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I agree with you generally, Postal, but I'm not aware of any government requiring people to get a swine flu vaccination. Am I wrong about that? But this swine flu "crisis" does make you question any medical advice from the government. I had H1N1 and so did lots of my friends. We were miserable for a few days and then were fine. Of all the flus I've had over my lifetime, this one was pretty insignificant.

I'm more concerned about the vaccination schedule mandated by most states. No one has ever been able to articulate to me any rational basis for vaccinating a 6 month old child against Hepatitis B (besides the real reason: "Merck can make a shitload of money off of it"). Or rotavirus. Or frankly any of the other diseases infants are immunized against. And every doctor I've talked to has told me the same thing: there is no MEDICAL reason for vaccinating infants. The reason the state sets up its vaccination schedule is because they assume that people will take their infants to the doctor, but they'll stop taking the kids when they get older. So they set the vaccination schedule up because that's when they figure the state will have the best access to the children. And there are lots of doctors who question the affect of all these vaccinations have on immature immune systems. But once the state sets a schedule, it's pretty much impossible to change it. They certainly don't care what doctors think. They need a reason to perpetuate (and preferably expand) their bureaucracy.

I think the "Herd" analogy is a good one. That's exactly how public health officials look at us: as sheep and cattle that need to be herded by them. They treat us all as if we were members of the underclass. But I'm not a member of a herd. I'm an intelligent individual who lives in a society.