But I will not be getting either the H1N1 jab, or the regular flu shot. I will continue with my usual preventive measures: frequent hand washing, extra Vitamin C, hand sanitizer and — number one — I will stay home if I feel sick.
I have no problem with other vaccines. I had all my regular immunizations as a child, and I kept up my schedule of necessary vaccinations into adulthood (I even carry my immunization card in my purse). The only vaccine(s) I take issue with are the flu vaccines. You can call me selfish if you want, but shouldn’t I have the same rights as the abortion-promoting feminazzis who shout “my body, my choice”?
I don’t want to fear-monger about flu vaccines or the flu, but there are valid reasons to question the safety and efficacy of these medications.
Read: Good enough for the Gammas
Health Canada has authorized the H1N1 vaccine including an adjuvant, or booster, based on a German trial involving 130 adults.
Ah, German medical research…feel safe now?
Because what I want to know is if Canada’s Health Minister will get the same flu jab as the rest of us or, as in Germany, whether Canada’s people will get one vaccination and Canada’s Establishment will get another.
Another question I have, that perhaps a doctor can answer, is why infants less than 6 months old cannot get the flu shot; yet, it’s recommended that pregnant women should be vaccinated. If the flu vaccine is potentially harmful to the recently born, why wouldn’t it be harmful to the child in the womb?
Finally, if you have a weakened immune system or underlying medical condition, then perhaps you should seriously consider the vaccine. And parents can decide what’s best for their children. I’m going to do what I want with my body. If that makes me selfish, so be it.
NOTE: If you have kids, or look after kids and/or an elderly relative, then perhaps for their sake you should consider it.
But follow the links above people: Why, in Germany, is the general public getting a different vaccine than those in the government? I’d really like to know if that situation exists in Canada.
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I agree that the flu shots should be optional.
I starting getting the flu shot after I had pneumonia and while I was my mother’s main helper during her three years of cancer (and cancer treatments). At some point along the way, the government started recommending the shots for everyone as a public health measure.
I’ll get the “special” shot this year, too, and hope to God nothing goes wrong.
I agree that people who are caring for others — especially others who’s immune systems may be compromised (like with cancer) — should get the flu shot.
It should be a choice. Everyone must weigh the pros and cons of it. I look at it as it has killed people. Healthy young people. That is telling me it is a nasty one. I don’t think you can stop virus from mutating. They are powerful bitches. I do believe viruses to be mother earth’s population control mechanism. It is our duty as humans to fight mother earth, control her. It is called evolution. If there is a medicine, a medical procedure out there that can beat the bitch into the ground, I will be signing up for it. If it were leprosy, everyone would be getting the shot. It is still a choice, and they now sell coffins at Walmart, rollback prices. Everyone should be prepared to live with their choice.
Absolutely — and I am prepared to live with my choice. If I’ve made the wrong one, well, so be it. It’s still my choice.
I know someone — my age — who is a permanent resident at Parkwood thanks to getting the flu shot (the regular one). He was only 40, in great health, when he decided (based on all the hype) that he should get a flu shot. Three days after receiving the vaccine, he was found on the floor of his apartment unconscious; today he’s permanently paralyzed and has great difficulty even speaking — Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Yes, I know, GBS is extremely rare. But I’d rather be dead than be one of those rare cases.
My only beef with is with someone who tells me that I should get the flu shot because I’m putting others at risk. That’s nonsense — if you get the flu shot, then you’re protected from the flu, so I can’t possibly be a danger to you. And if someone’s health is so fragile that they can’t get the flu shot, then they shouldn’t even be going out in public.
Wow — Walmart sells coffins? That’s good to know.
The decision to get it , was not easy for me. I like you have a distrust of pharmaceutical big business, and big government . I have been jumping up and down, demanding my boys get it. I am a mother, and there is no such thing as choice for children to a mother. No matter how old the child is. I can’t very well guilt them and make them get it, and me not get it.
… In the beginning, the pharmaceutical companies knew that the vaccines would cause the virus to mutate into more dangerous strains. They knew that this would create the demand for more of their products.
