Who's getting the H1N1 shot?

[The Goon]

Anyone been going now that the clinics are wide open? I just walked over to the Stampede Grandstand at lunch and the whole thing was 25 minutes, with 15 of those being the mandatory wait afterwards. I can't believe how quickly it went.

Of course, now the government is tracking me with the agent in the fluid.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

It looks likes one of the batches of flu vaccine was re-called in Canada due to a higher than normal rate of adverse reactions.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/0..._us_flu_canada

Fortunately, the people recovered.. but it serves as an example of why it pays to be cautious. If they can't foresee the short term risks, then what do they know about the long term risks of a bad batch of vaccine?

Even with the higher rate of adverse reactions that batch was still safer than not getting vaccinated though; that's still only about a 1 in 30,000 rate of adverse reactions. In the big picture 6 people having an allergic reaction (from which they recover) isn't a huge number, particularly compared to the number of people getting really sick from the flu. The question is why there was a higher rate of allergic responses to this batch, which they'll hopefully resolve (perhaps it wasn't purified as much leaving more egg proteins in - but that's pure speculation on my part).

There's no reason to expect long term risks - allergic reactions are a short-term response, and there's nothing in the vaccine that will stay in your body long-term.

[Dion]

What a difference a couple of weeks make!

When the H1N1 vaccination clinics first opened in October, people lined up for hours to get their shots, and many left without ever receiving their vaccinations. To make matters worse, the clinics had to be closed after only a week, because the province was running low on vaccine.

Since that time, the clinics have only been administering the vaccination to carefully targeted groups.

Monday morning, the clinics re-opened to the general public, but very few people took advantage of the service. Line-ups have been minimal or non-existent, and many are telling 660News they made it in and out of the clinics within minutes.

http://www.660news.com/more.jsp?cont...23_151030_7448

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by The Goon

Anyone been going now that the clinics are wide open? I just walked over to the Stampede Grandstand at lunch and the whole thing was 25 minutes, with 15 of those being the mandatory wait afterwards. I can't believe how quickly it went.

Of course, now the government is tracking me with the agent in the fluid.

That's because the media has stopped whipping people into a panic.

[ClubFlames]

Got mine yesterday and it took 5 mins to get the shot and the mandatory 15 mins wait afterwards. The arm started hurting like a fata last night though but its getting better now.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Byrns

That's because the media has stopped whipping people into a panic.

People probably feel the worst of the flu season is over so why bother with the shot.

[The Goon]

I don't know - I heard again this morning how two more people in Alberta died from H1N1 complications.

There will be an uptick again once the weather turns awful.

[Dion]

CALGARY — It sounds as if her entire body is rattling each time she lets out another deep, raspy cough. But Jaclyn Bates is slowly on the mend.

Two weeks after being diagnosed with the H1N1 flu virus, and being rushed to intensive care with respiratory failure, the mother of two is now back at home with her family.

She still needs to master walking and doing such simple tasks as climbing stairs.

"I am 27 years old and I had to learn how to walk all over again," Bates said Wednesday. He case was so severe doctors put her in a medically induced coma for about a week earlier this month while her body fought off the swine flu virus.

"At first (hospital staff) gave me a walker and I was wobbly and felt like I didn't know what to do," she said. "My body just didn't have the energy to move."

After a bit of practice putting one foot in front of the other, Bates has realized that her road to recovery from this flu might be long, painful and frustrating.

"It's going to be another month or two until I'm 100 per cent, but I'm alive."

The debilitating symptoms and after affects of the swine flu are nothing Bates even considered prior to contracting it, she said.

Before, she wondered if the stories circulating in the media and reports from health authorities were overblown.

http://www.canada.com/health/Calgary...085/story.html

[Jonrox]

Originally Posted by Byrns

That's because the media has stopped whipping people into a panic.

And that's because enough people aren't dying from it. It was over-hyped and overblown, and when the body count didn't pile up like they said it would, it's no longer a story and it's just the flu.

[The Goon]

Originally Posted by Jonrox

And that's because enough people aren't dying from it. It was over-hyped and overblown, and when the body count didn't pile up like they said it would, it's no longer a story and it's just the flu.

It's possible that the hype caused people to change their behaviours (washing hands more, getting vaccinated) preventing massive numbers of deaths. Media hype saved our lives!

[Dion]

Originally Posted by The Goon

It's possible that the hype caused people to change their behaviours (washing hands more, getting vaccinated) preventing massive numbers of deaths. Media hype saved our lives!

