Moira Heath’s blog

One of my favourite comic strip authors, Scott Adams, once wrote : “A little knowledge is a ridiculous thing”. It stems from the more popular “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, but I prefer the former, cause in many cases, people tend to act stupidly more than dangerously (although one does not exclude the other). I’ve never stopped believing that phrase, because everyday I read or hear comments that make me realise that people take decisions based on just a little ounce of information, when there’s a ton of it to digest in the first place. When asked what I thought about the Swine Flu vaccine a couple of weeks ago, my decision was adamant : “No way”, I said. “I heard terrible things happened abroad with it, and I would rather face the flu cause it appeared less harmless”. This decision was taken purely on hearsay, I hadn’t even bothered reading any articles about the whole thing. Well, the recent tragic death of Justin Chircop, a perfectly healthy 32-year old maltese man, got me thinking and I sat down and decided to research this topic a bit and find out what’s happening.

Given the current situation in Malta, Swine Flu seems to be on the increase, and people take to it differently. Some say it’s just a mild flu that keeps you in bed for a couple of days, while others report a lot of pain, mainly in their bones, that make the whole experience extremely unpleasant. How it will affect you as an individual if you get infected is anybody’s guess but using common sense, those with a better diet and lifestyle are apparently likely to battle it better.

Taking the vaccine is not an option at this moment. Neither I nor anyone in my family suffer from anything so we are not classified as a “vulnerable group“, which is a good thing of course. All I can do right now is beef up on my Vitamin D (which you can get from milk, cheese, salmon and some fortified cereals). But come March, or whenever the vaccine becomes available, I will have the option, and as things are going, it’s looking pretty certain that I will take it, and I will give it to my son as well. So why the U-turn?

What’s all the hype about? To hear people talk, you’d think they’re injecting the black plague directly in your veins, and within a few hours, you’ll fall on the floor in convulsions and die. Others take the more mysterious route and claim that the convulsions will happen to you in 20 years’ time, or round about then, and it will be all the fault of the swine flu vaccine. I still haven’t heard the theory that the government is in fact injecting you with a chip by which he will know everything you’re doing all the time, but I believe it’s only a matter of time. After all, it’s always the governement’s fault, isn’t it?

The fact that some distinguished doctors internationally have come out with their disapproval of the swine flu vaccine has done more harm than good, and how do you know when the information at hand is believable or not? First of all, timing is of the essence. If a doctor said something about mistakes having been made in the first batch, which by now would have been more than rectified, why should people still quote him/her? Then another thing. To distinguish between truth and rumour on the internet is a very difficult thing. You’ve got all sorts of people writing things on this massive piece of paper that is the world wide web, and you don’t know who they are or whether they are credible sources. Someone posts a negative video on YouTube and all the pessimists are reeled in like moths to a flame, claiming conspiracy theories about how the pharmaceutical companies are willing to gamble our lives in return for a few megabucks. Well, yes, Hollywood producers feed on this kind of story to produce block-buster movies which we watch and gullible that we are, we come out of the cinema going “Omg, what if it’s true? What if something like this could happen?” and then apply our lesson-learnt to our everyday lives.

I looked at some official websites and asked my friends abroad, and here’s what seems to be the story. Initially it was thought that the swine flu vaccine needed to be given in two doses (at least that’s the story with the under-5s), but after a lot of administrations they found that the second dose was not increasing immunity but was in fact creating a lot of side effects. (That’s mistake number 1). Hence they decided to stop at just the one dose. That is why a lot of countries have ordered a surplus, which they are now trying to resell to other countries, and that is why the vaccine got such a bad rep. There seems to have been some dodgy batches of the vaccine as well (mistake number 2), that caused a low (about 6) number of deaths in Canada, and that’s been recalled. Other than that, the statistics speak for themselves. Around 70 million vaccinations given worldwide, no massive genocide reported as a result. And now it’s been months that the vaccine is being administered. Surely the maltese are not the guinea pigs many local prophets of doom are evangelising?

As with the regular flu vaccine, I imagine the risk is still there that someone somewhere will have an adverse reaction to it, but all this hype of “oh it’s a new vaccine so we don’t know what the long-term side-effects are” is just a load of bollocks, cause it’s the same stuff that is used in the usual flu vaccine and not only is that tried and tested, but no one ever bats an eyelid about it and everyone eagerly queues up to get it on an annual basis.

Conveniently for me, and selfishly enough, I have been reading all the info in the local newspapers about the vaccinations being given in Malta, to find out whether anyone who has taken the vaccine has had any adverse side-effects, but to date, from all these “vulnerable” groups, I haven’t heard anything, neither through the media nor through word-of-mouth, apart from a few comments by readers about headaches and raised blood pressure, which means that out of 30,000 vaccinations given, there haven’t been any horror stories. I find that quite a relief and I hope it stays this way.

In the meantime, I’ve spoken to a friend in the UK about her experience. She and her 2 year old son took it, and neither of them have had any side effects. She also told me that in the UK, her doctor told her that around 80% of the under-5s were ending up in hospital if they catch it. I’d like to avoid my little one having this experience if possible.

If anyone reading this has heard otherwise from what I stated above, please let me know. I’m no doctor and I would love to know if the information I have is correct or not.

read comments (142)

I just really hope that this park is maintained well over the coming years. It is free entrance, so obviously the money for the upkeep will need to come out of the government’s pocket and hopefully the sponsor’s (Bank of Valletta).  In the meantime, well done to all those involved. I think this park will be seeing me very often in the coming years.

read comments (252)