Sunday, May 3, 2009

The following was copied from another child's site who is going through this cancer journey. It is being posted on many other children's sites that I follow. It so exactly expresses what I felt when I listened to Obama address the nation and talk about how our heart goes out to the people suffering and the child who died from the swine flu and his family.

Well, of course all of our hearts should go out to whomever when a child dies. What I wanted to ask him was 'Where were you this past February when FIVE children died from this osteosarcoma monster disease, and 6 others this year so far? Where are the cries that this disease must be stopped?' The Swine Flu: A Crisis It's all over the news. The Swine Flu has entered the U.S., and everyone is responding quickly.

Here is what has happened already:

*Over 100 schools have closed.
*President Obama called on all schools with possible swine flu cases to "strongly consider temporarily closing."
*Congress approved $1.5 billion in emergency funds.
*Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that everyone involved in schools needs to "pitch in and do our part to prevent the spread of this flu virus."
*The Department of Education and the CDC have held conferences to give updates and advice for handling the crisis.
*WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has raised the alert level to phase 4.
*Shipments of the drug Tamiflu from the federal stockpile, enough to treat 11 million patients, have been distributed to several states.
*Dr. Jesse Goodman, of the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work said,"We're working together at 100 miles an hour."
*Congress has asked Homeland Security to consider closing the Mexican border.

Here are the numbers:
There have been 84 documented cases in the U.S. There has been one death, a two year old boy with underlying health issues.
Updates on the Swine Flu epidemic are all over the papers, T.V., Internet, and radio. You can't avoid it.
This is a crisis and deserves a fast response.

Sick children, and the death of even one child, is a great loss. So please understand what I am about to say. I in no way wish to belittle those who have suffered from the swine flu. I would just like to point out some comparisons.
1) Since the outbreak in the U.S., there have been 84 cases of swine flu, and one death. Compare that to the fact that 12,600 families are told their child has cancer each year. That is 35 families every single day of the year.
2) The media tells us that the 84 cases and one death from the swine flu is a "crisis" and "epidemic". But do a google search on childhood cancer, and you will find the media consistently refers to the 40,000 children currently with cancer, and the 2,500 annual deaths, as "very rare".
3) To protect yourself against the swine flu, you should wash hands, not touch your nose, and cover your mouth. You can even wear gloves and a mask. But there is no protection against childhood cancers. In fact, the cause of most childhood cancers is still unknown.
4) The swine flu produces severe flu symptoms. The effects of cancer are beyond description. So just consider this: Cancer is part of the body, so the treatment is a process of poisoning the child to the brink of death, then pulling back hoping they stabilize, then hitting them again. And again and again and again. Maybe a year, maybe 7 years. The resulting organ failures often cause more complications and deaths than the cancer itself. And then you wait and pray that it all worked. "Remission" only means they think they got. "Relapse" means they were wrong.
5) The government has opened up it's stockpile of flu drugs to fight the crisis. But there is no stockpile of cancer drugs. In fact, it has been 30 years since a new pediatric cancer drug has been developed. A 5 year study by the National Institute of Health concluded that new drugs for pediatric and adolescent cancers are not being developed because the profit margins are too slim. Therefore mega-doses of adult chemotherapy are administered to children, using a medical assembly line system called protocols. The great need for individualized care is ignored because it is not economically sustainable.
6) Congress has approved $1.5 billion in ADDITIONAL funding to fight the swine flu. With 84 infected people, that is $18 million per person. Childhood cancer receives a TOTAL of $30 million. That works out to $750 for each child currently fighting cancer.