Will you get the swine flu vaccine for you and/or your family?

[luvwinnie]

I think I really should considering my asthma and autoimmune disease, but I almost died as a baby from the smallpox vaccine so I know the dangers of vaccines. I don't like the idea of getting one that has been "rushed" to the market. I defintiely will not get one with an adjuvant.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

RE: Previously Healthy Deaths

UK:
Crazy Christmas looming over swine flu immunisations

17 Aug 09
By Christian Duffin
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=23&storycode=4123458&c=1#

GPs face a frantically busy run up to Christmas after the Government announced practices would have to ensure all priority groups were immunised against swine flu in just three months, on top of the seasonal flu campaign.

The Department of Health confirmed last week that the swine flu vaccination programme would not start until October, six weeks after the first deliveries of vaccine – as Pulse revealed in our last issue.

[snip] the part I wanted you all to see is below

Weekly GP consultation rates for flu-like illness decreased from 42 per 100,000 to 30.9 for the week ending August 9, although the proportion of deaths from swine flu in healthy people rose from 12% to 21% .
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I will be refraining from getting the flu shots myself as I am healthy and others will need it more. I did however get the pneumonia vaccine to help prevent secondary infections should I get any of the viruses circulating this year.

 

[LisaR]

I just got home from a doctor's appointment with my family doctor. She is a big supporter of all vaccinations. She also gets a yearly flu shot for herself and her family. I asked if she would be getting the swine flu vaccine . She said NO WAY! And if they made it mandatory for school age kids, she said she isn't sure what she would do but she would make darn sure her son does not get the vaccine (she has a child in elementary school). She feels it is too rushed. She is 100% in favor of a swine flu vaccine but not one that hasn't been fully tested. It didn't matter what her answer was to my question because my family won't get the vaccine, period. However, it is good to know that we are on the same page.

 

[Jenvenza]

I also feel this was too rushed. I have never gotten a flu vaccine, so I wont be getting this. DD will probably just get the regular flu vaccine. She did that last year and was fine with it.

 

[Momvic5]

No....the one year my family and I decided to get a flu shot was the year that we ALL got the flu.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

We had a close friend suffer from Gillian Barre Syndrome for more than a year. What he went through was simply torture for him and his family around him.

We will not be getting the vaccine.

 

[disney kid at heart]

I'm concerned with the vaccine, since they really can't tell when someone HAS the swine flu. Two young people, a brother and sister in Indiana both got seriously ill and was taken to a normally great hospital in Cincinnati and they tested them for swine flu and said they did not have it. It wasn't until the brother died and an autopsy was performed that they found out it WAS the swine flu. His sister died about a week later. This is going to be a frightening flu season.

 

[Pigeon]

No, we won't.

The regular flu shots are fiasco enough, and I'm old enough to have lived through the last swine flu hysteria.

 

[J3nn78]

No way! The thought of it scares me.
I do not do regular flu shots either. AND, if this thing does mutate, the vaccine will likely be no good.

 

[rparmfamily]

No vaccine for us for a few reasons.

We are getting over H1N1 influenza A here right now and it's wretched. We are all very healthy people, haven't been sick in years and years. Both my kids had high fevers for a few days and that was scary. Everyone is nearly ok now, except me, but I'm postpardum and asthmatic so I was already sleep deprived and my "reserves" were already depleted prior to getting sick. So while I didn't get high fevers I've got the worst case of it.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I'm concerned with the vaccine, since they really can't tell when someone HAS the swine flu. Two young people, a brother and sister in Indiana both got seriously ill and was taken to a normally great hospital in Cincinnati and they tested them for swine flu and said they did not have it. It wasn't until the brother died and an autopsy was performed that they found out it WAS the swine flu. His sister died about a week later. This is going to be a frightening flu season.

That was so sad-they both ended up with kidney failure too. Those poor parents-I think the kids names were Mindy and Matt (Skinny) Macintosh.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

25 people died as a result of that vaccine. Seems odd that your mom knew a percentage of people personally that died from it.

My family will not receive the shot. We don't get the flu shot but this does seem more dangerous than the typical flu. However, I make it a general rule not to get anything that is new on the market.

According to her, and she is not the type to lie, she knew two people. I don't know how well she knew these two people but it was a close enough association to really freak her out and make her not touch another flu shot again, even the regular kind.

 

[NJMomma]

If the vaccine is available for us all to get, we will get it. MY DD has asthma, so I plan of getting her vaccinated. We were just at the asthma specialist today, and she wasn't sure how much vaccine would be available and how the groups would prioritized (other than preggies first). We get the regular flu shot every year too.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

This may help some of you who are worried about this vaccine being like the 1976 fiasco. [emphasis mine]

From the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204543304574350920660799750.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
AUGUST 17, 2009, 8:02 P.M. ET
Swine Flu: the Next Wave
What You Need to Know as the Virus Threatens to Spread With the Start of the School Year

By BETSY MCKAY
[snip]

Is the vaccine safe?

The government and vaccine manufacturers are conducting clinical trials to determine whether the vaccine is effective and how large a dose is needed. Initial results are expected in early October. Some experts and advocates have expressed concern that the vaccine may be administered to pregnant women and children before full test results are in. But government officials believe the new vaccine is safe because it resembles seasonal flu vaccines, which normally don't undergo trials.

"It's made by the same companies, using the same processes, with the same materials," says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is overseeing the trials. Flu vaccines "have been given to tens and tens of millions of people for decades with an excellent safety record, including to pregnant women."

