Was You Ever Stung by a Dead Virus?
September 20th, 2009Flu Lite
I have never had side effects from a flu shot until now. Last night my throat seemed to swell up, as if it was half-sore, and I felt congested. It ruined my sleep. But it sure beats a week of hell, followed by a month of fatigue.
I just heard from someone who says a pharmacist told her she could catch the flu from the vaccine. I can’t believe people spread this rumor. If the pharmacist is right, every health authority in the world is wrong. Get on the web and see. Some people get the shot right before they come down with the flu, a cold, pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis, or something similar, and they run around claiming the shot gave them the flu. The shot takes one to two weeks to work. Anything you catch within that time period is not attributable to the vaccine.
I haven’t been able to get my sister to get the vaccine. Some old doctor she knows told her to stay away from it because she had recently been injected with iodine dye, and the vaccine contains a tiny amount of mercury, and he thought it was too much “heavy metal.” Sure seems better than dying because you got the flu and chemotherapy has messed up your immune system.
I wish the swine flu shot was available. I’d take three. I do not want the swine flu. By the way, in case you don’t already know it, the reason they call it H1N1 (which is ambiguous, because it’s not the only H1N1 flu) is that Muslims have decided that any public mention of pigs is forbidden. For non-Muslims. For everybody. They get to make the rules, because people are afraid they’ll get blown up if they don’t toe the line. What a great attitude. I should start threatening to blow people up when they won’t obey me. I could get all sorts of discounts.
I dimly remember a time when bad behavior was punished, not rewarded. But I guess the people who advanced that philosophy have all been blown up by angry Muslims. Yet Janet Napolitano thinks I’m the big danger, because I have a shotgun and a Bible.
I’m starting to wonder if a major health crisis is on the way. I think God prepares his people for things, and here I am, growing bananas and plantains and storing beans and meat and canned fish. And we’re not having hurricanes, which would be a threat to frozen food. There must be a purpose for all this, beyond being cheap. If the swine flu mutates and starts killing large numbers of people, immunization will be impossible, and the best way to survive will be to stay home. That means storing food.
If my trees start paying off the way they’re supposed to, I’m in for a massive banana and plantain harvest in the near future. This would be a big help in a crisis. It’s hard to think of anything that is better to have on hand than bananas and plantains. They’re loaded with fiber. They’re high enough in calories to make them a good survival food. They’re incredibly versatile.
I wonder what else I could grow here, in the fungus and malicious bug capital of the world. Yuca, maybe. Calabazas.
Church was phenomenal last night. It was all about confession, which is a major feature of the teshuvah and atonement season. Protestants don’t seem to be big on the notion that confession has to be between people. The New Testament says something about confessing sins to each other, but the Old Testament is full of stuff about confessing directly to God. I suppose confessing to others as well as God may be a better way, depending on whether it will ruin your life. Some people will take your confession and turn it against you. People are not as forgiving as God. You could end up in jail or in some other kind of trouble. I am not sure God wants us to subject ourselves to great risk by confessing.
These days I worry about schadenfreude and unjustified anger. I once felt annoyed with a crippled person for delaying me by crossing a street in front of me. I am pretty sure this person did not become crippled in order to inconvenience me. At times like this you wonder what’s wrong with you.
Anyway, the pastor had everyone come up and kneel in front of the stage, for a session of repentance and prayer. It was a huge success. I can only imagine what it will be like today, with much higher attendance.
Every day this week, they’re having a one-hour event at noon, celebrating atonement and repentance. That ought to be good.
Last night, they blew a shofar in church. Things are so different, now that some Christian denominations realize they don’t have to preach replacement theology or outright anti-Semitism. Next weekend, they’ll blow it again, I think. They’re going to have a one-day fast, from 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 p.m. Sunday. That’s a day earlier than the Jews. Yom Kippur starts on Sunday night, and Jews will fast the next day. We’re not getting it quite right, but being Gentiles, we don’t have to.
I watched Robert Morris this week, and he said something interesting. He explained the Bible verse that says the Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness. He says that means it helps us realize we are in right standing with God. Over the last few weeks, I’ve had an experience like that. I’ve gone to church and heard a powerful message about something that is no longer a big problem for me, and I’ve had the sense that I was doing okay with regard to that issue. I’m always nervous about feeling like I’ve arrived, but sometimes it’s okay to admit you’ve gotten past something. I think.
He also said the Holy Spirit is not weird. I assume that was intended for people who roll on the floor and bark like dogs and claim the Holy Spirit is making them do it. He said that if you act weird in church, it probably means you’re a weird person in your own right. Makes sense to me. I think that if you parade around making funny noises and jerking and twitching in front of a congregation, it probably means that if you were not a Christian, you’d be sort of like Meat Loaf or Alice Cooper. The same way some of the “Davidic worship” guys might otherwise be female impersonators.
