David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Why Are We Afraid of the New Flu Vaccine?
By Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times
October 7, 2009
Recently, a mother I know told me that her doctor has urged her to get the new H1N1 flu shot for her two children, who both have asthma. She already gives her children the regular seasonal flu shot, but for reasons she can’t really explain, she’s nervous about the new flu vaccine.
She’s not alone. Talk shows and Internet sites are abuzz with questions and fears about getting vaccinated against the novel H1N1 virus, often called swine flu. The popular Web site Mercola.com is urging parents not to get the flu vaccine, and the talk show host Bill Maher[1] posted a warning about the new flu shot to his more than 50,000 followers on Twitter. A University of Michigan poll found that 60 percent of parents surveyed do not plan to vaccinate their children against H1N1.
Now, as the first doses become available, government officials are trying to combat myths and fears about the novel H1N1 flu and the vaccine that can prevent it, Donald G. McNeil Jr. of The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Much of the fear stems from a vaccine debacle more than 30 years ago. In 1976, a swine flu vaccine was associated with Guillain-Barr? syndrome (pronounced ghee-YAN bah-RAY), in which the body damages its own nerve cells, causing weakness and sometimes paralysis. The reasons are unclear. Some studies found no link. Another study suggested that one person in every one million vaccinated for seasonal flu might be at risk for Guillain-Barr?.
But the problems in 1976 have nothing to do with the current vaccine, which is produced in the same fashion as the regular flu vaccine. An article in this week’s New Yorker by Michael Specter summed it up well. In it, Mr. Specter writes:
Though this H1N1 virus is novel, the vaccine is not. It was made and tested in exactly the same way that flu vaccines are always made and tested. Had this strain of flu emerged just a few months earlier, there would not have been any need for two vaccines this year; 2009 H1N1 would simply have been included as one of the components in the annual vaccine.
Meanwhile, the virus has now appeared in a hundred and ninety-one countries. It has killed almost four thousand people and infected millions of others. The risks are clear and so are the facts. But, while scientists and public-health officials have dealt effectively with the disease, they increasingly confront a different kind of contagion: the spurious alarms spread by those who would make us fear vaccines more than the illnesses they prevent.
[1] Supplementary question (DJB): Why on earth would anyone turn to ill-informed "entertainers" like this person for their medical and health information?
By Tara Parker-Pope, New York Times
October 7, 2009
Recently, a mother I know told me that her doctor has urged her to get the new H1N1 flu shot for her two children, who both have asthma. She already gives her children the regular seasonal flu shot, but for reasons she can’t really explain, she’s nervous about the new flu vaccine.
She’s not alone. Talk shows and Internet sites are abuzz with questions and fears about getting vaccinated against the novel H1N1 virus, often called swine flu. The popular Web site Mercola.com is urging parents not to get the flu vaccine, and the talk show host Bill Maher[1] posted a warning about the new flu shot to his more than 50,000 followers on Twitter. A University of Michigan poll found that 60 percent of parents surveyed do not plan to vaccinate their children against H1N1.
Now, as the first doses become available, government officials are trying to combat myths and fears about the novel H1N1 flu and the vaccine that can prevent it, Donald G. McNeil Jr. of The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Much of the fear stems from a vaccine debacle more than 30 years ago. In 1976, a swine flu vaccine was associated with Guillain-Barr? syndrome (pronounced ghee-YAN bah-RAY), in which the body damages its own nerve cells, causing weakness and sometimes paralysis. The reasons are unclear. Some studies found no link. Another study suggested that one person in every one million vaccinated for seasonal flu might be at risk for Guillain-Barr?.
But the problems in 1976 have nothing to do with the current vaccine, which is produced in the same fashion as the regular flu vaccine. An article in this week’s New Yorker by Michael Specter summed it up well. In it, Mr. Specter writes:
Though this H1N1 virus is novel, the vaccine is not. It was made and tested in exactly the same way that flu vaccines are always made and tested. Had this strain of flu emerged just a few months earlier, there would not have been any need for two vaccines this year; 2009 H1N1 would simply have been included as one of the components in the annual vaccine.
Meanwhile, the virus has now appeared in a hundred and ninety-one countries. It has killed almost four thousand people and infected millions of others. The risks are clear and so are the facts. But, while scientists and public-health officials have dealt effectively with the disease, they increasingly confront a different kind of contagion: the spurious alarms spread by those who would make us fear vaccines more than the illnesses they prevent.
[1] Supplementary question (DJB): Why on earth would anyone turn to ill-informed "entertainers" like this person for their medical and health information?
