Last week the H1N1 shot was only available to those under 65 with a chronic disease, immuno compromised, between 6 months and 5 years old, pregnant women, first nations, and caregivers of, or individuals living with any of the above. Everyone else who didn’t fall under any of these categories but trekked out to a vaccination clinic anyway were from one of the following groups: Extreme hypochondriacs, or, paranoid conspiracy theorists convinced it’s a government scam to weaken and control the masses.
This week the vaccine is available for the rest of the population groups and I’ve sat through interesting lectures from people in need of someone to indulge their theories. Apparently this vaccine is a ploy to weaken people so that they will be easier to control and manipulate.
I wonder what measles epidemic survivors were controlled and manipulated to do let alone the last generation to see any incidence of small pox before it was completely eradicated by --that’s right, a vaccine!
When it comes to H1N1 it’s a judgement call. Flu shots generally don’t protect from any flu period, but against the most severe flu. Getting it might only make a difference in being sick for 3 days instead of 2 weeks. Due its wide spread pandemic H1N1 is simply another type of ‘severe’ flu you can get and these same principles apply.
Frontline workers got vaccinated a week before the vaccine was available to the first priority groups and I went for it. For me personally, I know my immune system is shot. Parasites have coursed through my veins and crossed my blood brain barrier, mycobacterium have violated my alveoli, I work long hours, I have a fairly constant level of stress, I’m exposed to different population groups each day, and because I’m in my 20’s, the age where working & partying hard is in fashion, I squeeze in as much activity at night and on weekends as I can. Others who have limited exposure to high risk groups, live a more balanced lifestyle and don’t run their body ragged might be more equipped with an optimal immune system to withstand the virus if infected. It depends on the individual and again, it’s a judgment call –you either take your chances with the virus or the effects of the vaccine.
That said H1N1 was probably one of the most painful shots I’ve gotten and I’ve had every shot imaginable from travelling and as a frontline worker. I would rank it above thyphoid and below yellow fever vaccines (the yellow fever vaccine feels like being injected with vinegar). The only annoying side effect I experienced was not being able to lift my arm for a few days.
" When it comes to H1N1 it’s a judgement call. Flu shots generally don’t protect from any flu period, but against the most severe flu. Getting it might only make a difference in being sick for 3 days instead of 2 weeks. Due its wide spread pandemic H1N1 is simply another type of ‘severe’ flu you can get and these same principles apply"
Sorry, you're off on that. The idea behind vaccination is to prevent you from catching the disease that you are being vaccinated against, period. Vaccines are not designed to shorted symptom duration. The issue with seasonal influenza vaccination is the guesswork involved, namely that manufacturers must choose which strains to include in the North American vaccine based on the experience of countries who have flu seasons earlier than ours. Last year they missed the boat a little. This year, the vast majority of influenza has been H1N1, and the vaccine is effective in preventing infection once it has had time to take effect.
Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) may prevent progression to severe disease, reduce viral shedding and shorten symptom duration by 1 day or so if started within 48 hrs of symptom onset, but these are antivirals, not vaccines.
Of those who ended up in the ICU in the first half of the year in this country, ~98% had an "underlying condition"; in many cases, this had nothing to do with a "weak" immune system. What has been unusual is the age distribution of those seriously affected. A large number of these people were children, the avg. age was 32 and 67% were women, if I remember the stats from the JAMA article correctly.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of being a physician dealing with this thing on a daily basis has been the general misinformation related to the vaccine and vaccines in general that exists in general society and promoted by people whose CVs may include little more than taking their clothes off for Playboy and boosting Oprah's ratings every now and then. Having said that, the frustration on the part of the general public at the confusing info coming from "public health officials" is shared by docs as well.
I'm in New Zealand at the moment and what I find fascinating is you don't hear one iota about H1N1 on the news, people don't care about it, and most people that I've talked to about it on the subject think that you're better off living your life in a healthy manner than pumping vaccines into your system every year. I was awestruck by the lack of media propaganda around here and frankly, it's refreshing.
on David Icke:
"Icke identified the Global Elite in his third book, The Biggest Secret (1998). They are reptilians from the constellation Draco, who walk on two legs and appear human, and who live inside the earth itself, in tunnels and caverns. Barkun writes that Icke's idea of "inner-earth reptilians" is not new, but was an idea that spread throughout the 1990s, but Icke has done more than most to expand on it. The reptilians have crossbred with human beings—the breeding lines being carefully chosen for political reasons—and these half-bloods are then controlled by the full-blood reptilians. The hybrid reptilian-human DNA allows the half-bloods to change from reptilian to human form—called shapeshifting—if they consume human blood. Many prominent people and practically every world leader, including George W. Bush, Tony Blair, the Queen, and the late Queen Mother, are either full-bloods or half-bloods, or work for the reptilians as what Icke calls slave-like victims of multiple personality disorder.
The purpose of the Global Elite is to engineer events, including a Third World War perhaps involving the Muslim world or China, that will cause enormous fear in the countdown to 2012; see below for the significance of 2012. The goal is a fascist global state, with a world government, world central bank, world army, and a micro-chipped population."