Fear As A Weapon

When I was a child and viewed my first horror movies, it introduced a fear syndrome of night ghouls and dreams that were not of my liking. I was convinced there were creatures lurking about waiting to do me harm. Yes, this is perhaps the "boogeyman" caution we face once we're introduced to the unknown. Innocent enough, I then began to sleep with my door partially open and asked for a nightlight.

I slowly learned the lessons regarding those fears of the unknown. One, was NOT to watch scary movies prior to bed, and two, doors left open and light does not allow for good sleep habits.

Mark Twain stated, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."

All the above introduces the pandemic fears of today. Things like the possible Avian Flu Pandemic. This fear has prompted a mass buying spree of antiviral medications from pharmacy shelves and a mad scramble for a vaccine against the H5N1 Avian Flu strain. The Avian flu has been around since 1961 and has had various outbreaks in bird populations many times between then and now. Since 1997 there have been several cases of bird flu in humans with exposure to infected birds such as chicken farmers, but no confirmed cases of human to human transmission. Disease pandemics occur worldwide about once every 25-30 years and with the last one being the 1918 flu pandemic.

So if it's only obtainable from exposure to infected birds, why the fear of a pandemic? The answer is called antigenic drift and genetic reassortment. All viruses randomly mutate (antigenic drift) and the fear is that one of these random mutations will allow the strain to be transferable between humans. The other side of the coin is that viruses routinely trade useful bits of DNA (genetic reassortment) kind of like a viral flea market. The fear here being that the bird flu strain will find a flea market stall with the DNA strand that allows it to transfer between humans and bamm......... pandemic.

So why all the government attention to it now? Some say it's because part of the $2 billion dollars it would take to stockpile Tamiflu against a pandemic would go into the pocket of the company that developed it. Always follow the money!

So there is a legitimate fear, but fear should be a tool for preparedness not a weapon for panic. So how do we defend ourselves?

Well, first off, know that flu vaccine offers NO defense against the avian flu. Should you get a flu shot? You decide, but if you do, ask for the mercury free vaccine. And, remember that the best defense against any disease is a healthy immune system. Different ways to boost immune system function include nutrition, exercise, hygiene, rest, washing hands etc. Rather obvious; DON'T PICK UP BIRD FEATHERS YOU MIGHT FIND ON THE GROUND!

In conclusion, don't let the government use fear as a weapon to panic you into rash decisions. Relax, do your homework on the Bird flu, investigate objectively vaccines AND, boost your immune system to fight whatever comes along.