VACCINATIONS: FACTS & FICTION

Vaccinations are controversial. However, there is no debate scientifically that #vaccines have saved millions of lives.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that routine childhood immunizations averted 732,000 premature deaths from vaccine-preventable illnesses among children born in the U.S. during 1994–2013. (Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report [April 25, 2014] Vol 63, No. 16)

This estimate doesn’t consider the lives saved by #vaccinations for flu, hepatitis, etc. in adults or the effect of vaccinations internationally.

There are four main reasons that vaccinations are controversial. One is their development is a complex, expensive process taking sometimes ten to fifteen years. Two, viruses are constantly mutating (changing)and hence causing the need for new or altered viruses. Three, any vaccine can cause side effects. Most are minor (a sore arm, headache, a low-grade fever) and go away in a few day. Serious side effects (a severe allergic reaction) are rare (probably less than 1 in a million) but clinic staff are trained to deal with them. Four, many do not like the way scientists and medical personnel couch their answers with so many “ifs” and “buts.”

Thus, The Flu Is Coming is not only a thriller but also an example of the how a flu vaccine could be developed. It's really two mysteries combined. Will a woman epidemiologist be able to find clues that will help stop the spread of a new, deadly flu virus? And will police be able to maintain of a quarantine of a community exposed to this flu virus after the epidemiologist learns too many secrets about the criminal activities of several residents in the community?

Prescription. Learn more about vaccines and their development. If you don’t like dry, technical jargon, read The Flu Is Coming. You’ll learn a bit and get to enjoy an action-packed thriller. Paper back & Kindle versions at: https://www.amazon.com/Flu-Coming-Science-Traveler/dp/0578423251

Blurb: In The Flu Is Coming, a new type of flu — the Philippine flu — kills nearly half of the residents in an upscale, gated community in less than a week. A quarantine makes those who survive virtual prisoners in their homes.The Centers for Disease Control recruit Sara Almquist, a resident of the community, to apply her skills as an epidemiologist to find ways to limit the spread of the epidemic. As she pries into her neighbors’ lives, she finds promising scientific clues but unfortunately learns too much about several of them.