April 29, 2009
By Christopher Logan
While we know that there have been 91 confirmed cases of swine flu, and one confirmed death here in America, President Obama is telling us there is reason for concern but not yet "a cause for alarm." He might be correct or he might be wrong, dead wrong. As there is no way of knowing how bad things will become with the swine flu just yet. We need to look back on the past history of major scares and problems that the swine flu has caused America in the past.
Back in 1976 at the Fort Dix Army Base in NJ a 19 year-old recruit named Pvt.David Lewis had told his drill instructor that he felt a bit weak and sick. But not sick enough that a visit to the army medics was warranted.. Within just 24 hours the young man fell dead as a victim of the swine flu.. This was the first time that this type of influenza had been seen in America since the plague of 1918-19, which had killed approximately a half million Americans and 20 million people worldwide.
After the death of Pvt. David Lewis the army did testing and found that 500 more soldiers had been infected with swine flu but that they had not fallen ill. At this point our government had to make a tough decision, as to whether to inoculate all of America or to wait and see how things further developed and risk taking the chance of being criticized for sitting and doing nothing.
Under President Gerald Ford's leadership the decision was made to inoculate all of America. The mass inoculation started in early October and by mid-December because of increasing reports of the vaccine setting off neurological problems including the especially rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the government suspended the program, having left 40 million Americans who were not inoculated. The result was that hundreds of Americans were made seriously ill or killed by the vaccine for a flu that never came.
In the US so far there have been 40 confirmed cases of swine flu. Most of them in Queens, NY, coming after students returned from a trip to Mexico. The other cases being in California, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas.
The symptoms of the disease are coughing, sneezing, and fever sometimes accompanied by diarrhea. The best way to prevent the spread of it is to frequently wash your hands and cover up when coughing and sneezing.
Approximately 11 million doses of the vaccine Tamiflu are being flown to locations across America. This is about 1/4 of the total stockpile. Although it does not work to prevent people from becoming sick it does work once the disease is already contracted. Anyone who has the symptoms is urged to contact a doctor immediately.
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