mantra wrote on Oct 6
th, 2009 at 10:54am:
muso wrote on Oct 6
th, 2009 at 10:36am:
I'll have my usual flu vaccination in early March next year - just prior to the Flu season. That will most probably include H1N1. I've had flu vaccinations for the last 10 years or so, and have never contracted a serious flu since then. However there are no guarantees.
As far as Swine Flu goes, kids are most at risk:
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090903/swine-flu-deaths-in-kids Muso - there are probably more people who haven't had a flu vaccination and never had a serious flu than those who have had the vaccine.
Why would you give a healthy adult or child a flu vaccination?
Well flu vaccinations certainly work, if that's what you mean. On the other hand, ordering 21 million flu shots seems a bit overboard on the first blush.
Probably a good proportion of the population already has immunity. Over 60's for sure, and those who have already had Swine Flu, and that probably numbers a few million people.
It's all a question of risk. At my place of work, it's paid by the company. Previous to the vaccinations, we had epidemics where a large proportion of the workplace had it. In today's industry, the labour force has very little spare capacity. Of course, the vaccinations are not compulsary, but the take-up rate was about 70%.
Health professionals also get flu vaccinations, but that's on a compulsary basis.
Apart from that, if we get a more virulent form of Swine Flu, we might need that stockpile yet. Remember reading what happened with Spanish Flu? - two waves - The first was like a normal flu. The second infected 500 million people and killed about 5% of the global population or about 100 million people at the time.
The question is - does the risk of having the vaccine (About the same risk as dying from eating a hotdog) justify the risk of the death of a significant proportion of the population - or not?
What do you think?