There is quite a controversy these days and many heated opinions as to whether or not to receive the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination. Should you get it? What factors should you consider before making the decision? The purpose of this article is to weigh the pros, cons and options you have.
The Pros of the Vaccine:
The pros of the vaccine are not hard to find. We see them every day in all forms of media. The H1N1 Swine Flu is contagious, and the government wants to avoid an epidemic. As of November 13, 2009 there have been approximately 6,200 deaths due to the illness worldwide.
The Cons of the Vaccine:
With all the promotion of the vaccine, the cons of it are a bit more difficult to find. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the assumed risk for a serious reaction to the vaccine is approximately one to ten people per million vaccinated. In the 1976 Swine Flu vaccination, approximately 48 million Americans were given the vaccine. Of those 48 million, 532 developed Guillain Barré syndrome. That means roughly one out of every 90,226 people was infected with a serious life threatening disease. Twenty five of those people died as result; many others experienced symptoms that affected them for the rest of their lives. The assumed risk of the CDC of one to ten people per million suffering from a serious reaction to the vaccine means that as many as one in every hundred thousand people vaccinated could experience a side effect such as Guillain Barré syndrome.
Now let’s take a look at the reliability of the vaccine:
The H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine, like all other vaccines, is required to adhere to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines. These guidelines state that for a vaccine to be acceptable to administer to the public, it must create antibodies in four out of ten people who receive it. The guidelines also state that out of those four people, seventy percent of them need to achieve antibody levels high enough that they believe they will be effective. When you put those statistics together, it means that in order for a vaccine to be approved, it only needs to be twenty eight percent effective.
What are the odds of dying from the H1N1 Swine Flu?
The odds of dying from the Swine Flu are almost impossible to calculate. Most likely the closest statistics we can compare it to are the yearly influenza statistics. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 250,000 500,000 people die each year as a result of influenza. When you compare these statistics to the 6,200 Swine Flu H1N1 deaths as of November 13th, 2009 according to WHO, the risks are very minimal. Even if those numbers quadruple before the end of the year, an average person would still be ten times more likely to die from the yearly influenza than the H1N1 Swine flu.
Disclaimer:
I am not a medical physician. I do not have any degrees in medical studies. I am not providing any type of medical advice. I am merely compiling and writing about statistics for you to consider.
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