Would you volunteer to test the H1N1 vaccine?

[dismom2]

No, never. I don't do flu shots in general, and I certainly wouldn't try anything slapped together this hastily. There are lots of worse things that could happen to you beyond not getting immunity.

Exactly! Just read up on what happened with the swine flu vaccine in the 1970's. No way would I get it; I'll take my chances getting the flu instead.

 

[Piecey]

No, I wouldn't.

The first flu shot I ever got in my entire life was this past October, because I was pregnant.

I won't be pregnant this fall and I won't be getting ANY sort of flu shot.

 

[sbell111]

Probably not. I would rather, if I had a choice, wait til this vaccine has been around for about 10/15 years first.

You realize that flu vaccines are brand new each season, right?

Exactly! Just read up on what happened with the swine flu vaccine in the 1970's. No way would I get it; I'll take my chances getting the flu instead.

What happened back then was that two or three vaccinated seniors died, but the deaths were never actually linked to the vaccine. Also, there were 500 cases of GBS, resulting in 25 deaths. This is out of 40 million people being vaccinated.

Given that and if we assume that the three other deaths were indeed caused by that vaccine, your risk of death (back in 1976) would be 1 in 1,111,111 and your risk of any bad outcome would be 1 in 80,000. Those are pretty darn good odds.

Given that these are the odds of something bad happening back in 1976, I bet that the odds are even better now.