John in Tennessee

I have a friend that told me a while that the vaccine injection would be mandatory. I said
ok I'm sure..Well last night it was on the news at 5. On the news at 6 they left that little gem out.

rrich

The H1N1 virus was originally called "Spanish Influenza". The outbreak about 1917-1918 killed over 20 million world wide.

The H1 describes how the virus enters the human cells while the N1 describes how the virus exits a human cell. (I believe that there are five varieties of each the H and N variants.) It seems that people in their 50s and 60s may have a limited immunity to the H1N1 virus due to previous exposures and previous flu shots.

This year the vaccine, rebuilds your immunity if you have had previous exposure or shots. If you have no immunity, this vaccine establishes that immunity. The really bad part about the vaccine is that it takes your body about a month to build up full immunity.

Younger people are most susceptible to this virus due to their lack of previous exposure to either part of the virus.

Am I going to get a shot? ABSOLUTELY! While LOML refuses. (I don't understand LOML's decision at all other than she hates doctors.)

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ACP

The doctor explained to me that H1N1 is a variant of Influenza A. The regular, non-H1N1 shot this year treats last years major flu virus, Influenza B. The non-H1N1 tests this year have been all type A so if you don't get the H1N1 but do get the regular flu shot, don't expect too much. It's the wrong virus vaccination.

Gene Howe

I plan to get both the regular flu shot and the swine flu, too. I'm 68, so maybe it'll be wasted on me. But then, so are lots of things

[quote=rrich;
Am I going to get a shot? ABSOLUTELY! While LOML refuses. (I don't understand LOML's decision at all other than she hates doctors.)[/QUOTE]

Don't feel bad. I don't understand much about a lot of my LOML's decisions!

Just Bill

NO! This is too new not to have issues. In the 70's(I think), there was another flu scare, and lots got the vaccine, more died from complications from the vaccine than from the flu.

daxinarian

I have heard that argument before, but it doesn't make sense to me... Imagine if they developed a cure for Cancer that was perfectly effective, so no one ever dies of cancer ever again, but the cure killed 100 people per year from side-effects. So more people would die from complications than from Cancer... somehow I think I would still take that cure.

As to the actual complication from the 1970s, it did increase your chances of getting Guillain-Barre Syndrome by 8 times... so it jumped from 2 per 100,000 people to a whopping 16 per 100,000 people. Compare this to the original 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (the original H1N1) which infected 1/3 the worlds popluation and killed 3%-6% of the worlds population, or 3,000 to 6,000 per 100,000 people.

So lets do some estimates... assume 40% of americans will be infected (CDC estimate) Now lets assume that the mortality rate is similar to normal flu ~.1% which seems to be the case... this means that .04% of the US popluation dies from swine flu... or 40 in 100,000. So you are more than twice as likely to die of swine flu than you are to die of complications from the 1970s vaccine. From everything I have heard though, the new vaccine isn't significantly different from the normal seasonal flu vaccine, the only reason its different/seperate is they didn't have time to include the swine-flu "flavor" in the regular flu vaccine run.

frankp

The whole concern that this will be a repeat of the flu of 1917 and 1918 is a ridiculous scare tactic that has no basis in reality for most people (dare I say all posting here) that live in a reasonably developed country. We have far better living environments, better overall health (all things considered) better quality of food and better quality of health care.

As someone else said, the regular flu shot won't work well against the type A virus, but then it never really works that well anyway as it's always a guess as to what strains to vaccinate against. There are way too many variables that I don't like about vaccination in general and especially vaccinations that are rushed based on fear mongering for me to even come close to getting this one.

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daxinarian

Sorry, I wasn't try to fear monger with the 1918 comparrison (though I can see why someone would think that I was.) The reasons you stated are part of why the current flu has a .1% mortality rate versus the 10% mortality rate of the 1918 (100 fold improvement aint bad don't you think?).

The point of my post was to counter some of the fearmongering related to the Swine Flu vaccine (i.e. 8 fold increase in GBS... 8 times nothing is still nothing,) and to put some numbers to the risks.

frankp

daxinarian, I wasn't directly referring to your post in my "fear mongering" rant. I'm just sick of hearing about the whole thing and it's all a bunch of hype. It's actually killed less people (so far) than a typical flu strain does, it's just the demographic that's different... According to this website:

http://www.flucount.org/

... the current death rate is less than 2%. That doesn't include un-reported cases of the flu, which some estimates in the US bring in an extra 10% in the case numbers (up) without deaths.

This site claims the "standard" flu kills some 30000+ Americans every year. That's more in the US (by 9 times) than the swine flu has killed the entire world. The numbers for swine flu will certainly go up, but the "epidemic" that we keep hearing about is nonsense.

http://www.theblogofrecord.com/tag/flu-death-worldwide/

That's why I say this is all a bunch of fear-mongering and BS that people should ignore. I have no statistics about vaccinations, just personal experience and anecdotal evidence. That said, no medication is good medication when you aren't already sick.

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mickit

When I was in the Army, we were inoculated every year, and every year I got the flu.
Since my discharge, I haven't gotten one flu shot, nor have I gotten the flu. Twenty-five years...coincidence? I think not!
Mickey

peerawit

I have no idea why need to take risk.. Just protect myself then it is ok.

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GeorgeC

A simple answer. NO!

G

ACP

Ah, the vaccine as it were was too late. I just found out yesterday my wife and 2 1/2 year old son are positive for the H1N1. They are doing good so far. I just have to keep them away from our 6 week old daughter. So far though it seems milder than the seasonal flus we had last year. Hope it stays that way.

TexasTimbers

I have a policy not to take anything that contains mercury, one of the most toxic poisons known to mankind. Eugenics is alive and well in the world and Americans are in the dead center of the bullseye.

The swine flu is essentially a hoax. It's less deadly than seasonal flu variants and from what I understand it has already peaked, or will over the next couple of weeks. Government scams are nothing new though. Statism is the #1 cause of unnatural death in all of history.

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TomC

What do you mean MANDATORT? I have 2 hand guns and one small rifle. If they mention mandatory around here my next purcchase will be more guns and not wood working tools. If they come and try to give me a shot I will be ready with my own shot. For the rest of you keep drinking the KOOL AID.
Tom

frankp

It won't be mandatory, they don't even have nearly enough vaccinations to try that, even if they wanted to do so, which they don't. There have been discussions about making it mandatory for certain occupations, such as health care providers and day care providers, but even that was only rumor, not reality.

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ACP

Just an update, I earlier posted that the wife and son were H1N1 positive. Son got Tamiflu and the wife didn't. His fever peaked in less than 24 hours and broke. The wifes never topped 100. He puked once and was done. Within 48 hours he was running around like a 2 1/2 year old again none the worse for the wear. I never got sick and so far neither has the baby. This has been much more mild than the normal seasonal flu. I don't know what to think other than the B-virus flu we got last year kicked our butts. This one was like a bad cold.

frankp

ACP, and that is exactly why most people aren't going to bother with the H1N1 vaccine that all this hype is about. It's still killing people, but it's less than the "normal" flu does.

Good to hear you're all doing well.

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TexasTimbers

Frank,

you're technically correct in that it isn't mandatory by state or federal law, but most medical and emergency employers, and many institutional (schools etc.) employers are making it mandatory by their own policy, and quite a few have quit, been fired, and there are a number of law suits over it.

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woodman42

Hell No.

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