What, specifically, do you fear about the H1N1 vaccine?

[msjones]

:confused:

 

http://www.theflucase.com/

 

This should keep you busy for awhile~

Best of luck with your decision.

 

This is not what I would consider a reliable source of accurate information about the vaccine.

[hornblower]

1) There IS research. There is tons of research. GBS has been studied and our current understanding is that you're more likely to get GBS from a viral ILI than from a flu vaccine.

 

See for instance

 

Investigation of the Temporal Association of Guillain-Barre Syndrome With Influenza Vaccine and Influenzalike Illness Using the United Kingdom General Practice Research Database -- Stowe et al. 169 (3): 382 -- American Journal of Epidemiology

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"In 1976, the national swine influenza vaccination program in the United States was suspended because of an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome. Subsequent studies of seasonal influenza vaccine have given conflicting results.

The authors used the self-controlled case series method to investigate the relation of Guillain-Barré syndrome with influenza vaccine and influenzalike illness using cases recorded in the General Practice Research Database from 1990 to 2005 in the United Kingdom.

The relative incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome within 90 days of vaccination was 0.76 (95% confidence interval: 0.41, 1.40).

In contrast, the relative incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome within 90 days of an influenzalike illness was 7.35 (95% confidence interval: 4.36, 12.38), with the greatest relative incidence (16.64, 95% confidence interval: 9.37, 29.54) within 30 days.

The relative incidence was similar (0.89, 95% confidence interval: 0.42, 1.89) when the analysis was restricted to a subset of validated cases.

The authors found no evidence of an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome after seasonal influenza vaccine.

The finding of a greatly increased risk after influenzalike illness is consistent with anecdotal reports of a preceding respiratory illness in Guillain-Barré syndrome and has important implications for the risk/benefit assessment that would be carried out should pandemic vaccines be deployed in the future.

 

 

 

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2. This novel flu vaccine HAS been tested.

 

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3. The novel H1N1 has not been blown out of proportion. It is a virus to which we do not have any natural immunity, bar in a portion of the older population. The virus appears to generally take a mild form (mild from a medical perspective means you don't need to be hospitalized and you don't need respiratory assistance or IV fluids etc; you may still feel very ill for quite some time. That's still 'mild'.) but in certain populations can cause severe illness and death.

 

While we have some indications about chronic conditions which may make it more dangerous for some groups, a significant portion of people who are severely affected were previously healthy, wiich makes this an unpredictable illness.

 

 

 

Where is the ignorance and propaganda here? Could it be among the people who don't understand viruses? Who don't know how the vaccine for seasonal flu is made each year? Who don't know about various genetic forms of the influenza virus? Who use pseudo science to confuse and muddy the issues?

 

I'm ALL for people informing themselves. Interested people can start with mainstream work like John Barry's The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.

 

Effectmeasure is a blog run by a group of public health folks. Today's post on ICU beds and the experience in the southern hemisphere with H1N1 is rational and evidence based. I think actually it's a feel good story. Things don't seem to be as bad as they could be.

 

This is a good primer on the science of influzenza.

 

I'm not a sky is falling person. This flu is not the 'big one'. Though watching how this has unfolded has made me much more worried about how things will go when the big one DOES hit.

[msjones]

Thank you, Hornblower.

Great information in your last post.

A good friend of mine is a biostat guy currently working on the AIDS vaccine, and a vaccine expert. His words regarding this flu echo yours very closely.