There is an unprecedented level of fear and panic on many college campuses across the United States as thousands upon thousands of U.S. college students have suddenly contracted the H1N1 swine flu. There have been previous reports that younger Americans are more vulnerable to the H1N1 flu, and this may account for why the swine flu is suddenly hitting many colleges and universities like a sledgehammer. Some institutions of higher learning in the U.S. are already cancelling classes, and key officials at some of the most prominent universities in the U.S. are actually starting to use the word "panic".
For example, University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer did not mince words when he described the impact that the H1N1 swine flu is having on his university and on his football team:
"It is a panic level of proportion I've never seen before," Meyer is quoted as saying in USAToday. "That's coming from me. You hear about, I think, Wisconsin had 40 players. Ole Miss had 20 players. My wife, with her great insight, said, 'Do you realize the Swine Flu and everything is hitting the Florida campus,' last week."
According to Meyer, the swine flu is seriously affecting life down there:
"That Purell (a hand sanitizer) stuff's everywhere. You can't walk down the hallway without everybody telling you to do this, do this. We're trying the best we can, but it's real."
But the University of Florida is far from alone in dealing with a swine flu panic.
The following are just a few of the other reports of swine flu outbreaks on college campuses around the United States.....
*A 20 year old Cornell University student has died from the swine flu, and influenza-type illness has been diagnosed in 520 other Cornell students in the past three weeks.
*More than 2,000 students have reported flu-like symptoms at Washington State University.
*There were a total of 6,432 presumed swine flu cases that were reported during the week of September 5-11 at the 253 institutions of higher learning that report weekly to the American College Health Association. Overall, 83 percent of the 253 colleges and universities that the organization tracks have now reported influenza-like illnesses among their students.
*Paul Smith's College in New York is setting aside a whole dorm for students with the swine flu.
*About 20 Wellesley College students have reported swine flu symptoms.
*At least 40 University of Wisconsin-Madison football players were sick last week with flulike symptoms.
So why is the H1N1 swine flu hitting younger Americans so hard? Well, one theory is that Americans who were alive during the last flu pandemic (1968/1969) have some built in immunity to this flu while those who were not alive at that time do not.
In any event, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assuring the public that millions of doses of swine flu vaccine will be available beginning in October.
The CDC says that deliveries should hit a level of 20 million doses a week by the end of October, and these deliveries will be distributed among 90,000 vaccine "providers", which include hospitals, clinics, health departments and pharmacies.
But will these millions of vaccines make things better or make them worse?
The reality is that even the regular seasonal flu vaccine usually only does a very limited amount of good against one particular flu strain while seriously eroding the immune systems of the vaccine recipients. Thus the ability of those who take the vaccine to battle any other diseases which may come along is significantly compromised.
We would encourage you to educate yourself before you choose to vaccinate yourself and your family. Bill Sardi has written an excellent article about the dangers of the swine flu vaccine that we recommend that you all check out: "Eighteen Reasons Why You Should NOT Vaccinate Your Children Against The Flu This Season".
But regardless of whether the swine flu vaccine is safe or not, that is not going to stop millions of Americans from running out and getting injected with the stuff - including Barack Obama.
That's right - in a nationally televised interview on Sunday, Barack Obama told CNN's "State of the Union" that he plans to get vaccinated along with his family:
"We want to get vaccinated. We think it's the right thing to do. We will stand in line like everybody else and when folks say it's our turn, that's when we'll get it."
Meanwhile, a shocking leaked U.N. report says that the H1N1 swine flu "could kill millions" and "cause anarchy" in third world nations unless the wealthier nations cough up hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines.
Does the U.N. report reflect a legitimate concern about how dangerous H1N1 is, or is this just more fearmongering by world health officials in order to get more money out of the wealthy nations and to get more people in third world nations to take the vaccine?
Have recent pronouncements by world health authorities that the swine flu vaccine will be in short supply (at least initially) really been designed to get more people to rush out to take the vaccine?
You see, one of the best ways to get people to want something is to create the impression that there is a shortage of something. Just think about the "Cabbage Patch" doll craze of the 1980s - there was no actual shortage of the dolls, but the impression that there was caused consumers to line up in front of stores early in the morning and to fight with one another for the few dolls put on display.
Could it be the same way with this swine flu vaccine? Could an initial "vaccine shortage" be used to cause a wave of "vaccine panic" as Americans scramble to find someone who has the vaccine?
Only time will tell. It's just a thought. But the reality is that health authorities seem extremely interested in getting as many people vaccinated for this swine flu as possible, and they are certainly not above messing with people's perceptions in order to accomplish that goal.
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