Swine Flu/H1N1 Vaccination - Yes or No?

[wickedfrags]

Some good references made, so I will ask a couple follow up questions:

Is 43 deaths significant given the number of "young people" in the US? How many young people died in the US during the same time period to give us some perspective? Also - the people who died from the curent strain have generally had underlying health issues and were often immuno-compromized prior to aquiring the flu. Asthma, diabetes, obesity, and various and other upper and lower repiratory tract concerns are common among those who died.

Protecting others is a strong reason for getting the flue shot - and remember you are contagious 48 hours before you show any signs or symptoms of the flu yourself.

The flu can survice up to 48 hours outside the human body, but at what relative humidity? Flu season in Canada (well at least outside BC) is generally quite cold and relative humidity is low.

Originally Posted by pinhead

This strain of flu isn't always mild

It can be fatal - particularly in young people (43 deaths of children in the US in the first 2 weeks of October)

Even if you have a mild reaction to the flu virus, you could be the cause of a serious ilness in your children, other family member, co-worker or anyone else you come in contact with

Although the virus can be breathed in as an aerosol droplet, in can survive upto 48 hours on non-porous surfaces and then transfered to your eyes, nose or mouth.

Medical technology and vaccines have improved in 23 years - these side effects were from the 1976 vaccine.

[intarsiabox]

IF it is preventable even one extra death is too many. I sure wouldn't want one of my daughters to die because of the swine flu and then have people say, "Oh well, she was only one of 43". Of course I'm only saying "IF" as the vaccine isn't widely proven yet but I hope it is the answer.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by pinhead

What are the known and occuring side effects and where are you getting your information - the media?

Or second hand information from other people,


Or Youtube?

(An explanation of the woman's symptoms http://www.examiner.com/x-13791-Balt...ll-in-her-head)



My information comes from the scientist's research. This information is found in peer-reviewed scientific journals or summarized for the layman magazines such as New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ef=online-news

Doing research from these sources will lead you to the following facts:

This strain of flu isn't always mild

It can be fatal - particularly in young people (43 deaths of children in the US in the first 2 weeks of October)

Even if you have a mild reaction to the flu virus, you could be the cause of a serious ilness in your children, other family member, co-worker or anyone else you come in contact with

Although the virus can be breathed in as an aerosol droplet, in can survive upto 48 hours on non-porous surfaces and then transfered to your eyes, nose or mouth.

The vaccine is safe (the canadian vaccine, unlike the US is a dead virus). The misinformation about flu vaccine side effects come from the 1976 US swine flu vaccinations where out of 48 million vaccinations, roughly 500 people developed Guillain-Barré syndrome and 25 died. This rate is roughly 10 cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome for every 1 million vaccinations. Surprisingly, Guillain-Barré is found at a rate of 40-70 for every 1 million non-vaccinated flu sufferers and in the general population from other sources at 10 - 20 cases for every million people. Your chances if you were vaccinated in 1976 of getting Guillain-Barré were lower than if you caught the flu and the same as getting it from other sources.

Medical technology and vaccines have improved in 23 years - these side effects were from the 1976 vaccine.

One of these advancements is the addition of adjuvants made of fish oil, water and Vitamin E which are added to improve the body's immune response.

In Canada, the vaccine is free.

So the vaccine is: safe, cheap and will protect me or my family from from a possibly fatal disease. I guess I don't have tell you I am getting the vaccine.

I can provide references so you can base your decision on verifiable facts rather than rumors and information from almost 30 years ago.

+1000. This is the best response to this thread yet. I have been trying to decide if and how to respond here. I really can't believe the level of misinformation and paranoia out there. Do people honestly believe this is some sort of government conspiracy (amongst many world governments coordinating it) or conspiracy by the vaccine companies to make money at our expense?

I think we also need to look beyond the fact that H1N1 is a serious health threat to a small subset of the population and also realize that the economic and social threats of a major flu epidemic/pandemic are potentially also very severe, especially coming as the world tries to recover from the economic meltdown.

Imagine millions of people sick and unable to work. The garbage can't be collected, mail doesn't get delivered, transit systems have difficulty running, grocery stores have difficulty receiving shipments of food etc. etc. Now imagine if recalcitrant health care workers do not get vaccinated and start becoming sick. What happens if the health care system itself is impaired during such an epidemic? Sure that's a worse case scenario but it is one that is worth considering as a very real possibility.

