I’m getting so sick of hearing about H1N1, yet I’m compelled to read every article about it. Finally there is a doctor willing to take a stand about the overblown panic of the whole thing.
Dr. Richard Schabas is Ontario’s former chief medical officer, and he believes that the hype and hysteria around the H1N1 pandemic, the millions of dollars spent so far on responding to it, and the dire warnings are all unwarranted. He also questions the pandemic label. By December, it is estimated that H1N1 will have killed between 200 and 300 Canadians – making it one-tenth as lethal as the seasonal flu. While mortality rates among people 20 and younger in Canada will be slightly higher than in a normal flu season, the actual number of deaths among healthy youngsters will be in the range of just seven. According to Schabas, “The risk of a young person being killed by a car in Ontario... is 100 or more times higher than the risk of being killed by H1N1.” Just about every media outlet is stating that H1N1 outbreak has peaked, yet Canada has ordered another 15 million doses (enough to vaccinate half the Canadian population), not surprisingly making the infamous vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline the biggest beneficiary of all the H1N1 fear tactics.