Update: If you don’t read the comments, be sure to check out Skeptic for more scientific information about the swine flu vaccine. Thanks to The Mother’s Handbook for the link.
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I am terrified of the swine flu. It might be so mild you never even know you had it. Or it might seem like a mild virus.
Or you might DIE of it.
I am even MORE terrified of this vaccine against it. The first two vaccinations invented for this virus, 33 years apart, killed more people than the illness did. Then they claim a little over a month later that they ‘fixed’ it and it isn’t dangerous any more. They did in a few weeks what they couldn’t do in 33 years?
How do they know they have fixed it since it has hardly been tested at all? And they don’t even know for sure what the actual dosage should be.
Now in Houston pediatricians at a local hospital have said that the cases of swine flu they’re seeing now are different and more severe than what they saw a few months ago – which leads them to believe it has mutated. Mutation is pretty much certain with any virus. So has it mutated beyond the scope of the vaccination?
No one knows.
We get all our shots. We all got our regular flu shot a few days ago. One round of the flu 2 years ago was enough to convince me that I will never skip another flu shot! So I’m not some ignorant hippie anti-vac person putting your kid at risk for polio, okay?
But I’m not giving my kids the swine flu vac until I know more about it. Something real that isn’t part of a drug company’s PR campaign. I want to wait and see if you die of it first. It’s nothing personal. If half the country rushes to get it in October and half of you die, then I’ll have my answer. If we get 3 million cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome in the first three months, I’ll know.
If my whole house dies of swine flu I guess I’ll know something then, too. I can’t control very well our exposure to a virus. But I can control a needle in my kids’ arms. So I’m in wait-and-see mode. And I’m very worried.
Are you getting it? Have you decided yet?
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Nope. I don’t trust it either, and I’m terrified of one of my kids getting sick. But I’m not going to inject something into them that could kill them. We get the regular flu vaccine though.
Jennifer´s last blog …WDW 2007, Wordful Wednesday: Favorite Vacation
Anti-vax propaganda is just as rampant on the new flu vaccine as it is on the oldies but goodies. I refer you to this article by my favorite truth-nazi, Harriet Hall:
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/09-09-23#feature
Your healthy dose of skepticism and honest medical reporting for the day.
The Mother´s last blog …Kids and Phone Etiquette
I was hoping you would reply, M. I wanted to hear a disinterested medical opinion – now I’m off to read the article. It starts out talking about fear – which is how I think our most recent former president put us on the road to a serious loss of personal freedom. I don’t want to be bound by fear or my life directed by it. Jeez, wrong blog again! It’s like I’m obsessed with politics!
Wendy´s last blog …Speaking of Vacs
No, No, No. I remember the vaccine in the seventies, people wished they hadn’t gotten it. “If” they fixed it how would we know they actually did something or nothing? Simple wouldn’t! I saw an interview with a scientist that worked on it, they are not taking the vaccine. If they don’t why should I? And more important why would I give something that potentially dangerous to my kids?
I am worried, but after how they are not honest about so much pork, I truly am more worried about what we don’t know.
After I see every Scientist, President, Congress Member and Senator take it then I will think about it.
Wendy finally I did the sock story I think you will see a little bit of Cowboy in the story!
brazoscowgirl´s last blog …The Sock Caper
I just don’t know enough, but I don’t get flu shots either. My husband and I are not in germy environments and I have had the flu a couple of times but it was always during the December finals, always. And those days are over.
I have no idea what I would do if I had kids. I do hope the HPV vaccine proves to be safe.
Elizabeth A. ´s last blog …I have things, plural things that need to be done.
Turns out this is probably all a moot point. Three kids in my daughter’s grade have H1N1 (Houston) and upwards of a dozen kids in the elementary school overall.
My kids have been exposed, period.
My daughter is home sick right now with potential symptoms, but unless she develops some kind of serious complication that requires further treatment, whether or not it was actually H1N1 doesn’t matter. Well, either way it doesn’t really matter because there isn’t a specific medicine for it.
So. There it is.
I’m pretty frustrated that the school was trying to keep this hush-hush and meanwhile I’ve been sending my daughter to school all week when she felt sick and was coughing non-stop because she wasn’t running fever. H1N1 doesn’t always cause fever (now I know). She had potential symptoms, and if she does have it, she helped spread it for four days.
Wendy´s last blog …Speaking of Vacs
Dude, that sucks. Sorry to hear it. Please keep us in the know about Dolly’s health.
We aren’t getting H1N1 vac nor do we get the flu vac. I have heard that it’s even more important for preg ladies like me, but I don’t want my baby being born with a birth defect.
I dunno… I am okay with vac’s for MMR, chicken pox, tetanus, etc. But the flu? I’m just not on board with that one yet.
Texan Mama´s last blog …Flashback Friday: A Poem About My Boobs
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