they just decide to stop giving them to her. Now I wanted to puke after reading this. Um, I guess that Larsson has never heard of injections? I realize that the man was no longer alive when the book was making its way through the publishing mill, but couldn’t a good editor intervene and redo this section?

Crazy psychos are given injections. Especially crazy psychos who set people on fire. Even if they did try to put her on oral meds, one attempt at gagging, and she’d be back to shots. Plain and simple. The stupidity of this scenario should offend anyone working in healthcare, but let’s move on.

In the psych hospital, Lisbeth refuses to talk to any of the doctors, who are of course, all male. She does however, speak to the nurses and everyone else. But in Larsson’s reality, nurses do not speak to doctors either, so no one really knows what’s bugging Lisbeth and thus, they can’t give her treatment.

I suppose that it never occurred to Larsson, who seems to harbor a hatred towards straight white men even though he was one himself, that nurses do confer with physicians and discuss patients. And that a trained psychiatric nurse could conduct therapy with Lisbeth, although I guess Larsson assumes that nurses only fluff pillows and wipe boo-boos. Also, a female doctor? Did that ever occur to him?

The whole segment of Lisbeth’s hospitalization was so pathetic, so poorly written, and so bogus and unbelievable (other plot lines fit into this that were ridiculous), I just fast forwarded out of there and moved on. And you will see, if you happen to have the misfortune of picking up this book, that you can skip multitudes of pages at a time, and not miss a thing.

Return from the Dead

Now, if the psych hospital scenario was bad, wait until you read about Lisbeth’s encounter with bullets. Yes, she is truly Wonder Woman, a superhero about to reveal herself….

At the end of the book, Lisbeth is shot 3 times. Unfortunately, you know that she can’t be dead because she reappears in the third book. But she is shot in the shoulder, the hip and the head. By the author’s own admission, the bullet penetrates the brain and causes “massive trauma.” I guess that was something he saw in a book or heard on TV, because he is obviously unaware of what massive brain trauma is, or what happens when a person is shot in the head. And apparently, way too lazy to spend 10 minutes on the Internet looking it up.

Lisbeth’s assailants assume that she is dead, as most people would be after 3 bullets and one to the brain. But being stupid white straight men, they don’t bother to check for a pulse, and bury her alive. Now, theoretically she should suffocate quickly, being comatose and suffering from blood loss.

But wait, Lisbeth is awake. And coherent. And isn’t losing any blood at all from wounds. Amazing! If a bullet to the head doesn’t kill you outright, you’re generally in a coma or at the very least, extremely non-responsive. But not Lisbeth. She begins to dig her way out, using one arm because of her gunshot to the other side. I supposed that Larsson meant for us to get up and cheer.

Then, after miraculously digging her way out, she gets to her feet and begins to walk. With a gunshot to the hip, she is able to walk a very long distance back to the house where her assailants are. Her thoughts are crystal clear, she is completely coherent, and just complains of a “pain in her head.”

And then, Lisbeth not only arrives back at the house, but takes on her 2 assailants–both grown and skilled men–and wins! She is only 4 foot 11 inches, weighs 90 pounds, but no sweat. No blood loss, no trouble walking, no trouble fighting. All this with a bullet in the hip and shoulder, and massive trauma to the brain. And then, Lisbeth realizing that she needs help in getting back to the city, whips out her cell phone and calls for help—to a straight white man that she hates for psychotic reasons all her own, even though he has only been kind and respectful to her. But Lisbeth allows him to have the honor of coming to fetch her.

Now I expect that in book 3, Lisbeth will don a cape and be able to fly faster than a locomotive, catch bullets in her teeth and bounce them off her skin….

Anyway, this book will set a new precedence in the annals of neurosurgery. And it must make the list of the 10 worst endings of all time.

It may be the heaviest piece of legislature ever to emerge from our nation’s capitol. I’m talking about the health care bill, which is 1,990-pages long, and weighs in at 19.6 pounds–if printed on single sides of paper.

If it passes, it would be among the longest pieces of House legislation ever, congressional historians say.

So my question is why? Obesity is a major problem in this country, and that does not only for people but for bloated bills circling through Congress.

Why is the healthcare bill so long and verbose? I bet I could write one up that would take up about 5 pages, maybe up to 10 if I wanted to get wordy.