I really look forward to sleeping tonight.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:45 PM
I find it fascinating how freaked out some people are about swine flu. There have only been about 4,000 deaths worldwide so far this year from it, according to the ECDC via Wikipedia. In an average year 36,000 people in the United States die from the normal flu (per the CDC). I’m not seeing the major issue here. Whenever the vaccine is available in my area I will get it (just like I get the standard flu shot), if only to do my part for herd immunity. But freaking out and thinking that it’s the black plague revisited is just silly. Much as it was with bird flu, SARS, West Nile, etc… It just gives the media something to jabber about.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:53 PM
On the subject of growing your own food in South Florida, I took a class down in the Redlands yesterday on that very subject. Yes Yucca and Calabasas are good things to grow here. I also learned that the pink peppercorns that Williams-Sonoma sells for big bucks are just that darn weed, Brazilian Pepper (Florida Holly). Interestingly the instructor said that Plantains are not great here. He said that they get diseases after a couple of years and have to be replaced. There is no shortage of other cooking bananas that do well here.
I’m a big fan of coconut palms. One or two in your yard will produce a lot of coconuts.
It looks like both citrus and avocados are doomed in South Florida. Enjoy your limes while you can.
September 20th, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Swine flu is projected to make the year just a little worse than a normal flu season. Nothing to freak about, it would appear.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:21 PM
If you want a scary read on what a catastrophic epidemic could look like, check out John Ringo’s The Last Centurion. Speculative, of course, but very engrossing. I almost couldn’t put it down.
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Store food, store water. I began doing so this year because I live in N.Carolina… and it just feels like we’re overdue for a big ‘cane. I go to BePrepared.com for my canned/preserved food needs. What I ought to plan for next is extended power outages.
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I don’t have any trouble with the notion of staying at home for a while… indeed, getting out is the challenge for me, given my disability. I’d be more worried if I absolutely had to bug out on short notice.
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If there is an epidemic, though, staying at home is a far from perfect solution. The wave of sick people may pass, but you have to go out eventually, and there’s no telling who you run into that might be a carrier of some kind. Vaccination is the way to go.
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Oh… and speaking as a disabled person: I do my best to *not* irritate people – for instance, in parking lots I wave cars past, rather than assuming I have the right to make everyone wait. It’s my legs that are crippled, not my sense of courtesy. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case for a lot of other people.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:25 PM
Addendum: I have noticed how polite other people are towards me. I can’t remember the last time I went out to do my errands when someone *didn’t* offer to hold a door for me, or help me load my groceries, or whatnot – even when I say I can handle whatever it is. Maybe that’s a NC thing, but I’m nevertheless glad I live here rather than in, say, L.A.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:47 PM
Obviously, wash your hands whenever you get a chance.
Every day when my secretary and I leave work, I push open the public door for her with the side of my hand.
Months ago she asked me, “What are you doing?”
I said, “Hundreds of people touch that bar on the door every day. (We work at a college.) Do you really want whatever was on their hands on yours?”
And I’m not getting any flu shots.
Thanks anyway.
September 21st, 2009 at 12:16 AM
A while back, I was working at Motorla (we were making television sets so that should tell you how long ago), and I received an influenza shot, courtesy of the company. Never before or since, have I been so ill ( there WERE a couple of hangovers but forget them… ).
I know, I know. Different method now of producing the bug juice, different strain of whatever. I’m not proselytising, only giving my feelings about this phake crisis.
BTW, my citrus trees are looking good, the bananas only had pups.
September 21st, 2009 at 1:46 AM
I’m quite surprised that some of your sister’s caregivers at radiation/chemo or even her oncologist haven’t talked her into getting a flu shot and a pnumonia shot. That was the first thing they told my mom before they released her from the hospital back in January,and they gave them to her when they brought the release papers.
Really if you can, you should talk to your sister’s oncologist about it.
My mom was released from the hospital yesterday.
We have a follow-up with her oncologist in two weeks. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. I am praying for you and your family too. Prayer and our faith in God will get us through this! God Bless!
September 21st, 2009 at 8:52 AM
I think everyone has seen the stories on the mildness of the swine flu.
September 21st, 2009 at 9:46 AM
One winter a few years ago, only folks over 65-years-old could get the flu shot until there was enough vaccine for everyone. I received mine in December, too late for the immune response to kick up. I got the flu. Oh. My. Gosh. 48 hours of shaking chills. Flat on my back for a week with breathing difficulties, then a secondary bronchial infection on top of it. The ordinary flu is nothing to mess with, so if H1N1 is similar in severity to the annual flu, I’m getting both shots this year.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Friend of mine is a nurse, and asked a epidemiologist about the H1N1 vaccine; she was flatly told “Don’t take it.” Said is hasn’t been sufficiently tested, and there was something else about it that bothered her greatly(I hate not remembering details like that).