SENTINEL WATCH April 28, 2008 Issue

EFFECTIVE DISEASE PREVENTION—PRAYER

ANNETTE BRIDGES

I FIND IT ENCOURAGING to realize that a prayer response can be effective against contagion. This year's intense media focus on influenza has at times felt overwhelming, with broadcasts simultaneously predicting longer flu seasons, speculating about next year's epidemic, or even doubting that a cure is possible. Each report seems to speak from the perspective that influenza is a fixed fact for all societies, for all time.

Flu vaccines haven't provided complete immunity from the disease. The US Food and Drug Administration's chief of vaccine review, Dr. Norman Baylor, claims that this is because "influenza viruses are changing all the time" ("CDC Panel: All children up to age 18 should get flu shots," Anna Boyd, February 28, 2008).

I'm convinced that confronting the so-called inevitability of flu epidemics from a spiritual perspective—one that refuses to accept any disease as certain—has the potential to negate the flu threat for all of us.