Flu Prevention Tips

Logical Fallacies and Real Talk

America is currently in the grips of an influenza epidemic. A pandemic. 

If you've been holding on to all your panic for the right time, go ahead and start panicking now.

The Centers for Disease Controls Centers (CDC[C]) have three tips (and several sub-tips) for fighting the flu.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm

That's fine, but I'll be damned if the government is going to intrude into my life and dictate how often and to what extent I "take every-day preventative actions to prevent the spread of germs". The list reads like the kind of crap I'd expect from the current so-called "administration" (a.k.a. Sharia law):

• CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water.
• If you get the flu, antiviral drugs can treat your illness.

Save the Needles for the Junkies

First of all, I'm not getting a flu vaccine. I've made it this far into adulthood without contracting autism and I'm sure as shit not going to start now. NaturalNews.com - my only source for facts, is the only site I know that's exposing the truth. According to them, the CDC admits that flu vaccines don't work. So that right there - they're contradicting their own advice. Natural News is also the only site reporting on the breaking news that New York has created a psychiatric police state. You know New York is just the first step.

Am I going to trust a government "for the people, by the people" or am I going to trust the people themselves?

That's a trick question -- I only trust me. And also renowned vaccinologist Jenny McCarthy.

Hand Washing? More Like Hand-Wringing.

As far as hand washing goes, it might work.

But not as the CDC describes it. Predictably, this is another example of a bloated, bureaucratic government agency being given too much money and not going far enough. The CDC says I should "hum Happy Birthday" so I know how long this is all supposed to take. Right off the bat, Happy Birthday is copyrighted. I'm not going to steal intellectual property from some hard-working song writer. Personally I choose to sing (with a clear voice, just like in church) the Pledge of Allegiance. Three times. And you better believe that when it comes to "One Nation, Under God" that I say everything after the comma.

Anyway if the CDC is telling people to wash under their nails and to not forget the backs of their hands then they may as well admit that they're basically lobbyists for the flu vaccine industry. They leave out the part where you should cut an onion in half (a Vidalia onion, made in the USA) and rub each half the full length of your arm from fingertips to shoulder. The Global Healing Center - a source for Natural Health and Organic Living - basically confirms that "centuries of grandmothers" are right about the healing properties of onions.

They even have a quote FROM A NEWSPAPER:

“In a sickroom you cannot have a better disinfectant than the onion. It has a wonderful capacity for absorbing germs. A dish of sliced onions placed in a sickroom will draw away the disease; they must be removed as soon as they lose their odor and become discolored, and be replaced by fresh ones.”

That's from the LA Times, in the early 1900's. So that's over a century ago that they knew that onions would soak human germs up out of the air and lock them deep within their vegetable cell walls. This is science. And if they knew it in the 1900's then we should still know it now.

Why isn't the CDC recommending we source our own cheap, American made onions? Is it because they want to take money out of the pockets of the long-suffering American onion farmer? Or is it because they want to take away our right to treat our diseases any damn way we see fit?

Besides, I've known for a long time that hand-sanitizer is just as good as hand-washing. And that's if you even need to wash your hands at all! Public restrooms, telephones and keyboards are not the hotbed* of bacteria that scientists would like to scare us into believing.

"Flu Treatment$"

Now let's talk about the leading antiviral treatment for the flu: Tamiflu. While the FDA specifically recommends it as part of a larger set of flu treatments, I think the real reason they recommend it is to line the pockets of Genentech - the makers of Tamiflu. Genentech is a member of the Roche group and according to opensecrets.org, the Roche group has thrown quite a bit of money into lobbying for the government.

opensecrets.org

In fact, the Pharmaceutical industry is consistently one of the largest lobbying groups year in and year out**. It stands to reason then, that the FDA is simply recommending more ways to keep the biggest lobby happy. The facts are right there. You know who else are top lobbying spenders? The US Chamber of Commerce and the AARP. And we all saw what happened there (death panels).

I'll stick to my onion broth, thanks.

Patriots Take Heed

I don't believe in flu shots - I had one once and I got the flu. I've never had one*** since then and I never get treated for the flu. Never taken a day off of work from the flu. I think my anecdotal evidence speaks much more loudly than the alleged "60% effectiveness" reported in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. To recap:

• Wash hands (if you want - this isn't a dictatorship [yet!]) with onion and immediately discard slices.
• Skip the vaccine; you can avoid contracting the flu through sheer force of will.
• Ditch the pills. The government's already in your pockets every April and in every paycheck. There's no need to let them in again during flu season.

Footnotes

*Yes, they are. 

**This is a real website with real numbers. The Pharmaceutical lobby really is big, but that doesn't mean something sinister is going on.

***This is not true. I've had better luck without flu shots than with, and you probably shouldn't rely on anecdotal evidence anyway - no matter how loudly the person is yelling or how hard they're forwarding you chain e-mails.