Is anyone really going to sit and read this thing? Does anyone know what it says? Could this be why there is so much chatter and pouting about getting it passed–because no one knows exactly what’s in it, and refuse to spend the better part of their life reading it?

They’re supposed to vote tomorrow. The whole idea of healthcare reform has changed from a golden opportunity to a 3 ring circus. Send in the clowns–wait, they’re already here.

They’re not completely recession proof, but the healthcare industry is still going strong, even in “today’s economy.” (Oh how I hate that expression) And even with all the commotion over healthcare reform, and dire warnings from Republicans and health insurance companies about how improving access and care will be the undoing of our nation, healthcare is still running strong.

So its a good place to look for a job. Still. I know, there have been complaints from nurses about layoffs, inability to find jobs, and so on, that is reminiscent of the early 1990s–when the industry created an artificial nursing surplus in order to cut costs. And it backfired major league. As it will do now.

But nursing isn’t the only job in town. In fact, there are a lot of careers that pay better, have better hours, are less messy, are as rewarding, require as much skill or more, garner you more respect, and have a rosy future. The American Medical Association has a really good website devoted to healthcare careers, other than physician. I came across it when I was doing research for an article and I was really impressed. At first glance it doesn’t look like much, but that whole list is “clickable.”

Don’t forget to tweet. It is just about 9:am PT, so I’m ready to hit the Twitter board. And so should you…

On Saturday, 24 October 2009, between 9 -10 AM Pacific time (12 – 1 PM East Coast time)
Send the following tweet to @BarackObama:

USA MUST formally adopt the 350ppm CO2 target at Copenhagen 09 – the ONLY WAY to prevent runaway climate change NO EXCUSES!

For those of you who have been glued to 350.org, or even if you haven’t been, tomorrow morning is the ideal time to do some tweeting. Since they want to get the word out, I don’t think the folks at 350.org will mind my reposting this:

If you want to know more about 350.org, here’s a little video which condenses it in a nutshell:

The continuing saga of swine flu. I’m planning on staying healthy, and one of the best ways of doing that is to ignore the hysteria and the doomsday prophecies. It’s funny, but I do recall that at once place I worked, people used to come around with a little cart asking who wanted a free flu vaccine. No takers, at least not in the units I worked in, and it wasn’t because everyone had already had one.

Why is it that healthcare workers are so adverse to flu shots? It might be worth discussing, especially hearing why physicians have such low rates.

Anyway, back to swine flu. Seems that someone if finally doing some real journalism and digging beyond sound-bytes. CBS News has asked the question if swine flu cases are overestimated? And then they tell of the experience in trying to get data from the CDC, along with the CDC’s rather abrupt decision last June, to  tell states to stop testing for it. Very odd, considering that this is a new disease and they should be tracking it.

Interesting story and finally, a real journalistic effort to dig for the truth.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

This is straying away from the theme of this blog, but I felt that it really has to be mentioned.

Does President Barack Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize should be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” His will stated that the prize should be awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Thus, it is the only Nobel Prize not awarded in Sweden.

The definition of peace covers a lot of ground, according to the stipulations in Nobel’s will, and over the years, it has been awarded to “heavy weights” like the Dalai Lama and Jean Henry Dunant, found of the International Red Cross. It has also been awarded to dubious individuals like Woodrow Wilson, who dragged the US into WW I for no apparent reason other than a stab at imperialism (and many historians feel that the entry of the US into the war sufficiently tipped the balance, dragged the war on for an extra year, and set up the circumstances which eventually led to WW II), and Henry Kissinger–probably one of the most evil creatures to inhabit the 20the century.

Fortunately, the names of the people and organizations who have received this award have for the most part, been deserving. Mother Theresa, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Jane Addams, Amnesty International, Aung San Suu Kyi, Martin Luther King, Jr, etc. You can see the full list here, along with the reason for the award.

So to this illustrious list, the name of Barack Obama is added. As much as I like Obama, this move seems a little too premature, especially considering the accomplishments of the other candidates. Maybe after a year or 2 in office, when real progress has been made, would have been a better time. Right now, the award seems based on hope–that the Bush/Cheney era is finally over and things will change for the better. So far there’s talk, but not much action. But at least the US is being seen in a better light, and we are once again taking our rightful place on the world stage.

