Swine Flu/H1N1 Vaccination - Yes or No?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I'm not sure where I stand but my doctor who is also a family member, strongly advised myself and my fiancee who is asthmatic to NOT get the vaccine. His concern is not necessarily that anything sinister is going on here (nor do I) but simply that it was way too rushed as normal vaccinations for the flu are put under much more rigorous and longer term testing. He instead prescribed us tamiflu to have on hand. Asked us to keep up with our Vit. D, C, zinc, ect. along with a bunch of herbal suggestions.

He said its been a really tough subject at work lately as people ask him daily.

Actually both my brothers and mom have already had H1N1. One of my brothers was confirmed H1N1, so we assume the others also had it since it was all at the same time. Both my brothers got it very mildly although it lasted about 2 weeks. My mom was a little more severe I guess but she said the worst part was the aches.

[intarsiabox]

The vaccine has been in development since the end of April, exactly how long is the regular annual flu shot worked on? The researches need to figure out what the most common flu's of the season are going to be before any development is done so when do they start working on it? Anybody know anyone who works in vaccine mfg that would know the answer to this?

If the H1N1 vaccine wasn't "fast tracked" the same people complaining about it now would still be complaining but saying that the research companies are taking too long and people are dying needlessly. The conspiracy would still be the same though, the government is trying to reduce the population by not vaccinating instead of by vaccinating.

Where did H1N1 come from? There are fossilized viruses found in dinosaurs, despite small brains maybe they bio-engineered them? Where did the plague come from? How about tuberculosis? Wasting disease in wild animals? Viruses were here long before humans and have been killing and mutating since the dawn of time. After 4.5 billion years of virus evolution I'm sure there is going to be plenty more new viruses to found in the future. The wild can only support so much wildlife and when it gets overpopulated a virus shows up and culls the animals, how much of a human population will the earth support before we're culled? The plague wiped out 1/4 of the worlds population once, was it Utopia after that or just the same sad world we've made for ourselves?

Of course no one is the same, we all have a different genetic make up. There is always a risk with anything medical, with every medicine, vaccine, chemical or procedure there will always be someone with adverse side effects from it. Nothing is risk free, you could try a new dish at a restaurant and die from an unknown allergy, so you need to judge for yourself if the risks of a vaccination outweigh the risks of the disease.

Just remember, dead people don't pay taxes!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Seasonal flu kills an estimated 500, 000 worldwide every year but rarely are the cases reported on. Every single H1N1 death is headline news lately yet for example in BC the death toll is still in the teens, I believe 12 deaths with less than 200 severe cases since this all began. Worldwide I believe its around 5, 000 now.

I'm not taking it lightly and it does concern me, I do think it could get worse, ect. but what does concern me is how fast the WHO declared a pandemic and started to push these vaccines. Less than 200 severe cases in BC (just using BC as an example because I keep hearing about how its worst hit in Canada) in 7 months, among 4.4 million people, is hardly a pandemic. Reason for concern of course but not a pandemic.

[intarsiabox]

The WHO has different levels of pandemic and this one is a low level. Actually the word pandemic gets thrown out to the public suprisingly very easy from what I've read. It doesn't take much for a virus to be declared a pandemic so I would heed the word with a grain of salt, although one of the criteria is a viruses ability to become worse (which is a real potential). If the H1N1 virus does mutate to a more evil form there is no guarentee that the current vaccine will protect you but this hasn't happened yet and may never happen.

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

I'm not taking it lightly and it does concern me, I do think it could get worse, ect. but what does concern me is how fast the WHO declared a pandemic and started to push these vaccines. Less than 200 severe cases in BC (just using BC as an example because I keep hearing about how its worst hit in Canada) in 7 months, among 4.4 million people, is hardly a pandemic. Reason for concern of course but not a pandemic.

Pandemic is taken from the Greek pandemos, meaning "all the people". The word is used to indicate the spread of a disease and implies absolutely nothing about how serious a disease it may be. An influenza virus that has spread world wide in less than 6 months certainly qualifies as pandemic.