Thanks to KITV’s Denby Fawcett for coming up with this very strange story last night.
It seems that while L.G. Duke Aiona has promoted the public health benefits of flu shots in official appearances, he has not had any flu shots and says, amazingly, “I am not convinced that vaccines are more beneficial that harmful.”
Okay, so apparently Duke doesn’t have a clue about how different our lives are because science has largely eliminated a number of formerly prevalent diseases through widespread use of vaccines, including smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague, polio, measles, mumps, chickenpox, and typhoid.
But Duke Aiona is still not convinced that vaccines are beneficial?? Or perhaps he doesn’t believe in science?
How embarrassing.
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I wonder by Denby didn’t delve into his personal reasons, i.e. his belief in the efficacy of prayer.
He probably also thinks the vaccines cause autism in kids as well.
I haven’t had any flu shots either but not for political or religious reasons. I don’t expect to get sick and, if I do, then I can always use the time off from work to get caught up on my sleep & tv recordings.
Seriously, I do support vaccines and free or low-cost access yo medical care.
Hope that you & your family are doing well today.
YOU may be OK, but the person behind you in line at the bank may have a compromised immune system or be in an high-risk group to suffer severe complications, possibly fatal, from influenza. By vaccinating yourself, you protect not only yourself (which, according to you, is not a concern) but those around you.
hmmm. When I was at Columbia U, a molecular geneticist said virtually the same thing to me. He said vaccines harm our natural immune system.
Any biologists out there???
That Columbia molecular geneticist was an idiot. Vaccines actually prime your immune system against the diseases. Yes, you may have a local redness, that’s your immune system reacting. There are occasional bad reactions, but that is true of everything, starting with being born.
We have reduced or gotten rid of small pox, diptheria, tetanus and a whole lot of other viral and bacterial diseases because of vaccines. Aiona surely has the capacity to grasp the reduction in human suffering that vaccines have produced. Summers in America were a time of terror for parents because of polio; winters, the same because of diptheria and whooping cough. Before that, smallpox and yellow fever epidemics periodically devastated urban life. Just last year, we whistled past the graveyard in a race between a vaccine and a pandemic influenza that fortunately turned out not to be deadly. H5N1 is still in Indonesia and if it mutates or combines with the pandemic H1N1, we will be rather hoping for a vaccine.
I should point out that religious extremists are responsible for the persistence of polio in India, Pakistan and Nigeria because they believe vaccines are harmful.
Even George W Bush got a flu shot.
Very well said Ulu!!! It’s great to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about!
To use Ian’s analogy of his criticism of the SA tour bus story….the story at first grabbed my attention but I was quickly disappointed. Why didn’t Denby show the number of people who actually were sickened by the vaccine and how about a comment frome the disease control center in Atlanta about just how safe the vaccine really is? What about a comment from Neal? Is he vaccinated? and so it goes…..
Neil’s comment was included. He does get annual shot.
And CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/vaccination/
Duke has every right to believe whatever he wants to believe. I know plenty people who don’t get shots–some for philosophical reasons, some because they’re scared of needles. But where this story goes cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs is that Duke has been going around telling everyone that they should get flu shots! Primum non nocere, medical ethics tells us…”first, do no harm.” Well…unless doing harm scores you political points, right Duke?
I’d like to know if Duke accepts the theory of evolution.
If not, I’m sure he’d be content with antibiotics used in the 50’s, before bacteria evolved to current resistances.
Right Duke?
Well if you’re so smart why aren’t we seeing monkeys still evolving. Oops, sorry, that line was already taken.
…well, they don’t call him “Dupe” for no reason, yeah!
there have been some studies done to show the ineffectiveness of flu shots.and that some of the vaccine products still contain mercury.i don’t take flu shots for those reasons.but still, aiona is hypocritical about his “official public health policies” of cmpaigning for the shots while he himself refuses.
The mercury is in a chemical form that has minimal risk, it has also been removed from children’s vaccines. I assume you don’t eat tuna or salmon if you are concerned about mercury; if you do, you are pulling an Aiona.
As to the effectiveness of flu vaccines, there are two types of effectiveness, individual and herd. A vaccine may not give an individual 100% protection, sort of like a seat belt. It will also reduce the percentage of the population that is susceptible so that the disease is less able to spread. That is why we vaccinate school children to protect old people who are most vulnerable to seasonal flu. Kids go to schools which are ideal incubators for flu, then go home with the disease. Immunize the kids or as many as you can and you reduce the risk for the kapuna and the population as a whole, as well as for the child.
I lot’s of fish.small fish mostly.like the mackerel,sardines,sama,saba,akule and small fish that are caught in cold ocean water.and also wild caught salmon and raw tunas(sashimi).the health benefits of eating wild caught fish that have mercury(the bigger the fish, the more mercury i’ve been told) outweigh all the risks of mercury consumption. i would only suggest to the health officials of seriously doing research on the 100% effectiveness vitamin D3.this nutrient is safe,cheap,and can be absorbed by direct sunshine.it is much more effective preventive than the flu-shots,which can produce side-effects.the things that are being discovered about this vitamin is amazing.
politics as usual.
For those of you who are saying Duke is hypocritical for encouraging others to get vaccines, does that mean that overweight politicians can’t encourage their constituents to eat healthy and exercise?
I’d like to know if he vaccinated his kids. THAT would be very telling.
So he advocates vaccines for other people but not for himself? Interesting. If everyone else gets vaccinated no need for him to get his, right?
Now, I will stay awake wondering whether he actually uses the stairs or just tells everyone else to use the stairs so that he doesn’t have to wait for an elevator.
The most telling thing about this story is Duke’s attitude and nonchalance about “do as I say, not as I do.”
That’s not the best way to sell the prospect of an Aiona administration.
Article published May 24, 2010
Doctor who linked autism to vaccine banned from practicing medicine in Britain
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In Britain, Wakefield’s research led to a huge decline in the number of children receiving the MMR vaccine: from 95 percent in 1995 — enough to prevent measles outbreaks — to 50 percent in parts of London in the early 2000s. Rates have begun to recover, though not enough to prevent outbreaks. In 2006, a 13-year-old boy became the first person to die from measles in Britain in 14 years.
Wakefield has won support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including Hollywood celebrities like Jim Carrey.
If Duke Aiona and Jim Carrey are against it, then I will have to think twice about taking the shot.
The point is he should not be holding a press conference/campaign appearance promoting public health and encouraging people to get the shot and then mouth off privately about how the risks outweigh the benefits. What am embarrassment for the Health Director. Is he on the team or not?