This is a little dated. It's from 27 April 2009. So obviously there's been some changes in the numbers since then. I don't have a lot of experience with the CDD's website, but it looks like the current numbers for deaths from H1N1 are between 2500-6100, out of 5 to 13 million cases. So about .05% of the people who get H1N1 are dieing. The CDC estimates there are about 36,000 flu-related deaths each year, not including swine flu. That's 6 times the number of swine flu deaths! Ron Paul mentions that there have been 1300 tuberculosis last year, with 644 deaths in 2006. Assuming the numbers of cases in 2008 is about the same as 2006, that's approximately 49% of tuberculosis cases resulting in death. So I can readily understand why he thinks tuberculosis is the more serious illness.
But don't loose track of Dr. Paul's point in the flu numbers. It's easy to do.
1. He's seen this before: the government created a panic, rapidly created flu shots, they planned to save the world. Sounds familiar. Only more people died from the shots than the flu. Those CDC numbers don't seem to be saying how many people are struggling with side effects from this rapidly created (and thus poorly tested) vaccine. Big government folks love a good panic.
2. What's the Department of Homeland Security doing messing around in our health care?? Dr. Paul points out that they really aren't acting outside the prerogatives of that department, which is why he voted against it. Do we really want a governmental agency with this kind of power over our lives? I certainly don't!
3. "The big question is, does bigger government always solve these problems? They usually make things much worse." I think he's got a good point here. Government inefficiency is legendary. I simply don't understand why the people of the United States tolerate so much government interference in their health care - and not just tolerate, but seem to welcome it.
4. The central economic planning medicine we've had for 30-some years hasn't worked very well, so the plan now is to go to socialized medicine, AKA ObamaCare. J. Reuben Clark said the following about Socialism:
The plain and simple issue now facing us in America is freedom or slavery...
Our real enemies are communism and its running mate, socialism...
And never forget for one moment that communism and socialism are state slavery. World conquest has been, is now, and ever will be its ultimate goal...
-J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Deseret News, “Church Section,” 25 September 1949, pp. 2, 15, quoted by Latter-day Conservative
5. Don't be hysterical. Which means that you're going to have to take the doomsday predictions coming from the government with a bit of a grain of salt. After all, a .05% death rate isn't so bad.
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