swine flu vaccine

Katie

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Swine flu vaccine article

A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.

The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.

.....

The British Neurological Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out.

One senior neurologist said last night: ‘I would not have the swine
flu jab because of the GBS risk.’

There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976 debacle’ in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people – more than the virus itself.

A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people worldwide.

Within days, symptoms of GBS were reported among those who had been immunised and 25 people died from respiratory failure after severe paralysis. One in 80,000 people came down with the condition. In contrast, just one person died of swine flu.
More than 40million Americans had received the vaccine by the time the programme was stopped after ten weeks. The US Government paid out millions of dollars in compensation to those affected.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ologists-25-deaths-America.html#ixzz0VQiiUSPO
 

Griff

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Meh.

IMHO, Dailymail is essentially the UK's Fox News. There is a risk of developing GBS from many vaccines; while the risk of developing GBS is absolutely present with the H1N1 vaccine, that risk is still relatively small and not specific to the vaccine. I'm still getting the vaccine because I think the cost (risk of a serious side effect, albeit a small risk) is negligible compared with the benefit (lots of H1N1 cases down here that I am exposed to, with several deaths so far). In the end, I believe it is an entirely personal decision. With that said, I think that risk should be placed into context, a context that I find lacking in the Dailymail article. :)
 

RyanMidd

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In the end, I believe it is an entirely personal decision. With that said, I think that risk should be placed into context,

Agreed. When friends & family have asked my opinion on the vaccine, I've told them that its up to them to research it, remain impartial to the source, and take a heaping spoonful of salt when reading any sort of statistic.
 

silver

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The number was so miniscule that limited research could have been done. To this day they do not know if the GBS was caused because of a contamination in some of the vaccines or the vaccine itself. They finally concluded that there was no or very little risked compared to any other vaccine.

So think about what you read and understand the especially if it is from shocking news that is over 30 years old. How shocking!!!

Plus the 1976 swine flu, I believe, was only reported at Ft Dix. Making the number of cases very small, because it was contained. Thus making the 1 death from flu to the 25 deaths from the vaccine not comparable.

But really I agree with the posters above ^^^
 

VentMedic

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This "warning" is also listed on the seasonal flu vaccine.

If you actually read the consent forms or the "warning" section of just about any medication, including OTC, or vaccine or procedure you ever have done, you would probably run away horrified.
 

EMSLaw

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This "warning" is also listed on the seasonal flu vaccine.

If you actually read the consent forms or the "warning" section of just about any medication, including OTC, or vaccine or procedure you ever have done, you would probably run away horrified.

Indeed. I think that's why there was some question about whether package inserts should be left in medications when they are handed out to the public, as opposed to a form put in layman's terms.

IIRC, the potential side effects are listed from most to least common, and by the time you get past the first few, you're talking about something that might have happened to one person in the study, and that is only potentially caused by side effect or drug interaction.

Warning! Reading this post may cause drowsiness, itchy, watery eyes, unexplained syncope, rash, headache, fever, nausea, indigestion, upset stomach, bleeding from the eyes and ears, pleural effusion, pulmonary embolism, flailed chest, Wegener's Granulatoma, or death.

Anyway... I'm not too worried about the vaccine, though when I went to get my shot, I was more concerned about the potential side effects of waiting in a line snaking around the building, and the concommitant risk of hypothermia. So I went home.
 

guardian528

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If you actually read the consent forms or the "warning" section of just about any medication, including OTC, or vaccine or procedure you ever have done, you would probably run away horrified.

great reason to just let the body heal itself ;)
 

Griff

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great reason to just let the body heal itself ;)

Except that without vaccines, we would still have things like polio. Public health (for that matter, life in general) isn't about eliminating risk; it's about weighing the potential benefits and risks from an epidemiological perspective and making an informed decision based on cost versus benefit. Mandatory vaccination policies (e.g. MMR for school attendance in some areas) are based on this principle; the risk of a serious side effect from the vaccine sequence is much lower than the risk of becoming infected and/or infecting others with the disease you are being vaccinated against.

Are some vaccines more risky than others? Absolutely. Have specific vaccines been discontinued or restricted due to increased risk? Absolutely. Is mass vaccination still one of the pillars of modern public health? Absolutely.
 
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