… They knew that they had the doctors, media, and government in their pocket, and that mandatory vaccination would be inevitable.
I guess I worry that all that sounds like a conspiracy theory, and I’ve never thought much of those. Still, Big Pharma does stand to make oodles of money off this “pandemic” don’t they?
I can’t see mandatory vaccination working. Are they going to round us up and strap us down to vaccinate us? They’ll have to, because I wouldn’t submit willingly even if I was told it’s mandatory. Let them quarantine me, but I won’t take the flu shot.
And, if I get the flu and die…well, you can all use me as an example for the wrong choice. But, as an adult, I should still be able to choose, IMO.
Sorry, but I was out much of the day and unable to moderate comments until now. Moderation can be a drag, but I had to revert back to it when some creep spammed me with several disturbing and ugly messages.
Sorry it showed up after 2 page refreshes as waiting moderation…I get it, I’m an impatient putz It’s obvious to me now
Is there some reason my comment was removed?
As a pharmacist and certified immunizer south of the border, here’s the story: pregnant women need to be immunized for the swine flu ahead of others because they make up a disproportionate number of the fatalities. For some unknown reason a certain proportion of pregnant women get far sicker from the swine flu than from the usual season flu.
The reason why children under 6 months should not be immunized against the flu is that their immune system does not sufficiently respond to the vaccine. They may, of course, be immunized against other diseases, but the flu vaccine is simply not effective for babies that young. Babies do have some of their mother’s antibodies for a few months, so hopefully that will protect them.
Thanks for the info, Bill. I’m wondering if the reason pregnant women get far sicker from swine flu simply has to do with the fact that being pregnant in itself can be somewhat of a strain on a woman’s health. Add the swine flu, which she probably has no natural immunity to (I believe those born before 1957 may have some natural immunity to it) — and that makes it more dangerous.
However, I’m under the impression that pregnant women are to get the vaccine without the adjuvant, or perhaps in Canada here it’s all the same — not sure.
I was concerned about the health of the fetus receiving the vaccine through the immunization of the mother. But, if the mother doesn’t get the vaccine and gets the swine flu and dies…well, so goes the fetus. If I were pregnant, I would most likely get the vaccine.
Aside from the fact there is ample peer study that proves mass vaccination programs for a multitude of new, highly mutant virus strains to be either ineffective if not hazardous to your long term health, I do not intend to patronize Big Pharma and their paid quacks in the WHO and other public health parasites who aid in hawking costly, redundant public drugging programs with hysteria, junk science and disinformation.
BTW: the WHO has had this H1N1 scare at a level 6 pandemic which essentially empowers the WHO counterpart agencies in UN signatory nations to implement a form of medical emergency martial law regime. Under this pandemic level the charter is suspended and the authorities can demand forced inoculation, round ups and interments, limit free mobility and jail the non compliant. Our government has wisely decided not to implement level 6 authority but they can if they wish.
Something to think about: after all the wailing and gnashing of teeth the pro abortion Fembos did to get the state to respect the fact a woman owns her own body, not the state, there is dead silence when we see the state buy into a transnational medical martial law regime which allows for forced medical procedures upon a person who does not consent – essentially the state claims sovereignty or ownership of your body to force their injection program compliance on you. Would we expect less from UN soviets or UN sycophant eugenicists?
Regardless how virulent the pandemic, we have a right to refuse medical procedures we do not trust or want. They may reasonably ask you to voluntarily quarantine yourself if you become infected but this idea of punishing non compliance or forcing compliance to mandatory medical procedures is a concept directly from the pages of Hitler’s eugenics handbook.
The creepy way this flu was hyped and the shots are pimped, gives me a foreboding feeling about future so-called ‘emergency’ control planning.
I don’t like the sound of forced immunization. Now, a voluntary quarantine does seem reasonable, like you said.
In my case, there’s just me and hubby. No kids in my care, nor any elderly relatives either. So, I won’t get either the regular or the swine flu shot. But I do promise to stay home if sick, and all the rest of it.