Either this nurse isn’t too bright, or she’s intentionally malicious. Hard to say from this short news clip from Associated Press:

The police were looking into possible criminal charges against a nurse at a South Florida hospital where officials say she may have exposed some 1,800 patients to H.I.V. and hepatitis by reusing medical supplies. Officials at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale said this week that the hospital discovered that the nurse, Qui Lan, 59, was reusing IV tubing and saline bags during cardiac chemical stress tests.

Even though it was expected, although I’m sure many of us did hope for a miracle, Senator Edward Kennedy has died. I received an email from MoveOn about the death of Sen. Kennedy, and I don’t think that I could say it better:

Senator Teddy Kennedy passed away last night and our movement lost a hero. His leadership, his vision, and his passion will never be forgotten.

As we grieve, we must honor his memory and re-dedicate ourselves to his fight. Right now, let’s listen to his words. Below is a powerful video that lots of MoveOn members are passing around this morning:

Tonight, please light a candle in your window to memorialize him.

Tomorrow, as Senator Kennedy said, “…the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

Tomorrow, let’s re-commit ourselves to achieving the thing that mattered most to him: Quality, affordable health care for every single American.

Thank you for all you do.

I wish all politicians could be this cool and well, this frank (nice pun there). There is no reasoning with these people, and I do suspect many of them have been planted at the meetings to spout this nonsense and lies about healthcare reform–in order to disrupt the meeting and get off topic.

At this Barney Frank (Sen. from Mass) town hall meeting in Dartmouth, MA, a constituent asks, “Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?”

Frank responds: “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” He then calls her approach “vile, contemptible nonsense.” He closes by saying: “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.”

Now, I think he did the right thing by refusing to even engage her. Instead, he let her know right off the bat that he wasn’t going to waste time with this garbage, or fall into their ploy of trying to distract the meeting with these absurd accusations. Although, I would be curious to hear her response–her explanation of how trying to improve healthcare, and allowing more Americans to have health insurance and thus be able to pay for expensive medical bills, is akin to Nazi policy. You have to wonder, does she even know what a Nazi is?

I may be crossing the dreaded line of political correctness, but who cares? These days, it seems to be the fashion to bash Whole Foods (you know, that big supermarket that doesn’t sell Pepsi or chickens spiked with antibiotics, hormones, heroin, cyanide, or whatever it is that commercial grower use these days).

The CEO of Whole Foods has now become the poster child for everything that is wrong with the world, and single handedly responsible for defeating the singer payer measure for healthcare reform. Really. But if you boycott Whole Foods, that will put immense pressure on Congress, the Senate, President Obama, his dog, his wife Michelle, the insurance industry and all of their lobbyists, the pharma industry, agri-business, Rush Limbaugh, and even Sarah Palin–to turn around and demand a single payer plan.

The demise of the single payer option, and the faltering of getting any kind of healthcare reform accomplished, is solely due to one man–John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods.

In a nutshell, Mackey wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, which he was asked to write, and now an unusually vocal number of people got their knickers in a twist over it. To the point where they are calling for a boycott for the store, as though that is going to solve the problem of healthcare reform.

One person on twitter, who I sparred back and forth with, said that she is now boycotting Whole Foods and feels so good that she is helping the economy and healthcare. I don’t know, does trying to put a store out of business helpful to the economy? Especially one like Whole Foods, which pays their employees well and provides them with excellent benefit, like HEALTH INSURANCE? And how her boycott will help healthcare is out there in the Twilight Zone.

But the comments coming from people who otherwise seem to normal and rational are truly insane. Because Mackey gave his views, and they disagree, they are boycotting a store that they may enjoy shopping in. But let’s get a few facts, straight, shall we?

Whole Foods is a huge organization, employing 50,000 people, and many undoubtedly disagree with Mackey. And that’s okay, I don’t see Mackey sending around a hit squad to get rid of the infidels.

Second important point is that Mackey does not own the company. He is an employee. Shocking fact, isn’t it. Whole Foods is a public company. Mackey is not Whole Foods and he clearly said on his blog (which is on the Whole Foods website), that this was HIS opinion. And that Whole Foods, as a company, does not have a position on healthcare reform.

