Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception
Bartolome Estoban Murillo (1670)

The Word of God could not be contained in an imperfect vessel; in human terms that means a woman without the Original Sin passed down to the rest of us from Eden. The sin that we now can wash away with Baptismal water.

"Hail, Mary, full of grace..."

On this day, the Senate defeated a pro-life amendment to the health care bill, 54-45. I pray that this means the entire bill will be defeated. Far more babies die from abortion that from insufficient health care; stopping that must be our first priority.

Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires to end abortion throughout the world through the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ and of his most Blessed Mother. Amen.

Let that begin with the defeat of this health care bill.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Today is the Solemnity of Christ the King. It is the last Sunday in Ordinary time; it is the end of the year. Advent begins next Sunday, our time of preparation.

What a glorious way to end the year! The risen Christ crowed at the right hand of the Father. We remember we are to obey Him, to follow Him, to be loyal to Him, to love Him. And he shall save us.

Catholic Culture has wonderful resources for all the special liturgical days, and the Solemnity of Christ the King is no exception. Our parish has its annual Thanksgiving dinner, free and open to all, on this Sunday and it is truly a feast fit for a king!

Manipulating H1N1 Data

We've seen it in the Global Warming debate, and now even medical data is horribly manipulated. The AP reports that the the CDC is not just counting people that die from H1N1 but also people who die of complications, so currently the U.S. death count is not 1,000 but 4,000.

A Reuters article explains: "There are nowhere near enough diagnostic tests to give to everyone with flu-like symptoms to see if they really have swine flu, and autopsies have shown that some people who have died had H1N1 and no one even knew it. [Like elderly patients? --my added comment]

So the death figures will be based on models, calculated by looking intensively at small groups of people, gathering data on overall reports of sickness and death, and reconciling the two."

This is what they do for seasonal influenza. Yet they also report that the WHO global H1N1 death count is 6,000. So does the U.S. now account for 2/3 of the global H1N1 deaths? I doubt it. The WHO uses the same methods the CDC had been using until today. So why did the Obama administration institute a different method that quadruples the numbers?

I could not get an H1N1 vaccine through my primary care physician nor through the hospital employee health service; reports of shortages are widespread. Pediatricians seem to be the only ones that have it available; but apparently, according to the NY Times, kids don't want to be vaccinated. Maybe these new numbers will scare people into it.

And then there's the elderly. I still wonder if the elderly end up hospitalized for pneumonia before ever complaining of flu symptoms and were therefor not tested for H1N1; that would create an artificially low count in this age group. According to JAMA infants have the highest hospitalization rate and those over 50 have the highest mortality rate--yet those over 65 are suddenly at the lowest risk? This makes no sense, especially when "Most cases had established risk factors for complications of seasonal influenza." It seems to me that the same groups that need to be vaccinated for seasonal influenza also need vaccination for H1N1, and not the all-kids, no-elderly line the administration keeps stating.

Feast of All Saints

The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrect Durer (1511), Kunsthistorsches Museum, Vienna

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom...Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration...But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all...At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a "Commemoratio Confessorum" for the Friday after Easter...Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself.

I Corinthians 12:26, "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." And so we honor and rejoice those holy people that have gone to heaven before as as demonstrated by the miracles they perform.

We are all called to be saints, and as parents we are to raise up saints for God's glory. Role play is a magnificent way for kids to learn. This All Saints Day, Ds#1 is St. Jerome, who translated all the books of the Bible into Latin Vulgate. He removed a thorn from a lion's paw, and Ds#3 is that lion. Ds#2 is St. Benedict, who lived in a cave for 3 years, fed by a raven. In Monte Cassino he established the Church's monastic system and the prayer of Divine Office.

Many other children dressed as saints for Mass today--how wonderful it was to see! When we first finished the costumes, they put them on and ran outside. A strong, hot wind had blown in dark clouds. They raised their arms to let their robes flutter as they ran about shouting, "Now we must go and convert people!" May they always have that child-spirit eager to share the glory of God.

Priesthood Sunday

One of our priests recently traveled to Rome to accompany a seminarian to his ordination, and was able to attend the recent canonization ceremony as well. God bless our priests!

Look to H1N1 to Understand ObamaCare

The government has made significant health care decisions regarding H1N1 vaccination, and right from the beginning it excluded everyone over 65. The exclusion continues and is being justified through government-collected data.

From MMWR:

Initial target groups

• pregnant women
• persons who live with or provide care for infants aged <6>
• health-care and emergency medical services personnel
• children and young adults aged 6 months--24 years
• persons aged 25--64 years who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.

Subset of initial target groups

• pregnant women
• persons who live with or provide care for infants aged 6
• health-care and emergency medical services personnel who have direct contact with patients or infectious material
• children aged 6 months--4 years
• children and adolescents aged 5--18 years who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.

The subset is the most interesting, because that reflects who really is getting seriously ill and dying from the infection, at least those the government wants to include (see below.) They are basing their decision on the data presented in the following graph:

The blue bars represent seasonal flu (3900 cases,) the white bars represent H1N1 (1148 cases.)

The left (y-axis) is percent of total hospitalized cases that had confirmed influenza. That means some one had to test them, and the report states that this is an under-report. Where I work were discouraged from testing for influenza in the spring, and we have received no guideline regarding testing over the summer. Might the elderly be a group less likely tested? Patients are hospitalized for pneumonia and dehydration. A young person would likely be tested for H1N1 with these diagnoses while an elderly person would not.

The bottom (x-axis) is age groups: <6>65 yrs.

One problem in in combining groups. Yes, the incidence is higher in those <18>65, but several of those individual groups are about the same. And clearly those 18 to 64 are at much greater risk that those <18, style="font-style: italic;">all children are to be vaccinated and only higher risk adults will be.

The report has statements like, "As of July 31, 2009, the median age of hospitalized persons with laboratory-confirmed novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection was 20 years, and the incidence of hospitalization was highest among young children aged <4 years (11; CDC, unpublished data, 2009). Only 282 (5%) of 5,514 hospitalizations and 29 (8%) of the 353 reported deaths had occurred among persons aged ≥65 years (CDC, unpublished data, 2009)." [Clinical Features, paragraph 3] Well, what exactly are the percentages for those under 4? How much higher than those over 65?

Another problem comes with decisions based on small studies in which not all the data is given. [Clinical Features, paragraph 4] One small study showed an increased risk of pregnant women, yet two showed increased risk in the obese. The first is amplified ("was four times higher") while the second is down-played ("has been noted," "however patients had other risk factors.") Well, did the hospitalized pregnant women have other risk factors too? How much higher was the rate hospitalization among the obese? In this study, nine out of ten of the sickest patients were obese. Why are obese children and adults on either of those initial target groups?

This is exactly how the government will play with the numbers, looking at what they want and ignoring what they don't want. We need to ration the vaccine because the government only asked for so much of it to be made in the first place. And for some reason, the US vaccine requires two doses while the Chinese version does not, making our supply even tighter if we plan to vaccinate every child in the country (whether they need it or not.)

We can look for more of this should the government take over health care. Besides, we should not even consider any health care reform without explicit exclusion of funding for abortion and stem cell research. That is where we need to start.

Tim Hawkens and the Government

Very funny, yet so very true...