This past spring I found myself having a wine induced debate with my mother, sister and brother, which ended soon after I was labeled paranoid for being more concerned with a possible need to defend ourselves from a corrupt government than with the H1N1 pandemic. Although I do not wish to get the Swine Flu, I didn't understand how one would distinguish it from... well, the flu.
Days ago the news was filled with dire predictions from the CDC. According to these predictions, over a third of the US population will get H1N1. Half of these will need to be hospitalized. Over 90,000 people will die. Yes, this is extreme, and is it just coincidence that they are pushing these numbers and the vaccine just as we're talking Health Care Reform?
I may not have these numbers exactly right, but this is what I came away with. Also, this has a point. Stay with me.
Not too long ago, I looked up natural cleaners. I just thought I could do with a little less chemical. At first I used stuff around the house. One website recommended vinegar for floors. And it gets the floors clean enough, but the whole house then smells like a giant easter egg. So I got Green Works cleaners. From Clorox. And they are good. It's supposed to be good, right? The chemicals are bad. The perfumes are bad. The bleach is poisonous and toxic - and that makes sense, to me, right? If it's poison, what exactly am I cleaning?
Well, the answer is, obviously, H1N1. Because these cleaners clean, but they do not disinfect. Not the floors, not the counters, not the toilet. Which makes it all sound a little, well, dirty. And I know there is the thought that disinfecting actually kills off the weak germs and only the strong ones survive, creating a super strain. But regardless, to not disinfect at all may be simply inviting your children to get sick. To get H1N1 and go to the hospital and who knows what all.
So my question is this - do I have to make a choice? If I don't disinfect and scour and bleach, am I not doing a good job cleaning? And if I do, am I being irresponsible? Is there a middle ground?
Hmm, wellll, I think having some germs around are good...as in we will build up immunities to them & if we wipe them all out with bleach, etc, then we are more susceptible to them. But that might be my own medical misinformation. As for H1N1, it's the flu -- very young & very old & compromised immune systems will have to be careful. The rest of us will get the flu if we get it at all.
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