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Folks are getting all worked up about how the H1N1 vaccine hasn't been "tested", it has been tested as much as any seasonal flu vaccine and is prepared the same way as every other seasonal flu vaccine.
The seasonal flu vaccine is different every year depending on the presumed dominant strain of flu. It isn't tested any more than the H1N1 is being tested now.
In effect, the H1N1 vaccine is just another seasonal flu strain.
This is all very true but I do agree that it is a personal choice, as I posted previously we don't normally get the seasonal flu shot. I saw a video on tv and a doctor was saying if the H1N1 virus had come on the scene in Jan instead of April it would have just been in the seasonal flu vaccine and there probably wouldn't be all the chaos there is now. So if that had happened we wouldn't have gotten the shot anyway.
I think people are always apprehensive about new things especially in the pharmaceutical field, when you take into account that there have been some meds that have either been blackboxed by the FDA or pulled off the shelves.
I am not anti-vaccine and my kids have received all theirs except for the menactra, gardasil and the one they used to have for the rotovirus. I remember my ped offering it to my youngest and me refusing because it hadn't been on the market for long, then reading a couple of years later they had to pull it because of serious side effects some kids have had.
I think we all have to make that decision for ourselves but I also think it is important if you have a doctor to include them in the decision making. So thanks to all for your replies
Hubby already got the regular flu shot (too early according to our doc) and I'll get mine. We get it every year, with no adverse reaction. The kids don't get the flu shot. We have not discussed H1N1...it is very likely no one in the family will get it.
Too early? That doesn't make sense. Unless the virus mutates radically by the end of the season, you can't vaccinate "too early". And even if it did, it wouldn't matter because as far as I am aware of they don't every change the flu vaccine so people getting vaccinated in January are getting the same exact vaccine that I got two weeks ago.
My youngest has had H1N1 so the rest of my family will be receiving the vaccine though I am pretty unsure of it. I will be sitting down with the family Ped. to discuss the pros v. cons and to get more info. I'd say think about your childrens general health and their healthy behavior awareness (hand washing, coughing etc.) and base your decision on that.
I looked over the CDC's website but saw no mention of this but still have a flyer. In Sepetember the CDC did an investigational study here on the H1N1 vaccine. It asked for interested participants to be willing to receive the shot and 4 weeks of monitoring with no cost to them with limited travel reimbursments. I thought it was a joke becasue the flyer was on my car and I haven't seen anything on the site. My mom told me because the CDC's headquarters are here they generally do "closed door" studies on medicines without giving out much of the information gathered.
Too early? That doesn't make sense. Unless the virus mutates radically by the end of the season, you can't vaccinate "too early". And even if it did, it wouldn't matter because as far as I am aware of they don't every change the flu vaccine so people getting vaccinated in January are getting the same exact vaccine that I got two weeks ago.
Did you mean they don't change the current years flu vaccine or that they don't every change it?
US child deaths from swine flu 'shoot up': official - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091009/hl_afp/healthfluuschildrentoll - broken link)
And that's the real concern. Not sure what we want the CDC b/c they are very much damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Point is, the new strain is showing to be very aggressive for those who develop coinfections and for still unknown reasons b/c of its newness, no one knows why it is being so aggressive in some particular age groups. And this is NOT NORMAL for the seasonal flu.
So, you use your judgement and intuition and go from there...
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