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 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.

[pinhead]

Originally Posted by wickedfrags.com

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.

Not going to plow through the weekly updates from the Centre for Disease control for the statistics for the period of the 43 deaths, but I did find the information in the August 8th report

"8 of the 36 children who died of swine flu were aged 5 years and over and had no reported high risk conditions. Although two of these children were reported as obese, no data was given on their height and weight."

So for the time period in that report roughly 20% of the deaths in children were in healthy individuals.

I am not sure how many other deaths of children occured during that time period but if the vaccine were available at that time at these deaths were preventable.

If I was a parent of a child who died because of my decision not to have them or myself vaccinated, I would carry that guilt for the rest of my life.

André Picard, the health reporter for the Globe and Mail emphasizes this point:

"I am not getting the vaccine for myself, I am getting it for my grandmother"

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Ron99

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?

+1

Originally Posted by Ian

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.

+1

Originally Posted by 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...

Well said Tony, this sums it up perfectly for me. I plan on getting my shot for H1N1 on friday.