Personally I think it is irresponsible to not get vaccinated when we face a global pandemic. Doubly so if you are a health care or emergency service worker. Imagine if huge numbers of people were paranoid about the smallpox vaccine and didn't get their shot?

Of course this is my opinion and I suppose you are entitled to your wrong opinion

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by wickedfrags.com

Some good references made, so I will ask a couple follow up questions:

The flu can survice up to 48 hours outside the human body, but at what relative humidity? Flu season in Canada (well at least outside BC) is generally quite cold and relative humidity is low.

Hi Dave,

The conditions in Canada in the winter are actually probably more conducive to flu virus survival outside the body. The virus lasts longer at lower temperatures (and indefinitely below freezing) and lower levels of sunlight (less UV to damage it) and humidity. On a dry non-porous surface such as plastic or metal the virus may survive for several days. I believe studies have shown that on a dry piece of paper it remains viable for 15 minutes. If it is in mucous then it can survive much longer.

So even though it is relatively humid in BC during the winter it is still cold and we get little sunlight.

[Myka]

I absolutely will not have the vaccine. It hasn't been out nearly long enough for anyone to know any long-term side effects. I'm not at any greater risk than the average person, and I'm generally quite healthy so I have no worries.

[Ian]

I will certainly be getting it.
As a teacher i feal it would be negligent for me not to. yesterday mt school pased 35% of our students missing due to flu or flu like symptoms, yes we did call to confirm every one. we also have confirmed cases of H1N1 in our school.
I realise that some risk is involved in getting the shots(s) but nearly every medical procedure has some risk. The risk to myself, my family, and my students is far greater should I contract H1N1. I know I have ben exposed already and will be multiple times inthe upcoming months. How could I live with myself if I passed a bug that killed a child.
While I do feel that a media frenzy is making this seem worse than it truly is, from everything I have read this flu is a killer far beyond the normal seasonal flu's that come around yearly. it has been followed for nearly 50 years and is not new.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by Myka

I absolutely will not have the vaccine. It hasn't been out nearly long enough for anyone to know any long-term side effects. I'm not at any greater risk than the average person, and I'm generally quite healthy so I have no worries.

Well you see, that's the the exact misconception everybody has. There are no side effects that are any different then the seasonal flu vaccines that have been used for years. There are no unknown long term side effects. It is all media fear mongering pulling all the rare but known side effects of flu vaccines out of the closet. If you have had a flu shot before there is nothing different about this one.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by Myka

I absolutely will not have the vaccine. It hasn't been out nearly long enough for anyone to know any long-term side effects. I'm not at any greater risk than the average person, and I'm generally quite healthy so I have no worries.

Also, if you do catch H1N1 are you willing to completely isolate yourself so you you don't risk passing it on to somebody at greater risk of serious complications?

[VFX]

Originally Posted by Ian

I know I have been exposed already and will be multiple times in the upcoming months.

If you definitely know you have been exposed & have not been ill, does that mean you built up immunity & thus wont need the vaccination?

I'm not judging or suggesting, I'm just wondering.

.

[Delphinus]

Hesitant to weigh on this one because I don't think the debate will ever end, people will want to believe what they want to believe and that's really the end of it, isn't it ..

I don't always get my flu shot every year. Sometimes I get flu, sometimes I don't. FWIW, I got my H1N1 shot already on Monday. Had sore arms for most of yesterday, other than that I still appear to be here this morning, at least for now.

This is what I think people need to consider:
- H1N1 is different from other flu's in that otherwise healthy people are dying from it, and not just the usual high-risk groups (infants, eldery, infirm, or otherwise compromised people). Ordinary, average, HEALTHY people are dying from it. Yes, not many, but that's not the point. The point is it's targeting different people.
- If the people who have died, would not have died had they been vaccinated, then does that not favour vaccination?

Don't listen to arguments like "I work in the health care industry and I'm not getting it" (or for what it's worth, arguments like "I work in the health care industry and I am getting it"). Good for you for whatever industry you work in, but it doesn't matter as that's totally irrelevant. That's like me saying "I write software for a living and I don't have any antivirus on my PC."

Do your own research.

To me it is about prevention and risk mitigation. That's part of the problem facing the health-care crisis right there: too many people think in terms of "oh well, if it happens, we'll just deal with it" instead of focusing on prevention, in general.

Peace...