Swine Flu Vaccine: Take It or Leave It

While the World Health Organization (WHO) is painting a dire image of the new influenza outbreak, there are voices that say the situation is not nearly as bad as official announcements would have it. Regardless of where the truth lies, the main question on everybody's lips now is whether they should be getting the new vaccine or not. There are scientists who urge you to do so, and there are those who argue that you should avoid the shot at all costs. Here are some of the viewpoints in this debate.

“Influenza vaccines are one of the most effective ways to protect people from contracting illness during influenza epidemics and pandemics. Other preventive and treatment measures include anti-viral and other drugs, social distancing and personal hygiene. These measures must be used both prior to development of a pandemic vaccine and following the availability of a vaccine, expected in limited supply at first,” a statement released on the WHO website says.

“Licensed vaccines, including influenza vaccines, are held to a very high standard of safety. Likewise, all possible precautions will be taken to ensure safety of new pandemic vaccines and results from clinical trials, currently ongoing or soon to be initiated, will be taken into consideration by the regulatory authorities in their decision to license pandemic vaccines,” another statement adds.

At this point, there are numerous controversies circulating the Internet as to whether the new shots are indeed effective in combating the swine flu (viral strain A-H1N1), or if they do more harm than good. Epidemiologists draw attention to the fact that getting a vaccine will not necessarily protect you from the effects of the virus. Antibodies are, indeed, produced, but, if the viral strain mutates before entering your body (and it does so very often), then those antibodies are rendered completely useless.

The media is also pushing forth the notion that the new vaccines are “safe.” However, this is debatable, critics say, because the drugs have not been subjected to extended testing, such as other types of medicine are before they are allowed for public use. The chemicals that go in the shots are obtained from engineered viruses, which carry small amounts of the new viral strain. When the immune system is exposed to it, it develops antibodies that render it resistant to its effects later on. The long-term effects of the new vaccines are, however, not known yet.

There are, of course, those who say that the vaccines are straight-out bad for you. Patricia Doyle, PhD, highlights the unusually negative side-effects of the vaccines administered during the 1976 swine-flu epidemic, when those who were given specific medication developed a neurological disorder called the Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). “Following the 1976 program of vaccination against swine influenza in the US, a retrospective study found a possible eight-fold increase in the incidence of GBS,” Dr. Rustam Al-Shahi Salman and Professor Patrick Chinnery, both from the Association of British Neurologists, say of the new vaccine.

There are voices that point out that the new vaccine has also never been tested on expectant mothers and on children, which are two of the groups that are primarily to be vaccinated against the new strain. The effects of the vaccines on these people are unknown, and the weird thing is that governments and pharmaceutical companies are not showing the risks of the therapy, just the benefits. They continuously peddle the fact that the new vaccine was finished in only a few months, but did the speed of the manufacturing process sacrifice quality?