So in other words, people are boycotting a company which does not have a position on the subject.

I have even seen nonsense spreading that Mackey is the one spearheading a movement to defeat the single payer proposition. You know, the reason that it hasn’t moved in Congress is all due to Mackey. His article is being seen as an organized campaign to defeat a single payer health insurance system.

While I don’t agree with everything that he wrote in his op-ed and blog, I do agree with some of it. Especially his appraisal of the heart of the problem–we’re not going to cut healthcare costs until we improve our own health. One person at a time.

Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.

Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.

Of course, those comments provoked screeching from the sidelines–especially from those who didn’t really read it. Or those who don’t want to change their habits, and prefer to blame it on someone else.

Personally, I love Whole Foods and have shopped there for 20 years. Since I live about 90 miles from one right now, I do most of my shopping at the Farmer’s Market, local co-op, and trader Joe’s, but go to WF every time I am in Seattle. And no, I do not plan on boycotting the company. While it is a big corporation, WF has done a tremendous service for the organic/natural foods industry. Their popularity was a big impetus for the “regular” supermarkets to start offering healthier food.

So you know, if you want to do something constructive for healthcare reform, get off your butt and email/call/visit your representative. Get involved at the local or state level. Write your own op-ed letters or letters to the editor. Join HCAN, join Move-on, call your neighbors, canvass your neighborhood, call your local radio/TV stations–but just do something. Boycotting a good company is not going to accomplish anything at all.

Mackey’s article is generally consistent with the views many others who have weighed in on the healthcare reform bill. So why is Mackey drawing so much ire? Should people not be allowed to offer opinions? Should he have to apologize for his own views? Do you apologize for your views, even if they are in conflict with the status quo?

How about contributing your own ideas.

Finally, this is part of an excellent post made by someone on the Whole Foods forum. It pretty much sums up the boycott nicely, and how ridiculous it is:

Most people who are boycotting are not doing so because of concerns over actions of the company. I am not aware of the company making contributions to a PAC or a lobbyist on these issues. And while some will say they want better health insurance for the employees, it is unusual that most of these same people were not concerned with this issue a week ago, and the health insurance I have seen described seems quite reasonable.

The folks who are boycotting seem to be boycotting because they do not agree with the political views of the CEO, and the temerity he has shown by expressing those views publicly. Not for his actions as CEO, or the actions of the company.

If I were to use the terminology of some on the left, I would say that those who boycott are punishing a thought-crime.

Obviously, all of us are free to do as we choose. But do you really want to be a person who makes a significant decision such as this based solely on the views of a person? How would you feel about someone who would not purchase products from a store because the CEO was openly homosexual? How would you feel about those on the right that do not purchase from co-ops or stores like Whole Foods because they view them as leftist bastions (then again, these organizations do engage in left-leaning activities all the time, so perhaps they have a basis for their feelings, no?). I know I think of them as being unreasonable.

So I ask you one favor. Briefly step back and observe what you are saying and doing.

Is this who you want to be? Are you ok with being that type of person? Or do you want to be someone different?

Its up to you.

I’m back, in town, that is. I thought I would have some time for blogging while I was in NY, but not a chance. It was a very hectic few days, with a lot of meetings, good food, a chance to see friends, and an opportunity to see my work colleagues who I only get to visit with virtually. Not that I really would want to be sitting in an office on a full time basis, but having the chance to sit down face to face and chat in real time.

New York City was hot and steamy, with a few thunderstorms thrown in. The smell of the city hit me in the face when I came out of Penn station, and not a pleasant aroma. August is not the optimal time to be visiting NY, when the city smells from heat, hot diesel, rotting garbage, and just about everything else thrown in. After you’re there a little while, you don’t notice the smell, but it sure makes an impact on arrival.

Now, when I left the Pacific Northwest, temps were in the high 80s/low 90s. We were having our heat wave. Less than a week later, It was 59 degrees at Seattle airport when my flight landed at 11:30am. That’s a full 30 degrees cooler for a daytime temp. It has remained cool, and right now looks fairly ominous outside. It is supposed to rain tonight, so I spent a good chunk of the day doing some gardening–like planting a Cone Flower and Fever Few that have been sitting in pots, waiting patiently to go into the ground. They are in full flowering now, so I wanted to get them into the garden. With several days of rain predicted, the yard is going to be muddy and not much fun to be digging in.

