Comments on: …just a quick rant about piggy flu and vaccines…

By: Peggi

Peggi — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:31:35 +0000

At first I wasn’t going to comment; Lord knows I comment enough on tons of boards! But up until recently I have been wavering on getting the vax for us all (right now it’s a moot point, as it’s not available to us yet in our neck of the woods), then I spoke to my son’s pedi about. He’s someone that looks like he’d be more comfy in the 1960′s, to tell the truth, and he’s completely honest about these vaxes, so I knew if I asked him if all this was hogwash, a way to get us all panicked over basically the flu, or should I be worried, he put it this way to me-if he could save one life by vaccinnating all his patients, it will be worth it. If he can save one child from having to depend on an iron lung, it will be worth it. He told me that in the state of Ca. there are very few iron lungs, and one of the nasty things about H1N1 is how it can destroy the lungs so severely that survival is dependant on one.
#2 My son was one of the first to get the chicken pox vax, and I thought long and hard, questioned, researched, and thought some more. In the end, I took the pedi’s advice, knowing the vaccination wouldn’t be 100%, but if he did get chicken pox, it would be a very light case. So far, no side effects, and it’s been like 8 yrs.
#3 H1N1 would kill my husband if he got it.
#4.We live in a community that is very, very small, with lots of kids and senior citizens. The local school has less than 25 kids, K-8, and we’ve already been hit very hard with the seasonal flu. We have masks, hand gel and plenty of handwashing going on. We are the type of parents that keep our kids home longer than in the city, because it would be too easy for our school to close due to illness. We are not bad parents, we are parents that care very much for our kids, our own and others. Since we don’t have the option of the H1N1 vaccination yet, we are doing our best to contain the illnesses the best way we can.

I will be getting my son vaccinated when I can, myself and hubby too, but until then, we are taking all measures possible to stay healthy. I can’t understand why, if you have a tool available to help you, you won’t take advantage of it to keep yourself and fam healthy. Rushed? I don’t think so. If you go and do your research on CDC, you will see the guidelines and steps taken for this shot. They take the same care for this as they do for the seasonal. Mercury? Don’t think so. Squalene, or do you mean squalane? (2 different things-one is animal, one is plant) Nope, not in there. I believe that if your child is sick, and you, as the parent, lets that child go to a party, school, or elsewhere in public, and gets my child sick (and my child dies or has serious complications), that some kind of legal charge of neglect should happen. Personal responsibility should happen before, not after, your child is sick.

By: Angela

Angela — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:42:32 +0000

Good discussion here. I did want to bring up another point though, a recent study shows that children are still shedding the H1N1 virus up to 6 days AFTER the fever is gone. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=107133 This scares me since people are theoretically keeping their kids out of school (or staying out of work) until 24 hours after the fever stops. While that’s helpful, now I’m not sure that’s enough. We all feel very lucky to have been able to get the vaccines this year for both flu strains. Now we just hope we can get my 3 year old the booster shots in another 2 weeks.

By: VHMPrincess

VHMPrincess — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:38:53 +0000

Heather – I am so sorry, I did not realize that is how Maddie got sick in the first place. There are no words.

I always laugh, when we here in the States ARGUE about getting vaccines. There was an article I read when doing research on vaccines years ago – people in third world countries were having problems because they were so scared of the diseases, they were getting FOUR AND FIVE DOSES of the vaccines for illness we don’t really have to worry about any more and they were totally perplexed when the author told them we have parents that opt. out of them. They were totally baffled why someone would have a chance NOT to get these horrible diseases and OPT OUT.

We got the h1n1 vax for our kids and will be right there when it’s available for healthy adults. My nephew is high risk and cannot find it. I am v. scared for him – he has had pneumonia three times, RSV, severe asthma attacks, etc. I am counting on herd immunity to keep him safe until he gets the vax.

By: Susan (5 Minutes for Mom)

Susan (5 Minutes for Mom) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:33:25 +0000

Wow, quite the discussion going on here!

I see that Heather left a comment about how Maddie’s fatal illness was given to her from a sick child at a birthday party. I think it is very important that we all as parents remember to keep our kids home long after they stop having symptoms of illness. You never know how sick another person may get from a bug that you could fight off.

As for the H1N1 vaccine, I got it and gave it to my children. I try very hard to be respectful of others’ decisions not to vaccinate, but I admit that I do feel that as a community everyone is safer if more people vaccinate. Not just for the H1N1, but for all illnesses. I do hate that there are risks for the vaccines, but the thought of anyone dying from a preventable illness seems to me to be worse.

