Beck and Limbaugh weigh in on swine flu

Media commentators Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have apparently fallen prey to the loony websites of the anti-vaccine folks and have begun campaigning against the swine flu vaccine program, according to the liberal group Media Matters for America.

Beck said on one show that he would do "the exact opposite" of what the government recommended and that his inclination is to attend a swine flu party and catch the virus now before it has a chance to mutate. He wouldn't take the vaccine because "you don't know if this is going to cause neurological damage like it did in the 1970s" (Sept. 30)--a prospect that has, incidentally been totally discredited. He also said, "People just feel in their gut, 'I don't trust these people any more...' They think our government could be so incompetent that they don't have any clue as to what they are doing." (Sept. 29)

Limbaugh addressed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, saying "I am not going to take it, precisely because you are now telling me I must....I don't want to take your vaccine. I don't get flu shots." Later, he added that if "you have some idiot government official demanding, telling me I must take this vaccine, I'll never take it." (Oct. 7) On the same show, he said, "The next time you hear, 'The government says...' don't believe it. You'll be healthier, trust me."

Both commentators are conservatives, but this is not a liberal versus conservative issue. This is a science versus nonsense issue. There are a ton of wacky websites out there--I know, I get e-mails from their readers all the time--telling folks that the flu is not dangerous, that the vaccine is experimental, untested, toxic, loaded with dangerous chemicals, and so one and so forth. Many of them even deny the efficacy of any vaccines, ignoring the fact that their use has virtually wiped out polio, smallpox and a host of other diseases and are universally accepted, along with sanitation, as one of the two greatest medical developments of the 20th century. A few claim that all you need to do is take supplements and live a healthy lifestyle--as though that would have prevented the polio epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s. Some even claim that the swine flu virus was created in a laboratory and released into the world so that pharmaceutical companies could make a fortune by selling vaccines. Others claim that the government is pushing the vaccines because former Vice President Dick Cheney and other government officials now own substantial portions of the companies that make them.

Enough already! All of those claims are patently false. The swine flu vaccine is made in the same plants as the seasonal flu vaccine, by the same manufacturers using the same techniques. It's just a slightly different virus. In fact, it will probably be a component of the seasonal flu vaccine next winter. That vaccine has now been given to hundreds of millions of people, with no side effects worse than a sore arm, and has been proved time and again to be between 50% and 80% effective. The only exception is in people who are allergic to eggs, who should not take the vaccine. Supplements and a healthy lifestyle may be good for you, but they won't ward off the flu. And if you really think there is a government conspiracy, just remember how hard it has been in the past for even minor conspiracies to be kept hidden. It's amazing how the same people who think the government is incompetent also think that the swine flu campaign is a vast, secret government conspiracy. You can't have it both ways.

I have no qualms about getting the vaccine myself, I would make sure my kids received it if they were still young, and I will make sure my elderly parents receive it when it becomes available to them.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Comments

[Dr daniel h duffy sr]

I suggest reading Vaccination by V. Sheibner PhD and Inventing the AIDS Virus by Peter Duesberg.
Dan

[sal pell]

Well, at least for now, beck and limbaugh are not using illegal immigrants as scapegoats bringing swin flu.

[Dr daniel h duffy sr]

"A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed…When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.” Dresden James
The truth is that vaccination is quackery and this is demonstrable via the suppressed medical record.
Dan

[Katie]

I agree with Matthew. I am a chemist and there are many factors that contribute to the safety of vaccines--and while my kids are going to receive each and every vaccine they need growing up they are most definitely not going to get the H1N1 vaccine. Childhood vaccines--yes. Flu vaccines--yes. H1N1--no. With any medication or treatment that has been rushed from development to production there will be errors or side effects that take longer than the testing period to show up. My husband and I are going to get our regular flu vaccines but we're going to adopt a wait-and-see policy on the H1N1 vaccine. We're going to wait 6 months to see what happens to other people who have taken the vaccine and we're going to see how well that works out for them before risking our kids or each other.

[elvisnixon.com]

ELVISNIXON.COM has this down! Leftist arrogance that accepts such myths as Piltdown Man and Eugenicist Ernst Haeckel's ontogenetic theory ( the fraud that Darwinian evolution was replicated in the womb during child development in human pregnancy) dub Conservatives as "Anti Science"?? Hmmm..... You TRUST the government for healthcare but fear the government for national security? Using Ad Hominem ( look it up Obama fans) attacks on Beck and Rush just because they dare question the Leviathan state? What happened to all those "Dissent Is Patriotic" stickers one saw floating around College Faculty parking lots?

[Mike]

What does one serve at a Swine Flu party? I'm guessing double-dipping is encouraged, and if glasses of wine are mistaken, all the better!

[Stephen]

reading these comments it is obvious that California has become what disney always envisioned: fantasyland! "Doctors" posting diatribes against vaccination? I am SO glad I left you loonies. You-the right- are what destroyed what was once the greatest state in the union...

