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monday, november 8, 1976
daily nebraskan
pag3 5
i
letters
if you must use a cliche
he 'Sure you understand it
Is vaccina safe?
After the reporter left the swine flu
seminar on Wednesday Oct. 20, 1 had the
opportunity to spcfJc with Dr. (Paul)
Stoesz as to my feelings about, the swine
flu vaccinating program. We came to no
definite conclusions in our discussion:
I was still deeply concerned for the
well-being of all , students and citizens of
Nebraska who are thinking of taking the
swine flu shot. It would be much easier
for me to drop the whole thing and not
.try to convince people of the hazards or
the seriousness of the program, but I
care about other people and I feel it is
worth my time to 1st people know.
The day of the ssiriaar students were
asking questions as to the safety of the
swine flu vaccine. Both doctors claimed
that the vaccine was very safe. Then I
shared pertinent information about cir
cumstances surrounding the isvssissa peo
ple in the whole world who have had this
so-called swine flu. (Twelve men at Fort
Dix and five men in Sabbury, England
had similar symptoms as those of the swine
flu epidemic of 1928.) v
Stoesz said the purpose of the seminar
was to educate students about the ino
culation progrjun. He was telling students
of the safety of the vaccine. I felt it necess
ary to open their eyes as to why there is
so much controversy oyer the subject
of swine.flu shots.
There is something sinister about, the
near hysteria which certain persons
attempted to create throughout America
over a swine flu epidemic that was sure to
sweep the nation in a matter of months.
Most people did not know that anybody
was afflicted by it, so how could anyone
predict an epidemic?
Having created the scare, officials told
us sn immdeiate effort was being made to
find a vaccine that would be safe and
available for all to use. Millions of dollars
were spent on the vaccine and. before it
had been proven safe they were ready to
administer it to prevent the epidemic that
was sure to come.
Among the first to receive the vaccine
were some elderly, and shortly thereafter
some of them died. Immediately, vaccine
inoculations were stopped Li six states. But
upon investigation by certain medical
doctors, we were assured that these people
were sick and would have died anyway.
The vaccine was pronounced safe and
the green light was given for further mass
inoculations.
While vaccines have long been approved
by the American Medical Association, if
the facts were, known the practice has done
V more harm than good. Actually, a virus
of the disease is treated and modified and
then injected into the bloodstream' so the
body builds up a resistance against it, but
there is no guarantee that you will not
come down with the disease itself. That is
why we had all the debate in our country
about the swine flu vaccine's safety.
It is my opinion that if we have a swine
, fir epmic, it will b5 the result of spread
ing the disease through inoculation; not
from the flu itself. If the millions of dollars
v that were spent on the swine flu vaccine
had been spent on urging people to eat
good and proper food for our health, peo
ple generally would have been better off.
For too long we have practiced the
habit of running to the corner drugstore
for pills and drugs to correct our sickness,
when a change of diet was all we needed.
Pills and drugs are not cures. They simply
give us temporary relief while we continue
to eat and do the things which made us
sick in the first place. ,
Injecting disease viruses into the blood
stream as a means of preventing it is con
trary to every law of nature. A healthy"
body is immune to disease. Buwhen have
you ever heard the American Medical .
Association sponsor a health program bas
ed on proper diet? In fact, you often
find them condemning those who have
found cures for certain diseases without
using drugs, serums or vaccines.
The average American is digging an
early grave for himself with his teeth and
his intemperance .in eating. He is also fed a
lot of processed foods mat ive him little
nourishment once Jie eats them, it is no
wonder that we . are a nation of many
ills; and vaccines and inoculations are not
. the answer. v .
From a person who took the time to
find out, and one who cares about you.
Sincerely,
Paula Purviance
By Theodore M. Bernstein
Cliche' confusion. Once before I wrote
about what I have dubbed curdled cliches.
Those are ones uttered by people with a
tin ear or lacking in understanding of what
the cliche is alt about. They might say,
"Water, water everywhere, but not a drop
in the sink." But there are other cliche
' users who get the wording right but
misapply the figure of speech. At a cocktail
party the other evening I overheard a chap
utter this one: "I've got a photo that's
as pretty as a picture." .
Almost a dirty word. Our culture has
a tendency to attach a sexual or vulgar
connotation to any word that will stand
for it. So says Gary R. Shroat of Fairview
Heights, 111., and he decided to coin a term
that would describe that tendency. His
invention is diascatesis. If that seems like
Greek to you, don't fret too much, It is
made up of the Greek components
dia-, meaning through; skatos, dung or
excrement, and -esis; process or action.
What the inventor had in mind was the
process whereby a word like gay is dragged
through a kind of dung so that it has come
to mean homosexual. Think you'll have use
for that word?
Just about due. Far back this rectangle
took up what is regarded as the proper use
and the improper use of due to. The point
to be noted is that due is an adjective and
is properly used when it modifies a noun
as in, "His illness was due to a virus,"
where illness is the modified noun. How
ever, many grammarians frown upon
the use of due when it introduces an
adverbial j phrase as in, "He became ill
due to a virus." Ralph H. King of the
Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology
offers a simple test of the proper or
improper use of the phrase due to. If
caused by makes sense, he notes, due to
is correct: 'The severe flooding was due
to (caused by) rapid snowmen." How-,
ever, he goes on, if because of makes
sense, due to is not considered proper and
another phrase should be substituted:
"Owing to (because of) rapid snowmelt
the town was inundated." That is how
things stand now in the matter of usage,
but it is likely that in time due to will
achieve sanction in both contexts.
Word oddities. A word that there is not
much occasion to use in these days and in
this country is kypergamy. It means
marriage to one who is of higher social
status or in a higher community position.
It is made up of two Greek elements;
hyper-, meaning above, and- -gamy,
bernstein
on words
meaning marriage just as it does in bigamy
and polygamy. In the word the accent is
on the per. And now you can probably
forget it.
- " (o) 1976 Theodora M. Bernstein
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