Greg Krehbiel
H1N1 a preview of how government health care will work?
by Greg Krehbiel on 29 October 2009
This is an interesting piece by Ron Paul on the H1N1 issue.
He discusses the role of government in general, whether H1N1 is a serious problem, why it’s now an “emergency,” etc.
(HT Mark Shea)
2009-10-29 » Greg Krehbiel
30 October 2009 @ 10:26 am
I agree with nearly all of what he’s saying. One thing that bothers, me though, is when anyone talks about how good immunizations are from a medical perspective, cites polio and smallpox, and then argues that immunizations shouldn’t be mandatory on principle. I simply don’t believe that polio and smallpox would have been eliminated had it not been for mandatory, or at least heavily government-sponsored, immunizations programs.
However, that’s not to challenge his point that the whole mandatory immunization thing has gotten way out of hand and bodes to get worse, with the ever-growing list of mandated vaccines. I just think this is one case where we need to work out where the footholds are going to be, because the slope IS slippery, but we probably shouldn’t avoid it for that reason. Placing the footholds where the diseases are behaviorally spread (e.g. HPV, Hep B) and/or have an extremely low mortality/morbidity rate (e.g. varicella) seems wiser than saying, “See what happens when vaccines are mandatory?” Yeah, you eradicate active smallpox from the planet, is one thing that happens.
30 October 2009 @ 10:28 am
Well, polio’s not been “eliminated,” but no one here really has to worry about their kids getting it is my point.
30 October 2009 @ 10:31 am
I was curious about that as well, but your point stands — just because mandatory immunizations are good in one case doesn’t mean we should have lots of them.
30 October 2009 @ 10:54 am
One thing working against the flu shot ever being mandatory is that it has to be renewed every year. You’re just not going to be able to have any enforcement mechanism, whether withholding of government services or what have you, for something you have to actively go out and do on a yearly basis, that is not always conveniently available (and can’t always be made to be) and is discouraged in certain cases (e.g. certain medical conditions, the person having an active infection of some sort when the shot is available, etc.)
Which is a comfort.
30 October 2009 @ 12:20 pm
I just find it refreshing to see a politician acknowledge what the government does badly in such broad terms. Usually the politician points out how government has messed up solving a particular problem and then announces that he and his colleagues have a devised a modified (read larger and more expensive) program that will address the problem. Paul is willing to say that government in general is bad at doing this kind of thing in general.
It is in the DNA of the political animal to believe that government is the solution. Guys like Paul often don’t want to be around those muckety mucks and choose a different career path.
This essay has convinced me not to get the vaccine. BTW my immune system is badass. I apologize in advance.
30 October 2009 @ 12:36 pm
That guy (your link) is quite a character.
31 October 2009 @ 2:55 pm
My doc does not recommend the H1N1. Although I am high risk for regular flu, his office says the real issue of danger is for kids. My student teaching daughter (kindergarten) is offered free H1N1 immunization to try and keep it out of the schools as much as possible.
31 October 2009 @ 6:12 pm
I could only stand to watch 3 minutes of it. The level of stupidity and ignorance is staggering, even for a libertarian.
First, there is no way the government can be blamed for how long it takes to make a vaccine, any more then the government can be blamed for how long it takes to get to the Moon.
Yes, there are delays, but the reason is not government inefficiency, but biological reality:
And what raving idiot can claim that inoculations, which stimulate the immune system could be weakening it? Antibacterial hand soap weakens the immune system, kids staying indoors instead of going outside and climbing trees weakens the immune system, sanitizing every surface we come in contact with weakens the immune system. Vaccinations can’t conceivably weaken the immune system.
I always figured that Ron Paul was a complete idiot, now I know.
Deb, one of the things we really know about the H1N1 flu is that women are more at risk than others. Not sure why, but the disease seems to be especially severe in women, especially pregnant women, or those with asthma. I heard an interesting hypothesis, having to do with shallow breathing in both of those groups. H1N1 gets farther into the lungs than regular flu.
5 November 2009 @ 9:59 am
There is definitely a way to blame the government for the slow pace of the vaccine when the people in charge overpromised, made poor judgements and “consistently overstated estimates” on how much would be available.
See HHS admits overstating flu-vaccine availability
And I really doubt that you know enough about vaccines or how the body reacts to them to say that they can’t conceivably weaken the immune system.
In the article cited above the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota said “We still don’t understand how flu vaccine fully protects people.”