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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You’d be very surprised at how many people do not get flu shots. Among these are friends and family members who are health care workers and teachers – both groups with much more contact with many more people than the rest of us. Why not? They don’t feel they need the shots or can’t be bothered.
Ulu mentioned whooping cough – which has come back, and is causing infant illness and death. Why? A decrease in the number of infants vaccinated, and the discovery that immunity decreases in time. A booster shot is being considered. Read about it here: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=118214&page=1
Wow! Is this the best you guys can come up with?
how about finding out what the next administration is going to do about:
1) worker furloughs
2) under-funded pension and health plans
3) taxes
4) transportation
5) education spending
6) homelessness and increasing poverty
well, at least you guys are better then California where they are trying to pin a billionaire with exploiting a foreign worker at despicable $23 per hour
Interestingly, a Duke Aiona banner ad appears when one pulls up this site.
there are toxic substances found in various flu vaccines including dangerous levels of mercury in the form of thimerosal,a deadly preservative that is 50 times more toxic than regular mercury.i’ll eat fish anytime.also Ethylene Glyco(an anti-freeze), Formaldehyde (cancer causing agent),antibiotics,aluminum,TritonX100 (detergent),etc. AND the flu vaccine doesn’t work at all in the elderly.(http://minnesota.public.radio.org/display/web/2010/04/27/flu-vaccine-not-effective-in-elderly/
Shaftalley, please give us the scientific papers, not dead links. Children have died because they did not get vaccines because their parents were scared off by people who can best be termed irresponsible and in on case in Britain, were found to be unethical criminals.
Thank you, Ulu, for making lots of sense and not making pointless arguments!
“It stops us from working. Stops our children from attending school and in general it puts a hole on the household in general so we want to have every tool in every household to address this,” said Aiona.
Boy. what a tool.
“I have read the science on it and I say it has some merit to it and I am not convinced that vaccines are more beneficial that harmful.” But Aiona. That is NOT what you are communicating!
For a politician, he sounds slightly illiterate.
“No, I don’t think it sends the wrong message, it is just a personal choice,” said Aiona. “Although as a politician, I must uphold the weasily tradition of ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ “
Ulu, are you ready for the references?the list is quite extensive: Arch Intern Med. 2005;165(17):2037-2040 Evid.Based Med. 2010;15:109-110 Proc R Soc. B 2010;277:1857-1866 Sci Signal 2009;2:ra75 AJPH 2009;99:S225-S230 Am J. Epidemiol 2009;170:925-936 Eur Heart J. 2009;30:209-216 BMJ 2008;337:2545 J. Immunol. 2008;180:1979-90 CLIN APPL THROMB HEMOST 2007;13:130-136 Epidemiol Rev 2006;28:41-46 http://www.nvic.org/ http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/fall/303/1/37 mercola.com etc,etc.
hate to be rude but it appears you did not actually read these articles. One is a letter to the editor on methodology that is well rebutted. Two are not even on the topic: “The reproduction number of seasonal influenza epidemics in Brazil, 1996–2006” and “The Need for Validation of Statistical Methods for Estimating Respiratory Virus–Attributable Hospitalization”.
I stopped after that. Go ask for Obama’s birth certificate.
Wow Ian, you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. This may come as a complete surprise to you but many people don’t get vaccinated.
You’re making it like he’s a Truther or Birther.
I would think you would have covered something more substantial like how Neil is so clueless on education reform that he attributed the failure of act 51 on the governor’s office rather than the DOE.
I know it’s not as sexy of accusing Duke of believing in menehunes but hey…
I’m sorry. I happen to think that public health is very important, and vaccinations are a very important part of public health. People who, for whatever reason, avoid vaccinations become a threat to the general health. The public at large benefits by the control of diseases through vaccinations. By seeking to enjoy the benefits of vaccinations–the reduced threat of serious disease–without participating in the public health program makes Aiona and those like him are “free riders”, failing to do their part in supporting the public good. In his case, it comes while he publicly lectures others to get with the program.
This is not the bottom of the barrel. It’s a serious and important issue.
Re Free Riders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_rider_problem
I believe the issue here is not to vaccinate or not, but is Duke’s PSA to vaccinate while he is not getting vaccinated. It’s the speaking out of two sides of your mouth virus.
Yes, the hypocrisy’s the point. If Duke had simply disclosed and said, “I’m not getting the flu shot cause I’m super healthy, but you the little people should get it” then there would not have been a problem.
Or if he said, “You should get the flu shot, but if you’re like me and don’t believe in it you can pass,” that would be OK.
To advocate people to do stuff that you don’t believe and not disclosing it shows a lack of leadership like was seen with Duke under Lingle. He didn’t speak out against school furloughs then either.
But come to think of it, advocating for positions you don’t believe in and not disclosing it is the job description of lawyers and what they get paid to do, but we should at least expect better from judges, Lt. Governors, and gubernatorial candidates.
BTW, does anyone remember Duke whining about quitting as a judge in 1998 because $87,000 was not enough money and he wanted to make more in private practice, but then he turns around and runs for political office after working with Gerard Jervis a couple of years?
That statement by Aiona about judges’ pay is burned into my memory. It has colored my opinion of him since. His decision not to get a flu vaccination rings true. Self-serving and hypocritical.
Isn’t there a chance that Aiona simply took the vaccine nasally?
“‘We have it in the form of a shot and the form of a nasal mist. Those of you who are like me and are sissies, and don’t like shots, we have it in nasal form,’ said Aiona.”
Not a chance, according to Aiona:
“I have never really been vaccinated in the past and I guess I am a creature of habit and I seem to take care of myself fairly well, exercising and dieting and I do brag about that,” Aiona said.
“I have read the literature on it, I have read the science on it and I say it has some merit to it and I am not convinced that vaccines are more beneficial that harmful.”
Aiona clearly is NOT convinced about the benefits of vaccination, whether injected, snorted, swallowed, gulped, chewed or inserted down below!!!!!! Nuff said.
Wait a second…he never took all those shots we had to take as kids? We had to take them for school. I’m his era, I couldn’t get out of it…what the hey?
He’s never been vaccinated = no polio, measles, rubella, nothing?
Economists call this the free rider problem. If everybody else is doing it, I don’t have to.
What a jerk!
Thank you for clarifying that.
Neil Abercrombie’s GovTrack page:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=400001
Andy Parx weighs in:
“Not everyone needs a flu shot- not everyone comes into contact with a lot of people. But Aiona is currently crisscrossing the state shaking every hand, kissing every baby and hugging every tutu he can get his hands on, spreading germs with a paint roller.”
http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2010/09/damage-done.html