Well, now that you’ve heard the short version of my NY trip and today’s gardening episode, we will return to regularly scheduled programming.

Okay, this is a little advertising for the allnurses.com website. But I thought it was a nice video, and I really do think it is a great nursing website. And to answer the next question, no, I have nothing at all to do with the site. I have gotten some great information from there, keeps me up to date on nursing issues, but I am in no way affiliated with the website.

I’ve been a little slow in posting, due to the usual excuses. But now I have a new one–the heat. We are in the middle of record breaking heat. Not fun if you don’t have air conditioning. It’s projected to last a few more days, with tomorrow being the pinnacle and then gradual lessening to normal seasonal temps. This is quite a switch from last summer, when it was unseasonably cool and rainy, and winter started in August (or so it seemed).

My house does stay reasonably cool, even with the temps nearing 90, and only really starts to feel a little too warm by mid-afternoon. But I do feel like I’m moving slower than a garden slug, and everything takes twice as long to get done. Plus some things just aren’t getting done because its too hot inside and out.

On a positive note, my “crops” are growing like gangbusters. They love this weather. The broccoli is about 3 feet high, these tiny cabbages I planted late doubled in size in 2 days, and the tomatoes are ripening with unprecedented speed.

Whatever happened to responsible reporting? Or do I have to keep repeating the words of Winston Churchill, who remarked that the “American press is vulgar and without substance.”

The media’s reaction to the swine flu has been a combination of misleading, fear-mongering, withholding essential information, downplaying real facts, and reveling in the in the obscure.

Take this leading paragraph from Bloomberg, supposedly a reputable source:

The first human trials of a swine- flu vaccine are set to begin in Australia tomorrow as deaths and infections from the H1N1 virus mount worldwide, intensifying demand for a protective shot.

Reading this, you’d think that it was the Black Plague all over again. Who, exactly, is intensifying the demand? Drug companies, who are biting at the bit to make and sell hundreds of millions of doses? The public isn’t “intensifying” their demand, unless they’re dumb enough to get caught up in the sensationalism. Look at how many people get the regular flu vaccine–yeah, not very many. Maybe if the hype of swine flu is elevated, and the danger exaggerated, they can sell more doses.

And notice, they very nicely leave out that in virtually all cases, the people who died had a serious underlying medical condition. They may have soon died anyway, or were susceptible to any infection that came along. But that interferes with the sensationalism of the sentence. The death toll mounts–wow!

Now, another totally misleading paragraph.

Swine flu, known as A(H1N1), has sickened so many people worldwide that the WHO has advised health authorities to stop testing suspected cases and report only hospitalizations. How much vaccine can be produced, how fast, and how effective it will prove to be are still unknown as the pandemic virus spreads.

Well now how does the spread compare with regular flu? This paragraph makes it sound like millions have been infected and died. The “regular” flu is almost never confirmed either by lab testing–too many cases–so this is standard procedure for something like the flu. And notice how they insert the word “pandemic” before virus, as thought they’re trying to make it sound worse than it is. Why not emphasize instead that pandemic simply applies to spread across national borders and has nothing to do with virulence. Oh, but that might be called responsible journalism and we wouldn’t want to have any of that.

And the vast majority of people are never hospitalized for the flu, swine or otherwise. Most also never go to the doctor because in the vast majority of cases, it runs its course, responds to simple treatment like rest and aspirin, and then its over. That is the case for most people who have had the swine flu. They don’t need medical care, and so the cases can’t be counted. Now how difficult is that to explain?

Finally, another segment from the great piece of health journalism:

Hundreds of Deaths

A total of 94,512 laboratory-confirmed cases of the swine flu, resulting in 429 deaths, had been counted as July 6, according to figures released by the WHO before it stopped issuing tables showing cases in all countries with the virus.

So again, no mention of who these people were, or that most of them were quite ill to begin with. And how does the percentage of those dying from swine flu compare with those dying from regular flu? Is it more, less or the same? Come on, guys, can you do a little research?

Also, these numbers are quite tiny in the grand scheme of things. There are over 6 billion people on the planet, and roughly 95,000 have been recorded with swine flu. And 429 died.

