Do you have all the facts? Some of the facts?
Do you want them?
Will your doctor give you what is called "informed consent" - the benefits and risks of taking the vaccine for you as an individual, so you can make an "informed decision?"
I'm sure there will plenty (pro-vaccine, pro-Big Pharma crowd) who scan these diaries and will attempt to tell you that you don't need a balanced view when making a decision about what goes into your body and that you should just accept any new vaccine coming down the pipeline (200 planned in the next 20 years). But why do other countries give half the vaccines that we give? Why are other industrialized countries healthier than we are?
As a trained scientist (MS from Chicago's School of Public Health), I believe in gathering all the data, evaluating it, and stating my conclusions. As a writer concerned about health, I go a step further to share what I have gained with others.
Priority for the swine flu vaccine will be like disembarking a sinking ship... pregnant women and children will go first. But instead of being outfitted with appropriate sized life jackets, babies will get the same vaccine as a 280lb man.
Next on deck will be first responders: police, firemen, EMS, nurses. Recently, New York State mandated seasonal flu vaccine for all health care workers and will soon do the same for the H1N1 vaccine. This is the first time in our history that a state government is mandating a vaccine.
Priorities are:
*Pregnant women
*People aged 6 months to 24 years
*People aged 25 to 64 years with long-term health problems
*People who live with or care for children younger than 6 months
* Health care and emergency medical workers
That about covers most of us. The message is "sink or swim" (i.e, take the flu shots or else).
But what does the shot contain? Since the H1N1 vaccine is not formally "approved" by the FDA, we really do not have a full list of ingredients and will not know the full list until such time that this experimental vaccine is formally approved.
Which will occur well after the first hundreds of thousands of doses are given.
This is an important point. Most of us want to know what we put into our bodies.
So here is a document listing some of the ingredients.
When considering the best evidence for any vaccination, we must account for the studies as well as the rationale used for immunization, as argued by the British Medical Journal in a 2006 article on Public Health, entitled, Influenza vaccination: policy versus evidence. The BMJ argued that the problems with introducing new flu vaccines are:
- reliance on non-randomised studies (cohort studies), especially in the elderly.
- the influence of poor study quality
- the absence convincing evidence on most of the effects at the centre of campaign objectives
- little comparative evidence exists on the safety of these vaccines
"Some surveillance systems report cases of influenza-like illness as influenza without further explanation. This confusion leads to a gross overestimation of the impact of influenza, unrealistic expectations of the performance of vaccines, and spurious certainty of our ability to predict viral circulation and impact."
"The confusion between influenza and influenza-like illness is compounded by the lack of accurate and fast surveillance systems that can tell what viruses are circulating in a setting or community within a short time frame, and after the "season" is finished give an accurate picture of what went on to enable better forecasting of future trends."
My purpose in posting is to present information on which you can make an informed decision for you and your family. There is not enough balanced information in the media. Most of it is one-sided, in favor, of the swine flu vaccine using scare tactics. The severity of this flu is mild in the US and abroad, yet our government wants us to take two different types of vaccines this Fall, both with thimerosal, and a one (H1N1) with new adjuvant (squalene). This combination has NEVER before been tested in the human body.
Ask your doctor about informed-consent. Make yourself aware of the facts. Then decide for yourself.
The ship is about to sail and you want to make sure your life jacket is your exact size.