I didn't vote yet. I'm not sure what I will do. I think I will get it but in the past, when I have gotten the flu shot, it has made me a bit sick for a few days. It does cause an immune system response when a vaccine is introduced into the body. Many mothers or pet owners can tell you that due to observing their child or animal becoming feverish or listless after a vaccination. Also, I was raised by a very naturalistic mother who believed in limiting the introduction of foreign susbtances into the body when possible.
However, I have asthma and I know a great deal about H1N1 and that tips me towards getting the shot.
H1N1 is a unique, highly mutuable flu, formerly known as Spanish Influenza, even though it likely originated in the U.S. It has not really been around for a long time and there are few people left with any immunity to it. In the early 1900's, around WWI, is when it erupted. So far, it has been the deadliest plague in history, killing more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, and more people in a year than the Black Plague killed in a century. It destroyed a generation, killing approx. 100 million people.
H1N1 started as a regular flu, albeit a pretty severe one. It was sickening young, healthy people and hit them hard, so that was somewhat unusal. This occured in the Spring. But, by late fall, it had travelled around the world and came back highly mutated. When it came back to the U.S., it came back as a disease unrecognizable as the flu. People turned compeltely black and bled from their mouths, ears, eyes and other orifices. Unable to get air and in great pain, their organs shut down quickly and they died a horribly, painful death. So many people were affected that there were not enough people to care for them or places to bury them or people to carry away the dead. Sick families languished in their homes sharing beds with corpses. It was a disease unprecedented and nothing could be done about it.
Doctors know how easily and quickly this flu can mutate and that's why the CDC, etc., seems freaked about it. They know what can happen so even though it looks somewhat like regular flu strains so far, they are on alert.
Obama's designation of H1N1 as an epidemic is, however, nothing more than a specific deignation that allows certain things to happen such as, I believe, the release of stockpiles of vaccines, masks, medicines and allows better tracking of the disease's progession.
When the flu first broke out in Mexico recently, it was killing people in their 20's, much like it did in the early 1900's. It then seemed to progress more like a normal flu and a few months ago I heard that it had killed less people in 2009 than other flues this year. Now, however, it appears to have spiked and I think the last I heard is that it has now surpassed all other flues this year as far as death rate is concerned.
Vaccines have been scientifically proven to work. That's why polio, small pox, etc, have all but disappeared and these were gruesome, frightening diseases.
But I also believe people should not blindly trust the medical establishment. Questions should be asked. For example, although studies have not shown a connection between autism and vaccines, I think the observations of mothers show a clear link. But, my opinion is that it is not the susbtances alone in any one vaccine that may trigger such a condition, but rather, mulitple, excessive assualts on a young immune system reacting to multiple vaccinations in a short time period. Vaccinations do cause an immunse system response, period. That's the whole point of them. That's how they work.
By the way, this vaccine contains thimeserol which is a form of mercury and which many parents felt caused autism. I don't believe that one shot of a vaccine containing traces of mercury can cause autism but I think the key is to become informed and weigh the risks individually. Just don't wait too long. This is a very fast moving and easily mutable disease that can explode into something uncontrollable in a matter of weeks or days. I am leaning towards getting it if it is available through my doctor. I've just been kind of tracking it, not wanting the shot if it looks like the disease is going to behave like other flues but wanting it if it looks more severe. I certainly don't want to die if it can be avoided by a shot.