By: Kait

Kait — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:57:43 +0000

Like a lot of the comments on here, I’m not against vaccinations. I’m not against the CDC or the government. I’m not uneducated or making decisions based on how hip I’ll be.

We have never given our daughters the flu shot. We likely never will. H1N1 is the flu – plain and simple. Yes, people die from it. People die from the flu. People die from vaccinations. There are risks involved no matter what choice you make. Science is our friend but so is logic.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:59:59 +0000

It’s probably too late to really bother commenting, and clearly your mind is made up. But do you know what bothers me? That people assume that everyone who makes a choice thinks the same way. I am not anti-vax. I think long and hard before having anything introduced into my children’s systems. In Canada (where I’m from obviously) there are adjuvants in the majority of H1N1 vaccines (some don’t for pregnant women and others with special conditions). That was a little flag of concern for me. Also, my biggest concern is like someone mentioned, the flu is not being eradicated by the vaccine. Not even close. The vaccine doesn’t even protect against the “flu”, just certain strains, including the current H1N1. Protection now is no guarantee of protection next year. And H1N1 is just the flu, plain and simple. I got that information from my own government’s website, not some crazy anti-vax site. I read death rates and compared this flu to death and complication rates in any average year. Not higher; lower in fact. And I reminded my kids yet again about hand-washing and my school put in place extra rules about drinking from the water fountain during the outbreak. And my kids got sick, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean they will give it to someone’s child and kill them. They stayed home from school one day longer than the recommended guidelines (which was 24 hours post-fever, not one week). I think the flu hysteria is as bad as the vaccine hysteria and we need to quit telling everyone else what to do. Life is just not that black and white.

By: Widget Whiteberry

Widget Whiteberry — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:20:26 +0000

Jennifer – I am most distracted by so-call experts who look as if they should be credible, sound ‘possible’ and are very destructive. For major issues, we need constant debunking. Example http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:41:15 +0000

I’m late on this but BRAVO. I’m so very tired of being made to feel like a mindless lemming because I (gasp!) trust the CDC over something someone’s cousin’s sister-in-law’s babysitter read on a blog or saw on youtube. I think it’s part of a larger cultural reticence to accept the authority of experts, to equate a mommy blog post with something written by a trained science writer for the New York Times, or a public health manifesto issued by NIH or the CDC. But there’s something to be said, IMO, for spending years in med school, and in residency, studying to be, say, a virologist. Something that makes me far more likely to believe you know what you’re talking about when it comes to vaccinating my children than that random shoe salesman commenting on my neighbor’s Facebook status.

As for Michael May’s comment above, there IS NO SQUALENE in this vaccine; this from the CDC website:
Does the 2009 H1N1 flu shot have an adjuvant or squalene in it?

Adjuvants are agents that are sometimes added to a vaccine to make it more effective. There are no adjuvants (such as squalene) in either the 2009 H1N1 or seasonal flu shot used in the United States.

I’d also like to stand up and applaud cagey for having the grace to admit she changed her mind. The “this vaccine was rushed to market” hysteria makes me absolutely mental — flu vaccines are “rushed to market” EVERY SEASON.

Here is a very reasoned Q and A from the New York Times for those who might be interested:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/health/10primer.html?_r=1

By: Nancy R

Nancy R — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:31:25 +0000

I don’t think the flu vaccine can be compared to something like the whooping cough or polio vaccine. I don’t think the end result is the same.

As we’ve seen with polio, that vaccine eliminated that disease. However, the flu virus is ever-changing – I don’t believe I’ve ever read of an end goal of eliminating the flu. So even if we ALL got the flu virus we wouldn’t be protected from the next evolution of the virus…and as you said, getting the flu vaccine doesn’t guarantee you won’t get the flu.

What I see is everyone panicking and rushing to get the flu shot thinking it’s for the greater good – and maybe they won’t get the flu this year…but what about next year, or the next, when the virus has gotten stronger? In many cases, I think there’s a good case for building natural immunity for the flu, since the flu isn’t going to be ‘cured’.

If you’re open to reading an alternative perspective go to http://www.drjaygordon.com

I vaccinate my kids, but we don’t get the flu vaccine.

Cagey, I’m right there with you on the FDA and corporate America. I don’t feel they have the public’s best interest at heart. If you haven’t read it, check out The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O’Brien.

By: cagey

cagey — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:14:55 +0000

Popping back in to say that I will searching for this vaccine after all. A conversation with my doctor yesterday eased some of my fears. I am still leery of the FDA – seriously, they are totally sucking at the teat of Corporate America and I trust them minimally. But still, my doctor says the H1N1 vaccine is being made with the same production methods as the regular strain. A vaccine that we routinely get every year.