The Swine Flu Vaccine And Darwin (Be One Of The Fittest, Get The Vaccine)

For some time I have felt it was unfair that those who reject science (e.g. Christians who don’t accept evolution, believe the Bible is true word for word, think the world is only 6000-years-old, etc.) to receive antibiotics, vaccines, anesthetics, and modern scientifically based medical care. If pain and suffering did not reform their beliefs then their more frequent untimely deaths would reduce their birthrates—reducing in two ways the overall prevalence of these anti-science beliefs.

 Now with the advent of the H1N1 virus (swine flu), a medically based survival of the mentally fittest is about to be played out with no need for anyone’s intervention. Since the swine flu vaccination is voluntary, it will tend to sort those of us who allow our behavior to be influenced by science from those on the extreme left and extreme right who follow other dictates. 

On the right, at least Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are striving to reduce the number of their fans by spewing anti-vaccine claims—none of which are accurate. On the left Bill Maher (and doubtless others), says he doesn’t recommend the vaccine simply because he does not trust the government (besides his intuition tells him that truly healthy people are not dying from this virus—despite scientific evidence to the contrary.)

 I would like to take a special moment to wish ill to Mr. Maher. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are so often wrong, that I don’t expect better from them. Mr. Maher generally supports reason over religion and science over non-science, so I do expect better from him. Since I am a fan of Bill’s and am also disinclined to wish death on any single individual, I do not hope that he catches the swine flu and dies. However it would serve Mister I-am-so-healthy-because-I-only-eat-organic-raspberry-leaves Maher right if he were to catch the swine flu and be sick as a dog for about 10 days.

To anyone I can influence, having reviewed all the scientific evidence available, I have decided to get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available locally. I advise you to do the same. A brief roundup of the facts can be found at Factcheck.org.