Swine flu.

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/3y3ajsy

/// Last year, of the 14million patients who were advised to have the swine flu jab, only around five million took up the offer.///.

This year’s flu jab will protect against three types of flu including H1N1 or swine flu. so patients who want to take up the flu jab offer will be given no choice, but to have the swine flu one also.

Is this ethical, or should patients be given a choice?

[naomi24]

My friend had that. Very nasty.

[Ankou]

aog, that link between swine flu and gbs goes back to some trials carried out in the us in 1976. i would hazard the vaccine has progressed somewhat since then.

[razza]

Of course one has a choice,its not compulsory,and as for the SGB my brian is ko os tehre

[Jemisa]

Funnily enough just this morning I had a letter from SEE Primary Care Trust to attend my doctors surgery to get my free flu jab. Between Oct - Jan,
It goes on to say - Some people believe that having a flu jab can give them flu.Please be reassured that the vaccine does not contain any live virusso it cannot give you flu.

jem

[Sqad]

The package insert for the Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine manufactured by Novartis has been leaked on the Internet. According to that package insert, the vaccine (based on an earlier vaccine product known as Fluvirin) is known to cause a whole host of very nasty side effects such as guillain-barre syndrome, vasculitis, anaphylactic shock and even death.

This is second hand information and I cannot very it.

[Sqad]

sorry..."verify"

[Ankou]

from another doctor....

"There are two versions of the vaccine — one manufactured by GSK (Pandemrix) and one by Baxter (Celvapan) — but only the GSK version is currently available. It uses the same technology as previous flu vaccines and has undergone similar tests to show that it is safe and effective. As such, we wouldn’t expect it to be significantly different from previous flu jabs."

[anotheoldgit]

Jemisa

I would be interested to know if it also told you that this year the jab was an 'all in one'?

[Jemisa]

Oldgit - I've just gone over the letter again and no there's no mention of the Swine flu vaccine. But it does say "If you have any questions about the flu jab please phone"
& they give a No/ - I phoned out of curiousity, I was told YES this year it DOES contain the swine flu vaccine.
Persomally I will have the jab as normal next week.

jem

[anotheoldgit]

Jemisa

Jolly good, both my wife and myself will also.

[LazyGun]

Using the hysteria over the MMR vaccine as some sort of indication that vaccines are somehow dangerour is absurd. The original work purporting to show some sort of link between autism and MMR has been thoroughly and utterly discredited, and its Author struck off.

the swine flu vaccine was as safe as any other seasonal flu vaccine - for the very good reason that it used exactly the same components. Epidemiological studies and meta- analysis of adverse reports from around the globe prove that fact.

I am surprised that Sqad is making such a meal of what are well known, well documented admittedly tragic but above all exceedingly rare side effects of vaccination. I am also very surprised at the comments implying that Novartis were attempting to hide their pack inserts - they are freely available for download from Novartis themselves, from the CDC, from the FDA, from the HPA and places like the world renowned Johns Hopkins medical institution. Sqad, point to the ingredients that cause Guillame Barre or death that is present in the Novartis vaccine but is not present in other vaccines - Point out how many deaths or cases of Guillame Barre that have occured globally that are directly attributable to a vaccination. - or perhaps reflect again on Paracelcus' most famous public pronouncement?

[askyourgran]

Sqad has a good point there, the swine flu had to be contained quickly and not enough time could be given to test the vaccine for long term reaction. Even then the vaccine was in short supply for a while.

[LazyGun]

AskYourGran - Despite what you might think,and what you might have read in the media, the swine flu vaccine for last year had eactly the same level of safety testing that every yearly seasonal flu vaccine has.

The only difference, in fact, between the swine flu vaccine and the seasonal flu vaccines released every year was the particular strain of virus - All the other ingredients, such as stabilizers, excipients etc - were exactly the same, and had long term safety data from millions of vaccinations over decades.

[Twenty20]

The lack of take up of the swine flu vaccine last year was mainly because people soon realised that the flu virus was nowhere near as dangerous as was first thought - or what the government led us to believe. The government ordered vast quantities of the vaccine - far more even than the total population of the UK, and was trying to get its money back when the hysteria died down. They now need to get rid of all the vaccine they bought, hence it being given with the seasonal flu vaccine.