We are all getting the same shot. We have quite a lot of experience with these vaccines. I respect your decisions, but I still urge everyone to get flu shots. You are right most drugs we use on children are only studied in adults. That’s mostly a numbers game. I got the shot yesterday. I am getting the same shot that the Minister is getting. I am still here. Since universal access to flu shots in Ontario have had good effects.
Dr. Roy, how do you know for certain we’re all getting the same shot? In Germany, it just happened to be leaked to the press that there’s a different vaccine going to the general population than what the government/military is getting. I find that disturbing. And I didn’t find their explanation very satisfactory.
Why can’t we get the vaccine without the adjuvant? The one without has fewer side effects. At the very least, I hope pregnant women are given that one.
I’m going to have to pass on the vaccine and take my chances. I just don’t have confidence in it. If I had children or elderly people in my care, I’d likely rethink things.
I too was curious about the 6 month age limit. I have a 6mo + 11d daughter as of today and the health authorities say that I should definately get the shot for her. Had I asked 12 days ago I would have been told under no circumstances that she would be able to get it. What does a few days matter?
I couldn’t find any useful information online about what’s so special about this magical 6 month limit. I asked a pharmacist and this is what she said:
Until a kid is about 6 months old their kidneys and liver do not filter medicine out properly. Drugs don’t get into the bloodstream until these organs do their magic, and if not filtered properly, the medication just sits there and can be difficult to clear. She didn’t point out any particular health problems to come from this, just that the treatment would be inneffective.
The other reason is something to do with medications having to be specificaly tested and approved for children of that age, and most drug companies don’t bother unless it is specifically intended for infants. No tests, no approval. Better safe than sorry approach.
Both reasons seem acceptable to me. I won’t be getting her immunized as she’s not around enough people to be at a very great risk. I’m not thrilled about getting it myself, as I don’t get regular flu shots but my wife is more worried. Sometimes you just have to compromise to keep the peace. I figure my body can handle both the shot or the flu, come what may.
Okay, but why the push for pregnant women? The baby in the womb is exposed to whatever substances the mother is — and that includes the medicine in the flu vaccine.
But, it should still be a choice. And if you have kids, or care for kids and/or an elderly relative, then you may choose to have the vaccine for their sake especially. Since none of those situations apply to me, I won’t bother. And I won’t be shaking hands with people — just the “fist bump” will do.
I could be wrong, but I do remember from when I was breast feeding reading about it bolstering the baby’s immune system. I think they get antibodies from the placenta that keeps them immune to stuff for a certain period of time after they are hatched. That placenta stuff is powerful protection. When the neighbour got the yellow fever, she was pregnant. They thought for sure that was the end of it for the baby. The baby was born by c-section, and healthy as a horse. They got her placenta in a bottle in some lab, it turned to stone, they had to saw it open to get the baby out.
Pregnant women because their organs are already performing the functions for the fetus so it’s not a problem (besides which I think the point is to prevent the mother from getting ill. I’m not even sure of the vaccine would cross the placenta? Maybe someone with an MD could pitch in?
I remember as a kid being so jealous when they quarantined certain houses in the area because of the yellow fever. We didn’t get guarantied, so no big boxes of groceries or people dropping off pies and cakes on our doorstep. I remember going to my girlfriends bedroom window, who had it and asking her to spit on my hand and rubbing it on my face. She didn’t have to go to school, and I envied her.
I am getting it, not for me, but for the little people in my life. I have never gotten a flu shot, because I just don’t get sick. I haven’t been to a doctor in ten years or so. Lucky I guess. I think I built up an immunity to stuff, because of being around snot-nose children for a good part of my life, and I never have time to get sick. I was going to fake sick one time to get time off work. I wanted to lay on the couch and have someone bring me the pail, ice water and chicken soup, but I knew I couldn’t lay on the couch for more than an hour. My gut tells me to get the shot. I follow my gut when I am iffy on something. My gut never fails me.
Actually, I think that’s a good reason — to protect the kids. Since I don’t have kids and don’t work with kids, I won’t bother. I’m one of those healthy types too.
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