Swine Flu/H1N1 Vaccination - Yes or No?

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

whats the difference between what you say and Wikipedia? bring me some facts bro. your just saying things. not to say they arnt true. i would just like to know your sources on these things:

Well, I have university degrees in toxicology and pharmacology and have spent umpteen years working in pharmaceutical R&D as well as diagnostic microbiology labs so I think that makes me more qualified then some guy making youtube videos etc. or people regurgitating stuff on wikipedia If you really want to do research read things from real scientific websites or publications. Stuff from real experiments and real testing in real labs or real clinical trials with actual data to support the conclusions.

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

there is less mercury in a shot of vaccine then in a can of tuna

Most testing puts the level of mercury in canned tuna at between .3 and about .55 parts per million (depending on what type of tuna you eat). I won't list all the calculations but that works out to well over 50 micrograms of methylmercury in an average serving of tuna. The vaccine contains 5 micrograms of thimerosal which is also a much less toxic mercury containing compound then methylmercury. if you want to get really picky, thimerosal contains just under 50% mercury by weight so you are getting about 2.5 micrograms of mercury from the vaccine. Methylmercury contains about 93% mercury so your serving of tuna is over 46.5 micrograms of mercury.

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

H1N1 is currently not the most deadly flu ever, it is more serious then the normal seasonal flu

There have been numerous flu pandemics in the past with much more deadly strains of flu then the current H1N1. Somebody asked earlier about the PB1-F2 protein which is a protein some flu viruses produce that increases their ability to kill the cells they infect. It appears that some of the viruses from those deadlier pandemics did produce PB1-F2. Production of that protein has been shown to cause significantly more inflammation and higher mortality rates in the infected animals. The H1N1 virus does contain the gene to produce the PB1-F2 protein but it is currently turned off by a stop codon in the DNA code (basically a label in the DNA that says do not encode this gene right now). It is not inconceivable that the virus could mutate and this stop codon would be removed therefore activating the PB1-F2 gene and creating a more virulent and deadly strain of H1N1. Don't ask me the odds of that. I'm not a viral geneticist. But I know enough to know it could happen and the odds of it happening are more likely the more the virus reproduces. So reduce the spread of the virus, you reduce the occurrence of viral reproduction and you reduce the number of mutations that occur so therefore there is a lower chance of this mutation happening. The flu virus is constantly mutating, probably in your own body when you catch the flu. The majority of these mutations are either neutral or negative to the virus but statistically speaking, the more often mutations occur the greater the chance of a mutaion that makes the virus stronger.

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

the small amounts of these compounds found in the vaccine are not toxic. I REPEAT, NOT TOXIC.

Okay, everybody else who is a toxicologist, raise your hand I do know a bit about this stuff.

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

more people infected and the more it spreads, the greater the chance it could mutate into an even more virulent and deadly strain. Large scale vaccination can help prevent that.

See above. Basic genetics, evolution and virology.

Originally Posted by FitoPharmer

Trace amounts of formaldehyde means barely detectable in the vaccine. Your own body probably produces more formaldehyde through your own metabolism then you will find in the vaccine and has mechanisms to deal with and excrete it.

I really don't want to get into a whole textbook on biochemistry and physiology. You'll have to trust me on that one or do some reading about it yourself. Your body produces a lot of noxious waste material as it goes about its daily business and it also takes in many toxic compounds normally through our food, water and air. We have evolved wonderful mechanisms to break down and excrete all sorts of things. Formaldehyde is a very common compound in nature and one which your body is more than capable of dealing with unless you are drinking an entire bottle of it.

As for those side effects, that is typical lawyer super conservative stuff. If 1 in 1000 people suffered those kinds of side effects from flu vaccines then there would be a public outcry every flu season and we would not be using them so commonly. The odds of having those severe reactions are probably more like 1 in a million.