The Ultimate Swine Flu Survival Guide
 
Hello everybody!  Welcome to a new era in healthcare.  We, your government, will decide what is best for all of you.  Swine flu vaccine -- we've got it and we're giving it!  This is the most state-of- the-art vaccine technology can make.  In fact, the swine flu is a technological wonder itself, being a chimera of two swine flu viruses, an avian flu virus, and a human influenza virus.  Mammogram between 40-49 -- naahh!  You don't need it.  It's not cost-effective since it doesn't seem to change outcomes.  I guess the American Radiological Association lobby is not as great as the pharmaceutical lobby.  As universal healthcare looms in the horizon, it is probably no coincidence that the U.S. Preventive Task Force came out with these recommendations on the eve of a congressional battle over a healthcare bill.

With more than 50% of people polled saying they won't get a swine flu vaccine, it is apparent that the public is skeptical of the medicine being sold by the U.S. government, even when it comes sugar-coated with CDC honey.  After all, we can trust the Centers for Disease Control, right?  Well, what is it that makes people so resistant to broad recommendations that are supposedly for the benefit of all.  Could it be common sense?  Or is it the uncommon sense?  Are they misguided?   

What is right for the masses, may not be right for the individual, and what is right for the individual, may not be right for the masses.  Well, this type of thinking doesn't go very far in terms of governing.  Things have to be made simple, but often they are not.   Individualized patient-centered healthcare should be the working model for any healthcare bill, with an emphasis on rewarding lifestyle changes and preventive behaviors.  For the moment, at least the swine flu pandemic seems to be winding down a bit.  However, is this the calm before the storm? 

A lot of questions that should be asked, don't seem to be asked.  What is the evidence that flu vaccines change outomes?  What other strategies exist for preventing the flu, whether pandemic or not, besides the obvious -- wash your hands?  Why are there rising rates of breast cancer in women with no family history of the disease?  Are there environmental factors?  What else can we do to prevent breast cancer or detect it in its early stages?  What are the important outcomes we should be looking at?

Let's hope that we continue asking the right questions and finding the honest answers.  That's what people want.  Is anything a clear-cut yes or no.  Not really.  The risks and benefits of healthcare decisions need to be weighed, as do the pros and cons of any healthcare plan that comes to pass. 

 


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