Monthly Archives: October 2009

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Deciding on the H1N1 Vaccine

Last week a friend of mine encouraged me with the zeal of an evangelist to get a shot as soon as the vaccine was available.  She told me that there are churches encouraging their congregation to get the vaccine and perhaps our church should do the same thing. After all it is the responsible thing for community leaders to do.

This morning I received an email from another friend that discussed the dangers of the vaccine and warned me not to get it or at least consider the risk of the vaccine.

Today the Globe and Mail ran an article saying “fewer Canadians are interested in getting the H1N1 flu shot”.  I’m still sitting on the fence on  this one.  Maybe it is Canadian to be skeptical of hype.  All the  hype around this flu and the vaccine concerns me as much as getting the flu.

While I am sure the risk is real – we’ve all seen the news clips and read the horror stories – I also wonder how severe the risk is.

According to an article I read on CBCNews.ca,

GlaxoSmithKline, which is under contract to produce 50 million vaccine doses for Canada, released the initial results of its first trial on the inoculation on Monday, based on tests on 130 healthy German volunteers aged 18 to 60.

The trial was designed to test the safety and effectiveness of the company’s swine flu vaccine, which includes an adjuvant to boost strength and stretch supplies of the serum.

More than 98 per cent of subjects who received a first dose of 5.25 micrograms of vaccine and the company’s AS03 adjuvant showed signs of protection three weeks later, compared with 95 per cent of those who received the vaccine without the adjuvant, the company said. But the study did not look at the dose GSK is using in the Canadian vaccine, namely 3.75 micrograms plus adjuvant.

A statement from GSK said the formulation tested was “comparable to the expected final formulation of the adjuvanted vaccine.”

The company will also need to produce safety and effectiveness data for the smaller dose, said Dr. Allison McGeer, an influenza expert at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

It is the adjuvant that worries many people as well as bad memories of past vaccines like last year’s flu shot that targeted the wrong strain of flu or more extreme the 1976 swine flu vaccine that led to an autoimmune disease that caused paralysis and death in some recipients.

It’s a tough call.  Do I want to be a human guinea pig? Is this vaccine all government hype? And where does GlaxSmithKline fit into this question?  Clearly the profit they will make on this vaccine will be huge.  How does that impact their credibility?

I’d love to hear what others are thinking.  I need to make a decision soon.

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But the hare seems to be having more fun!

A lot has been said about consistency.  Parents are reminded frequently that one of the most important things they can do for their children is provide consistency. It provides stability and a sense of safety for a child.

We know that consistent exercise is more important than short bursts of activity in building strength and resilience.

Practice makes perfect is an idiom we hear over and over again as we grow up.  And it is true.  The longer we keep at something, the more consistent we are, the better and often bigger the pay off in our lives.

So why is it so hard to be consistent?  One reason is because we start big.  I’ve committed to running at least 5k every day only to quite after day three.  But when I decide to run 4 times a week I’m much more likely to be consistent and even exceed my goal.

I’m doing a lot of reading about social media and one of the lessons I’m learning through blogging and through reading is that if you want to establish a brand and a reputation online you need to be consistent.  One blog entry a week is easier and more realistic to maintain that a daily blog.  And if once a month is more realistic for you than start with that.  Just be consistent with it.

I’m reading Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel.  It may take me two weeks to read it because there is so much practical advice in this book I keep stopping to consider how to make it work for me and for my clients.

Six PixelsJoel says, “Don’t blast out five pieces of content or join three online social networks and fade away.  Choose one, stick with it, and keep at it. Think about the classic fable and be more like the tortoise than hare. Slow and steady wins the race.  Advertising is the hare and this new social channel is the tortoise. “

I’m trying to be consistent with blogging.  My goal is to post once a week.  How about you? What is one small step you can be taking on a consistent basis to grow your audience?  Keep at it!

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Shameless Son Promotion

I am happy to promote my son‘s latest venture.  If you are interested in photography and art you will enjoy this great little magazine.  I have copies for sale ($8 CDN) if you are interested.

If you saw the movie Into The Wild you may remember Salvation Mountain – the cover photo is of the creator of that unusual place and the community leader.

Check out Mountains Are Calling for more info.  Thanks for indulging me.  Always a mother…

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Travel & Tourism

I haven’t done a little travelling in my life and even less tourism. Most of the trips I have taken have been to do something not to see the sights. So, recently after a two week work trip to Germany I thought I would tack on another week and see Paris & London. The big question in both cities was “what do you want to see?” I find castles, museums and cathedrals interesting and enjoyable but they don’t leave me feeling like I’ve experienced the city. What is a more authentic British experience? Watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace or sitting in pub with some locals hearing about their life while enjoying a pint? It’s a tough call or maybe not since one involves sitting, talking and laughing while the other involves being a spectator.

On the return flight I read an article in the Air Canada in-flight magazine, Enroute. The article was called the New Simplicity and in it the author, Timothy Taylor, writes about resisting the temptation to plan. He calls his approach to travel experientialism. He suggests an ultrasimplified mode of travel: no guidebooks and no planning. It’s about letting life just happen. His delightful experiment includes even following someone who he thinks looks interesting and seeing where he goes. The result was discovering a side of Tokyo that he would never have encountered through following a guidebook.

On returning home I discovered that most people wanted to know what I saw. My list was rather short for both places. Of course I saw the Palace in London and the Tower in Paris. But I spent a lot of time in both places in cafes and pubs enjoying good food and good times. I may not have seen the Queen but I did eat a chip buttyChip Butty and that’s an experience I won’t forget soon!

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Find Your Strongest Life

Book Review

Find Your Strongest Life – Marcus Buckingham

When I heard that Marcus Buckingham had written a book about Strengths that focused on women I wondered if he was using the Chicken Soup for the Soul books as his model for selling books.  You know the model.  A book sells well so we start spinning off books that follow the same format but change the content enough to target a new market or a niche market.  When Thomas Nelson offered it for review I signed up.

I have been a big fan of Marcus Buckingham and I love his model of focusing on strengths. Find Your Strongest Life, What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently did not disappointment. I am excited about this book and how it will help me and have made notes on how I think I can use it with the women I mentor, coach and teach.

One of the things I love about this book is that the Strong Life Test is free.  Previous books by Marcus Buckingham have included a different test called the StrengthFinder Profile. Those books require you to purchase the book to access the code for the test. This book offers the test free to anyone.

This book has a lot of great information for women.  I love how Buckingham has been able to write this book with such amazing sensitivity to women. He seems to really understand and appreciate the complex choices that women face and how these changes can lead us away from the things that make us strong and into a life that drains our energy and leave us feeling weak.

So many women I know have fallen into this trap. And it often takes a crisis or a breakdown to bring this us to a place where we are able to put ourselves first.  And unless we begin living our lives with integrity we are living a lie.  Integrity means making choices that are true to ourselves.  Others may not agree or be happy with our choices but the option is that we end up weak and living our one life in reaction to everyone else.

I plan to write more about this book. I am in Germany right now. It’s my first trip to Europe and I am loving this country.  Find Your Strongest Life has been the perfect read for me as I travel and have an opportunity to reflect on my life away from my daily routines.  I strongly recommend it to any woman who is wondering if she is on the right track.strengths