Can you get swine flu by eating pork and other myths

Source: China View

Christopher Beam, writing on Slate, points out that opposition to vaccines unites both ends of the political spectrum. “Swine flu may have an unexpected side effect: political unity. The far left and far right agree that they’re sure as heck not getting vaccinated against swine flu.”
The far right objects to the vaccine because it comes from the government. The sentiment is not limited to US citizens. I found this comment from an Israeli in response to an article in the UK’s Daily Mail:
“I find it very interesting that the vaccine does the opposite of what its supposed to do. Is any one open to the thought that this is intentional? That the people in power are using this is a means for population control? And the fact that governments are in the process of making this vaccine MANDATORY??”

Thermerosal

Opposition on the left comes from doctors, lawyers, and celebrities. Jim Carrey promotes the claim that vaccines cause autism. The usual culprit is mercury in the preservative thermerosal. Note that a definitive study (PDF) published last week finds that children with autism have the same levels of mercury in their blood as “typically developing” children. The study found that children who chew gum have higher levels of mercury.

From a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

According to the package insert, a multi-dose vial of the H1N1 flu vaccine contains about 25 micrograms of mercury per dose. In comparison, an average can of albacore tuna contains about 60 micrograms of mercury. So the vaccine offers a dose of mercury that is less than that in 1/2 can of tunafish. At the same time, the vaccine protects against a disease that at best results in several days of discomfort and missed school or work, and at worst results in serious complications and even death. Seems like a worthwhile trade-off.

The response to this from anxious health extremists is: “Yeah, but you eat tuna. It’s not injected into your blood stream.”
Thermerosal is used only in multi-dose vials of vaccine — to prevent contamination after the vial is opened. The nasal spray version of the swine flu vaccine, as well as single-dose injectable units, do not contain thermerosal.

Anti-vaccination unites the simply crazy with left and right extremists

Beam writes: “Some of the myths circulating are neither left crazy nor right crazy, but simply crazy. Several Web sites have suggested that H1N1 is a vehicle for the government to implant microchips in our bodies to detect ‘bio-threats.’ ”
Appeals to paranoia are reminiscent of last summer’s town hall meetings, where the far right, objecting to Obama in general, objected to health care reform in particular. As Beam recalls, paranoia-inspired myths were rampant long before Obama actually took office.

Myth-busting is familiar territory for the Obama administration. In 2008, his campaign created a Web site, Fight the Smears, to counter suggestions that Obama was not born in the United States and that Michelle Obama was caught on video using the epithet whitey. But vaccine fact-checking is different. While most of the campaign-era claims came from the right, HHS [Health and Human Services] has to fend off misinformation from both sides of the aisle. That means not just correcting the record but doing so without offending potential allies. Given the heightened emotion around vaccines, that’s not easy. Hence the respectful and straight-faced answer [from the Assistant Surgeon General] to whether you can get swine flu by eating pork.

Trypanophobia: Fear of needles

Opposition to swine flu vaccination may boil down to a fear of needles, technically known as trypanophobia. “[T]here’s nothing more universal than fear of shots. ‘I just think there are people wired that way,’ says Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. ‘They operate on the basis of emotion and anecdote–what they read at the University of Google–rather than a fact-based or data-driven point of view.’ ”

Counteracting the myths

Assistant Surgeon General Dr. Anne Schuchat has a web page refuting myths about flu shots at Flu.gov.
I also recommend the book Swine Flu / H1N1 – The Facts by Terence Stephenson, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK. It was published on October 6, 2009.
If you’re in the UK, you can find Dr. Stephenson’s book Swine Flu – What Parents Need to Know: UK Edition
Related posts:
Questions worth asking about swine flu vaccinations
Why it’s safe to completely ignore Dr. Mercola
Paging Dr. Frankenstein