Some are also worried about thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury and is in multi-dose vials of vaccine. The CDC says thimerosal-free vaccine will be available in the form of both shots and nasal spray.

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There is more useful information at the link.

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FYI - for the thimerosal free version - only 20% of the vaccine will be.

Arizona Novel H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Distribution Program 2009-2010
Background Document to accompany “How to Order Novel H1N1 Influenza
Vaccine” and “Novel H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Preregistration Form”

http://www.azdhs.gov/flu/h1n1/pdfs/vaccinepreregistration/Background 13 Aug 2009 final.pdf

Clinical trials are being conducted to determine which age groups, if any, will need only one dose. The majority of vaccine will come as multidose vials but about 20% of the shipments will be thimerosal-free single-dose syringes and live attenuated vaccine.
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Again - more good information at the link except for the timeline of vaccine delivery and amounts available. That has decreased dramatically.

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US expects far fewer swine flu shots in October

By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
Monday, August 17, 2009; 10:36 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081703032.html

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. won't have nearly as much swine flu vaccine ready by mid-October as long predicted - 45 million doses instead of the anticipated 120 million, a federal official said Monday.

It's not a shortage but a delay, Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Hall said. More will arrive rapidly after that, with about 20 million more doses being shipped weekly until the government reaches the full 195 million doses ordered, he said.

But the October shortfall, blamed on manufacturing issues, will extend by a month efforts to get people at highest risk vaccinated against the new flu strain. First in line are supposed to be pregnant women, children and health care workers, followed by younger adults with flu-risky conditions such as asthma.

Expect vaccination campaigns to start around Oct. 15 anyway, Hall said. They just will have to be smaller in scale than originally planned, as the supply trickles in more slowly.

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Education and information are key. Be sure to take the time to do your research.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

My concern isn't thimerosal (heck, I'm sure all my vaccinations as a kid in the 70's were loaded with mercury), but the link between the swine flu vaccination and Gillian Barre Syndrome.

They don't know why the swine flu vaccine in the 1970's caused some peoples' immune systems to react poorly (GBS is an autoimmune disease), or why the vaccine triggered GBS in some people.

I'd like to see a satisfactory answer to that question.

 

[MScott1851]

I said yes, without a doubt. I'll get the swine flu AND the regular flu vaccine.

I'm young, healthy, and I'm an ER nurse in a medically underserved area (meaning most of my patients DON'T seek healthcare promptly and don't have much, if ANY, education about epidemiology/preventing spread of infection.)

Depending on when the first batch arrives, I'll either still be pregnant or will have had my baby by then. I will do everything in my power to protect her from becoming ill, as will my husband. If she can't get it, then I hope my breastfeeding her will offer her immunity.

As far as I'm concerned, the risks FAR outweigh the benefits in my case, since I fit two of the three 'high risk' criteria.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

Nobody in my family will be getting any type of flu shots.

Seeing a very athletic 16 year old boy lose 30 pounds in a week.... losing all control of his legs and face.... A risk of GBS is not to be taken lightly.

He recovered, and his case was NOT linked to any type of vaccination, but we feel the risks are not worth it. For him OR for the rest of us.

FWIW, DH and I do work in healthcare.

 

[sbell111]

We had a close friend suffer from Gillian Barre Syndrome for more than a year. What he went through was simply torture for him and his family around him.

We will not be getting the vaccine.

The risk of getting GBS from a flu vaccine is a bit longer than 1 in a million. What's the risk of catching a flu if one is unvaccinated?

No way! The thought of it scares me.
I do not do regular flu shots either. AND, if this thing does mutate, the vaccine will likely be no good.

Actually, if the flu mutates, the vaccination would still give limited immunity. In this respect, it's the same as any year's seasonal flu.

My family will not receive the shot. We don't get the flu shot but this does seem more dangerous than the typical flu. However, I make it a general rule not to get anything that is new on the market.

Then you must never get a vaccine against the seasonal flu because they are brand spanking new every year.

 

[sissybells]

I said yes, without a doubt. I'll get the swine flu AND the regular flu vaccine.

I'm young, healthy, and I'm an ER nurse in a medically underserved area (meaning most of my patients DON'T seek healthcare promptly and don't have much, if ANY, education about epidemiology/preventing spread of infection.)

Depending on when the first batch arrives, I'll either still be pregnant or will have had my baby by then. I will do everything in my power to protect her from becoming ill, as will my husband. If she can't get it, then I hope my breastfeeding her will offer her immunity.

As far as I'm concerned, the risks FAR outweigh the benefits in my case, since I fit two of the three 'high risk' criteria.

I am due to give birth at the end of Sept. I will get the vaccine but I have asked this question both to my OBGYN and FP and neither one of them can answer it. Is it safe to get the Swine Flu vaccine and breast feed? They both said they don't have an answer for that and they would get back to me. Have you heard anything about it? I was just wondering since I haven't heard back from either one yet. Thank you for any info you can give me one this.

 

[sbell111]

I am due to give birth at the end of Sept. I will get the vaccine but I have asked this question both to my OBGYN and FP and neither one of them can answer it. Is it safe to get the Swine Flu vaccine and breast feed? They both said they don't have an answer for that and they would get back to me. Have you heard anything about it? I was just wondering since I haven't heard back from either one yet. Thank you for any info you can give me one this.

I suspect that this is one of the questions that the current clinical trials are supposed to answer.