[Debra Gum]

Dear Mr. Maugh,
Thank you!!! Great article you wrote. If there really was a government conspiracy- wouldn't a lot more of us now be dead from swine flu? All my life, we had vaccines and no one ever questioned them. If Science has made great advances in the past 25-30 years and vaccines are safer than ever before, than why are people questioning vaccines?? I had once worked in a private school whose parents were against vaccinations. The school shut down for 10 days because of whooping cough. I've seen what not vaccinating a child can do. Parents need to be smart, exercise common sense and vaccinate their kids. Don't get sucked-in by half-truths and bunk just because it means high ratings and fattening someone's bank account. There's the real conspiracy.
Unfortunately, those of us creating the horrible rumors were not even around to see polio and small pox. We take so much for granted now. What would people do if there was not a swine flu vaccine and it wiped out 1/2 the population- our family members and friends.

Thanks, Debbie Gum

[interpreter]

Swine flu is a part of last plague # 5 (see Rev. 16:10-11). I'm getting the vaccine.

[JP Saleeby, MD]

Whether you get the flu vaccine(S) or not is a personal decision. I for one working in a busy ER have not taken the flu vaccine in any form for the past 6 years and have (knock on wood) never come down with the flu... why, because I get adequate rest, sleep, exercise, I eat right and take a cocktail of vitamins at the first signs of any flu/viral like syndrome. For more read my article on Myer's Cocktail in my blog www.CarolinaMobileMD.com (articles section).

In good health,

JP Saleeby, MD
www.saleeby.net

[Jweidner]

I heartily encourage any Limbaugh true-believer to skip having this vaccine administered. OBEY LIMBAUGH, NOT THE GOVERNMENT! And then when you get sick, I'm going to laugh at you.

[jack]

We all know that Rush And Beck are in it for the ratings (money). They do not care about the effects of their words. Their goal is to further the not so subversive conservative movement to delegitimize Obama. They are so reckless in this that they are flirting with a very dangerous thing. It is not unlike a few people in a crowd deliberately trying to start a riot. It really should be considered treasonous.

As an earlier poster said

"This is liberal virus! I will not get the vaccine!! Thank God we didn't get the Olympics and I hope we never get healthcare either! USA USA USA!!!!!"

If Obama started eating apple pie on camera before every press conference, Beck and Rush would claim apple pie was anti-American.

[Bill Johnson]

The government can take their swine flu vaccine and shove it up obama's tail.

[bozosaurus]

Scott B, jack:

Your irony detectors are broken.

USA!!!! USA!!! USA!!!!

[Jennifer Pappas]

Thomas Maugh the (second) is a tard nugget. There is specific evidence that certain members of Bush's ex-cabinet are definitley prospering off of the possible flu pandemic. Donald Rumsfeld left the board of Gilead (the producers of Tamilfu) when the stock share was 7.00. After Bush poored billions of dollars into the "flu preparedness program" allocating 1 billion to buy Tamiflu....the stock rose to 50.00 a share and Rumsfeld made a cool $5 million dollars. If that is not profit then I don't know what is....I also think that people should be aware that congess passed, just recently, a law stating that no one can sue the pharmaceutical companies for complications or side effects from taking a vaccine. Scary huh?

[ddr]

I agree, you seem to be a logic-based person. Why do so many nuts hang out on blogs?

[Kerry Wall]

Excuse me...Beck and Limbaugh may be idiots, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Instead of focusing upon Beck and Limbaugh, why not focus upon international epidemiologists, like Tom Jefferson of the Cochran Collaborative, a private medical monitoring organization based in Rome. Dr. Jefferson is probably the leading expert globally on influenza epidemiology and influenza vaccines. His team has been monitoring vaccine testing and they have adjudged the hundreds of clinical tests run on influenza vaccines to be "rubbish".

Lisa Jackson, a physician and medical researcher in Seattle, did research on the vaccine administration amongst the elderly back in 2004. It was not published until 2006...in Europe. It blows major holes in the claims of the vaccine producers. That study has been lauded by one of the leading influenza epidemiologists in the US, Lone Simonsen.

I invite any and all to research these names. See what THEY have to say about the vaccines.

Don't take the word or whackjob television or radio commentators...and don't go to any 'swine flu parties'. Wash your hands regularly, keep your hands from your nose, mouth and eyes, and isolate yourself from contacts which are spewing body aerosols, isolate yourself if you are coughing or sneezing, or running a temperature. Don't spread it around.

[arosebyanyother]

"Using Ad Hominem ( look it up Obama fans) attacks on Beck and Rush just because they dare question the Leviathan state?"

Apparently, you're the one who needs to look up what ad hominem means. Just because you can reference a website and find a big word does not qualify you to use that word.

[Curiosity]

Gardasil = proof getting an untested new vaccine and trusting it blindly is STUPID. Young girls have died from this vaccine because their parents trusted those who pushed it. Schools even considered making it mandatory.

How many young women were saved because they or their parents doubted? Maybe me, since I refused even though my dad pushed it.

FACT: Vaccines cause deaths and problems, even though they save lives as well.
But if you trust science so blindly then I think you might be able to get your daughters vaccinated with Gardsil still.
Preventative medicine in the form of vitamins and anti-oxidants has no downside (exempting overdose and allergy) and can prevent a lot of sickness. And common sense and courtesy by staying home when sick prevents the spread of illness.