Not to be a total spoil sport, it is true that the virus can mutate to a more virulent form, but we haven’t seen a shred of evidence of that. In the meantime, with the lack of any evidence, a small death toll, and the victims generally being those with serious medical conditions who are vulnerable to any sort of bacterial/viral infection, the media is doing its best to keep the public uninformed and stir up fear.

RN Pathways is an interesting venture. I’ve never really looked at it until right now.

This is their description:

RNpathways is the video channel for www.RNpathways.com, the most unique nursing organization in the United States.

At RNpathways, we are passionate about nursing. We’ve created the premiere online destination for nursing career management. On our site, you’ll find comprehensive information about career paths, education, nursing issues and informative industry news. Our goal is to empower nurses and allied healthcare professionals with information to make the right career decisions.

I am so glad that I am no longer a bonafide healthcare worker for many reasons. But one reason looming now is the increasing pressure on healthcare workers to get flu vaccines, even though compliance among doctors and nurses is very low. One has to wonder about that…but that’s another story.

But right now, we have the infamous H1N1 influenza which has become pandemic. And while the media stories, in their attempt to sensationalize and milk this for all its worth, often skim over or completely neglect to clearly explain what pandemic means. The terminology has nothing at all to do with virulence or death rates. It simply means that a disease has spread across a certain number of national borders.

So seasonal flu is pandemic during the winter. Common colds are pandemic. And so on.

But the “call” is for healthcare workers to get vaccinated first, when and if an H1N1 vaccine ever emerges from the lab. I’m sure it will be “voluntary” but the push will be on to force healthcare workers to be guinea pigs get their shot.

I’ve said this before and will said it again–of course one needs to keep an eye on the swine flu and track it. That said, the virus is thus far behaving like any other flu. The death rate is very small, and those who died from flu had underlying medical conditions. A bout of the “regular” flu would have had the same effect.

So no, I would not get a swine flu vaccine if I were still actively working in healthcare. Nor would I get the regular flu vaccine. I’ve never had the flu that I can recall, or a flu vaccine, so why change what seems to be working?

However, there are some alarming trends that even the mainstream media is reporting. First, we are not likely to see a vaccine until the end of the year. That is good news, because by then it will be winter, and we will be able to see if the predictions are correct–that the swine flu will return in the fall. Also, it may be that it stays at its current level of virulence which would negate the urgency of a vaccine.

But here’s where it get worrisome. From the LATimes:

Some preliminary studies have suggested that vaccines made from the pandemic virus do not stimulate as strong an immune response as seasonal flu vaccines, Kieny said. That suggests that vaccines will require larger-than-normal doses of antigens or two doses of vaccine — both of which will strain the supply. Alternatively, the virus could be mixed with adjuvants, which increase the body’s immune reaction to the viral antigens. But those combinations would require additional safety testing. Either way, a fully licensed vaccine is unlikely to be available before the end of the year.

So they’re talking larger than normal doses, and two shots no less. Plus adding in a cocktail of ingredients to increase the body’s immune system. Uh, are we talking major safety issues here? Possible vaccine reactions that can overwhelm the risk of the flu? Especially if the H1N1 remains at its current level of virulence and poses no greater threat than the normal seasonal flu? Especially when there are many ways to prevent getting sick in the first place, without a vaccine?

The next part of this is even worse:

Kieny noted, however, that many countries have provisions in their laws for emergency situations in which a vaccine could be widely used before licensing if preliminary studies indicate that it is safe and effective. If that occurs, she added, it will be very important to increase post-marketing surveillance to detect potential side effects.

Use before licensing if preliminary studies indicate safety? Emphasis on the word preliminary.

Bleech. This is disturbing. It’s one thing if there’s an epidemic similar to the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, which seemed unstoppable and seemingly killed everything in its path. Then the risk of an untested vaccine is outweighed by the risk of illness. But unless the H1N1 turns into something like the 1918 Spanish flu, then there is absolutely no reason to push this vaccine on anyone before it is ready. I know, Pharma’s got to make a profit.

Well, remember the smallpox vaccine of a few years ago? And the swine flu vaccine of the late 1970s? We should not forget those lessons.

At any rate, thanks guys, but no thanks.