The swine flu vaccination

The swine flu vaccine is almost ready! Millions of shots will be ready soon and millions of people are going to receive it. The pandemic flu will be controlled. There will be less outbreaks and the strain of this H1N1 virus will almost disappear. Everything sounds perfect! However more and more people are questioning, not just the efficacy of this flash-done vaccine but also the origin of the disease itself (which, despite the controversy, should not be questioned). While the common citizen is completely afraid of this infection, tenths of companies are enriching! Roche pharmaceutical company has the registration for Tamiflu (almost nobody knows that the active substance is Oseltamivir and there are other companies producing it). Millions of hand disinfectant containers are now available in the most crowdie places, face masks are being used everyday especially in Asiatic countries, making these companies richer than they ever imagine.

These prevention measures are showing to be quite effective to avoid the spreading of this new virus. But, do all these means justify the ends?! Is this infection as bad as the media tells us?! Since the first case in Portugal, 9600 people were infected. This number ascends to more than 15000 in Germany. In both countries there were no deads yet. 20000 are infected in Hong Kong and there were only 13 deceased people making a 0,065% mortality rate (and I did not forget to multiply by 100 to obtain percentage). More, most of the people die from previous conditions that complicate the H1N1 infection. Aren’t there much more lethal diseases in the world? Are the diseases that kill millions per year (tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, dysentery) starting to be forgotten?

The new vaccine is being made in a record time in order to control this pandemic. Normally a new drug needs more than 7 years of strict trials before it is approved. Is this going to reduce its safety for the population? Even more, the priority groups (children and pregnant women) should be the ones to which a new drug is available later, after several studies proving its effectiveness and safety.

According to the newspaper The Mail (USA), the Health Protection Agency sent a letter to senior neurologists to evaluate the connection between the shot and the Guillain-Barré syndrome that develops within few days after the injection. It is not new that vaccine against the seasonal Influenza can cause this ascending paralyzing syndrome, but the percentage is really low and the condition has, normally, a benign course with a complete recovery in 80% of cases. 20% of people die, do not regain movement or become dependent on breathing machines. This percentage can be higher in this new vaccine. There are no studies yet.

What exactly should we be worried about?
Are we making some few people millionaires to save ‘nothing’ while others really die elsewhere in the world?
Is this new vaccine safe and should it be commercialized without following the normal clinical trials?
Is this a truth pandemic or no more than a different strain of a flu virus slightly more contagious than seasonal ones?

Some curiosities about the Human body

- The brain needs 10W of energy to work (the sum of the small pieces making a computer needs more than 300W and just the motherboard needs 20-30W);
- Each single neuron responsible for memory has a storage capacity that is equivalent to 5 British Encyclopaedias;
- 80% of the brain is made of water and it uses 20% of the total oxygen body consumption;
- After decapitation the consciousness is preserved for 15-20sec (morbid!!);

- During the whole life we produce enough saliva to fulfil 2 swimming pools;
- By the age of 60 we lost already more than half of the gustatory papillae;
- A sneeze can achieve 160km/h and travel 300m;
- The liver has more than 500 known functions;

- The human heart creates enough pressure to project the blood 10m away;
- Women’s heart beats faster than men’s;
- Monday is the day with higher risk to have a myocardial infarction;
- We have around 96,500km of blood vessels in our body, twice the Earth’s circumference;

- It is impossible for a person to tickle him/herself;
- Each hair follicle can support a weight of 110g;
- The hand’s middle finger nail grows faster than the others;
- Feet can produce up to 500mL of sweat per day;

- The smallest and the biggest human cells are the ones that originate life, the spermatozoa and the egg, respectively;
- Most of men have erections during sleep every hour or hour and a half;
- Each day there are around 100million sexual relationships on Earth which makes 4,17million per minute;

Adapted from Sábado

Muslim's on the world

Should we be concerned?!

E foi assim há 5 anos...

A 8 de Outubro de 2004 noticiava-se o afastamento de Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa da TVI, por pressão governamental, da então coligação PSD-CDS. Um comentador que muitas vezes colocava o governo em posições desconfortáveis mas que, como qualquer cidadão, tem o seu direito de liberdade de expressão. O mesmo acontece agora, por um governo de partido diferente mas que também se sentiu de certa forma ameaçado com as investigações jornalísticas de Manuela Moura Guedes. Primeiro o chefe da casa, depois a pivot de sexta-feira, não pelo seu estilo muitas vezes satirizado pelo público mas pelas pressões exercidas por um governo democrático, defensor das liberdades dos cidadãos. As mesmas liberdades que levaram a um trabalho sério por parte da jornalista (que nem sempre foi imparcial), mostrando que é possível a informação e não apenas a intoxicação de “desinformação” e “deseducação” a que estamos já habituados. Dois grandes casos mediáticos foram investigados e desenvolvidos por esta estação televisiva, o caso da Universidade Independente e o caso Freeport. Por se terem tornado um obstáculo em plena campanha eleitoral, afastam-se os indesejados, aqueles que expõem a realidade política. Continua a máxima de fazer o que for preciso para ganhar, assegurar um lugar em vez de se lutar pela liberdade de expressão e se defender os direitos dos cidadãos.