via Laudator Temporis Acti
In all exorcisms except one, Jesus simply expelled the demons. But at Gadara (or Gerasa or Gergesa), Jesus sent the demons into a herd of pigs. Matthew 8.30-32 (cf. Mark 5.11-13 and Luke 8.32-33) wrote:
And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
(The poor creatures. What did they do to deserve that?)
2 comments:
Pigs are clean and intelligent and I prefer them to most people really, and especially prefer them over Christians and meat-eaters.
H1N1 is the name of the influenza virus, and all the good info on it is at the blogs part of the British Medical Journal online
(http://blogs/bmj.co.uk/ I think)
stay well dear L.B.
blogs/bmj.com/
and heres a sample
"The RCGP and DoH cross swords
If you go to the NHS Direct website to look for advice on swine flu you’ll probably come away thinking that if you have the flu you’ll be given tamiflu.
“If swine flu is confirmed, ask a healthy friend or relative to visit your GP to pick up a document entitling you to antiviral medication.”
But many GPs aren’t likely to be so obliging. The Royal College of General Practitioners has issued subtly different advice, as pointed out in yesterday’s Guardian.
…advice circulated by the Royal College makes it clear that even if a diagnosis is confirmed, clinical discretion means it may not be necessary to prescribe anti-viral drugs to an infected, healthy patient. Doctors, the college insisted, should exercise clinical discretion in their decision on whether or not to give the drugs.
The advice given to GPs treating those diagnosed with swine flu who are not in a vulnerable medical category is to “consider authorisation of antivirals bearing in mind whether the patient has a strong preference for active treatment.”
The chairman of the RCGP, Professor Steve Field, had this to say:
“The last time [the advice] was changed was to give more discretion to GPs for dealing with those outside the at risk groups and partly to send the message to patients that they don’t all need Tamiflu.”
Are we seeing a clash of consultation styles here? On the one hand you have the DoH with its paternalistic approach (you have swine flu, take this and get better), on the other you have the RCGP attempting a more modern approach: explain the benefits and harms of treatment, offer the patient advice and let them make a final decision. But which is more appropriate in this situation?
Cherie on the message boards:
It looks like Cherie Blair is fighting swine flu.
My mum used to tell me that the best cure for flu is sympathy, so I’m sure Cherie will feel much better after she reads some of these messages left for her on the news websites.
Birdmaniw in The Sun says
“I feel sorry for the swine flu,” while Laura37 is annoyed at the preferential treatment she’s supposed to have had. “See she got tested and given antiviral drug. I rang doctors yesterday about my 12 year old and all I got told was rest, fluids, and paracetamol. Wouldn’t even test him to see if it was swine flu”.
Finally, Cyber Man in the Times can’t help making it political: “This would never have happened under the Tories.”
(Tom Nolan is the clinical community editor of doc2doc, the BMJ’s professional networking community)
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