The "flu shot" vaccine side effects are usually the normal common reactions, and usually minor. some reactions are: about one in three people get a sore arm, little redness, or low fever from the shot, and an average of 10-15% of people feel tired or get a headache. The flu itself can cause serious problems, including GBS (Guillain-Barré Syndrome); the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.
A large proportion of the world population will get H1N1 and the vaccine side effect risk is far smaller than the sickness. When vaccines are approved, which includes the H1N1 vaccine, they are guaranteed to be much less risky than the sickness they prevent. "There could be unknown side effects. Something could happen, but it hasn't, but we think that is highly unlikely," infectious disease and vaccine expert Mark Mulligan, MD, executive director of the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center in Atlanta.
An interview with the health teacher, Mr. Mcginnis at Central Sr. high school, gave a new direction for this topic. He explained to me that when people encounter the H1N1 flu, teenagers and young adults are not in the high level of complications and death. As to the age range of an elder, or 7 and under, are at the high risk. Students at Central Sr. high have encounter with the H1N1, and at least 1 in 10 people at Central knows who has or had it. Teenagers to get the H1N1 vaccine aren't on the top of the list but, as a matter of fact they really don't need it. Their bodies can fight it off and can get it out of their body systems. There has been little deaths so far relating teens dying from this vaccine. Mr. Mcginnis added that "we should still stay home when we have signs of the flu. It could happen to be something else, and getting the vaccine should be kept a priority to get done for everyone."
Interview with a staff member Edward Cullen*, was a first hand look at the H1N1 virus. He had recently encounter the H1N1 late October in 2009. He first came down with the symptoms after the school homecoming game. The next morning he had a very high fever of 104 degrees, and all the symptoms of a regular cold. After about four days he scheduled an appointment with his doctor, and after about a few questions it was confirmed that he has had the H1N1 for about the last 4 days. He was given Tylenol, Advil, and Delsym to treat the virus. Looking back now he says "it was horrible and hope to never experience it ever again." Adding on he missed a whole week of school, and the teachers compromised for him to catch up on assignments. As to his plans to get the H1N1 shot, he doesn't need it. The virus is already immune to his system. Edward Cullen's* advice to everyone is to " GET THE H1N1 VACCINE!".
All vaccines aren't safe, but we've been using them for years so adding the H1N1 vaccine doesn't make a difference. The vaccines we have used and still using has side effects but people still get the shots for it. The H1N1 has not shown any real side effects other then the usual side effects of the other vaccines. It should be fine and be used to stop the spread of the H1N1. Have you gotten the shot? Do you know someone who has the H1N1? What are your plans to not get the H1N1?
* Name has been changed.
Tags : The first 2009 H1N1 vaccines are starting to arrive in Minnesota. So I'm wondering, will you be vaccinated? How about your kids? A national study out of the University of Michigan says only 40% of parents plan to get their kids vaccinated. Why? I think Michael Specter sums it up best in a New Yorker article:
In fact, the new H1N1 virus is similar to seasonal flu in its severity. In the United States, influenza regularly ranks among the ten leading causes of death, infecting up to twenty per cent of the population. It kills roughly thirty-five thousand Americans every year and sends hundreds of thousands to the hospital. Even relatively mild pandemics, like those of 1957 and 1968, have been health-care disasters: the first killed two million people and the second a million.
We are more fortunate than our predecessors, though. Scientists produced a vaccine rapidly; it will be available within weeks. And, though this H1N1 virus is novel, the vaccine is not. It was made and tested in exactly the same way that flu vaccines are always made and tested. Had this strain of flu emerged just a few months earlier, there would not have been any need for two vaccines this year; 2009 H1N1 would simply have been included as one of the components in the annual vaccine.
Meanwhile, the virus has now appeared in a hundred and ninety-one countries. It has killed almost four thousand people and infected millions of others. The risks are clear and so are the facts. But, while scientists and public-health officials have dealt effectively with the disease, they increasingly confront a different kind of contagion: the spurious alarms spread by those who would make us fear vaccines more than the illnesses they prevent.
I'm planning on getting the vaccine if I can and I'll make sure my kids get the vaccine. It is all about the risk vs. benefit for me. What are your plans and why?
We have other things to worry about now, obviously (MJ, anyone?), but, um, the H1N1 swine flu virus is still out there, and some scientists are still pretty concerned about it.
A new study seems to show that the 2009 A/H1N1 virus might be significantly more dangerous than we had previously thought. While regular ol' seasonal flu generally just infects cells in your upper respiratory tract, scientists have found that H1N1 can thrive deep in your lungs. That means that it's more likely to cause pneumonia. Similar characteristics in the infamous 1918 swine flu exacerbated the danger of that outbreak. So, you know, don't start sticking your fingers in other peoples' mouths and then rubbing them on your eyes again just yet.
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