That's how I tend to view it. It seems like every public place I go there's a hand sanitiser hanging on the wall for people to use. Making people aware about the preventative measures is a good thing.

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by Dion

That's how I tend to view it. It seems like every public place I go there's a hand sanitiser hanging on the wall for people to use. Making people aware about the preventative measures is a good thing.

How many people actually use that sanitizer? Plus, I think that by over using this sanitizer we're probably screwing ourselves by producing new super bugs. (flu and non-flu)

[BurningYears]

Originally Posted by Byrns

How many people actually use that sanitizer? Plus, I think that by over using this sanitizer we're probably screwing ourselves by producing new super bugs. (flu and non-flu)

i wonder how much more money purell and the other sanitizer companies have made off this? i just use the sanitizer before i eat otherwise i dont really care.

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Byrns

How many people actually use that sanitizer? Plus, I think that by over using this sanitizer we're probably screwing ourselves by producing new super bugs. (flu and non-flu)

I don't think using alcohol-based sanitizers (or hand-washing) would produce super-bugs - there isn't really anything for a virus to evolve resistance to. Using antibiotics (for bacterial infections) or anti-virals like Tamiflu for influenza is a whole different issue - those are the sort of things that cause resistant strains to become more common, and I don't think as a society we've always done a good job of balancing the benefits of these drugs vs. the potential to develop resistant strains. Antibacterial soaps could lead to resistant bacteria too I suspect (not influenza though, since it's a virus).

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

Even with the higher rate of adverse reactions that batch was still safer than not getting vaccinated though; that's still only about a 1 in 30,000 rate of adverse reactions. In the big picture 6 people having an allergic reaction (from which they recover) isn't a huge number, particularly compared to the number of people getting really sick from the flu. The question is why there was a higher rate of allergic responses to this batch, which they'll hopefully resolve (perhaps it wasn't purified as much leaving more egg proteins in - but that's pure speculation on my part).

There's no reason to expect long term risks - allergic reactions are a short-term response, and there's nothing in the vaccine that will stay in your body long-term.

This link says it's 1 in 10,000. And out of every 100 of those, 5 are serious such as deaths.

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/S...971/story.html

and 172,000 doses involved in the bad batch in Canada

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

This link says it's 1 in 10,000. And out of every 100 of those, 5 are serious such as deaths.

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/S...971/story.html

and 172,000 doses involved in the bad batch in Canada

The 1 in 10,000 is any reported adverse reaction, not necessarily serious. 5 in 100 of those being serious means a serious effect rate of 1 in 200,000 - about what you'd expect for a vaccine (those stats are for the vaccine in general also, not for the recalled batch). Note also that those are just people reporting a serious effect after getting the vaccine - it doesn't necessarily imply that the vaccine caused the effect; it could just be someone happened to have a heart attack the same day as they got the shot, which when you're issuing tens of millions of doses worldwide is going to happen (so far WHO's investigations haven't linked any reported deaths specifically to the vaccine).

[snake_in_grass]

I just got my shot done about a half hour ago and the entire process took about an hour in total. The seniors were still being pushy, but the younger people there seemed to not be in a panic about it all. and yes, the arm does hurt

[Devils'Advocate]

I did my public duty and got my shot on Sunday. Ottawa is giving people wristbands with numbers on them and telling people when to come back. When I arrived at 7:30 there were already 200 people ahead of me, so I was told to come back with my wristband at 10:30. At 10:30 I was almost immediately called into the vaccination room. Took about 30 minutes from entering the room to going to the 15 minute wait area.

And, yeah, it hurts for me to swim. But that happens with any flu shot. The seasonal flu shot I had last year made my arm swell and was almost rock hard. The pain didn't totally go away until about a month later.

I have had absolutely no side effects (other than the pain in the arm), but that may be because I may have already had H1N1 (as mentioned earlier in this thread).

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Jonrox

And that's because enough people aren't dying from it. It was over-hyped and overblown, and when the body count didn't pile up like they said it would, it's no longer a story and it's just the flu.

Yeah what a bust. I can't believe the media of all things, actually wasted my time and a large portion of the population didn't even die. I hope the media and the medical establishment understands that my time is more important than anything else. The next time a potential higher rate of fatal virus is spreading through the population I better not be bothered about it until I am dead.

[Byrns]

So any takers on what's next for the media to hype? 2012 doomsday? So far we've survived giant asteriods, mad cow, SARs, swine flu, Y2K...

Sooner or later people will stop be suckered... Oh wait, there's one born every minute. Nevermind.