Quote:
Originally Posted by Thor
My concern isn't much about what happens a year from now looking at the effectiveness and results of this H1N1 year, once we sit down and look at all the data. My big concern is all this nonsense in the mediaand the ever growing distrust of vaccinations is spreading, which has real serious consequences for the future.
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I fear most that when a dangerous pandemic does appear, people won't believe in the danger because they will be tired of hearing about the worst case scenario that never pans out.
'H1N1 is no more dangerous than the normal flu, but high-risk groups should worry about it and get vaccinated'. That is the message that SHOULD have been disseminated. Instead, we heard about overwhelmed hospitals, extremely contagious spread, and danger of death in normally healthy age groups.
Expecting the media not to take these already overblown claims and pump them up in the Black Death of the 21st century was so hopelessly naive, you wonder how the people behind this strategy ever got into positions of authority. While I understand that the intent was to slow the spread of the disease thru a massive vaccination campaign, it should have been obvious from the beginning that using fear as a main motivator would only lead to debacle, suspicion, and the weakening of that motivator when it is actually needed.