Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pros and cons of H1N1 vaccine

Man, this is a tough call.


(Shamelessly stolen from The Daily Show.

6 comments:

  1. that is no help to me

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  2. This is the best pro/con list i have seen thus far! Seriously, if you qualify just get the shot, or mist. The more and more people keep getting this H1N1, the higer the chance of it mutating and becoming a real problem. WASH your hands, COVER your cough, and get the vaccine!

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  3. This post is stupid! You are all uneducated morons. Just because this vaccine is available, that does NOT mean you should get it. Do the research, read the material, talk to your doctor and make an educated decision. The shot is not a bad a idea. On the other hand, the MIST is a HORRIBLE idea. They are injecting the LIVE virus into you. You then carry that live virus for 3 weeks with the strong possiblity to passing it on to others until your body makes the anti bodies. So if you are around the elderly or anyone with a compromised immume system or a pregnant lady, you can actually give them H1N1 just because you had the MIST. Also no that if you get the shot (the safer of the 2 options) you are still not immune from getting H1N1. It takes 3 weeks for the antibodies to build up in your system for you to be able to fight it off. So there is no gurantee that either option will stop you from getting H1N1. If you really want the vaccine, get the shot. NOT THE MIST!!!!!!!Educate yourself!

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  4. Dah-HERP! Yes, thank you very much for shouting at me to "do the research" on vaccines. Like I am completely unaware of vaccine-related controversy. Uh huh. Get over yourself.

    "Also no that if you get the shot (the safer of the 2 options) you are still not immune from getting H1N1. It takes 3 weeks for the antibodies to build up in your system for you to be able to fight it off."

    Yes, this is true of all vaccines, Einstein. All of them increase your immunity to a greater or lesser degree. Some of them, e.g. MMR, confer a very high level of immunity, so your odds of contracting the virus after the vaccine regimen are very small. Others -- including most flu vaccines -- confer a more modest level of immunity.

    But that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to get the shot! If you wear your seatbelt, this does not mean you cannot be killed in a car accident -- it just reduces your odds. So are all you anti-vax agitators going to stop wearing your seatbelts too? (oh please please please please...)

    Here is some math that ought to be simple for an "educated" christian woman such as yourself: Let's say the vaccine really sucks and only reduces your odds of getting H1N1 by a mere 10%. (The vaccine is actually much more effective than this, but I'm using a low number to make my point). And let's say that, if there were no vaccine, we'd expect 60,000 people to die from it (a typical number of seasonal flu, even with vaccination). Vaccinating everybody would therefore save SIX THOUSAND LIVES. What are the costs? Well, since the number of people who have died or been permanently injured from the H1N1 vaccine is zero, this sounds like a pretty good trade to me. (Please don't cite Desiree Jennings before reading up on what's actually going on with her, okay? You know, "educate yourself!")

    To be perfectly frank, I don't know a lot about this mist. I assume most people are getting the shot. Non-injected vaccines tend to be a bit more dodgy, though I imagine the cost-benefit tradeoff still puts it firmly ahead of getting no inoculation at all...! (I would, indeed, have to "educate myself" on this were I planning on getting the mist -- however, in my experience, allegations I have encountered that you can pass on the disease as a result of vaccination have all turned out to be paranoid innuendo rather than a legitimate risk...)

    There are, of course, a small number of people who should avoid the vaccine for specific medical reasons. This is the exception rather than the rule, and as you say, these people can talk to their doctor to figure out what is best for them.

    How arrogant of you to assume nobody with a differing opinion from you knows anything about the topic. I wonder where you "educate[d] yourself" anyway... chain e-mails? whale.to? Church? :p

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  5. Oh and by the way, because the vaccine also prevents you from spreading the virus, my 10%/60,000/six thousand lives example in the previous comment is actually incorrect -- it would actually save many more lives than that, because of the second order effect of reducing transmission, especially to those who are unable to get the vaccine for the specific-but-unusual medical reasons I alluded to.

    But I'm sure that as a good Christian, you have no qualms about putting other people's lives at risk because of your inane superstitious beliefs.

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  6. I did a quick check, and you are correct that the mist is not without its risks -- which is why the recommendations for who should receive it are different from the shot.

    There is no conspiracy here, which is the idea being ridiculed by The Daily Show. The medical community is 100% up front about the risks associated with the mist and policies are being calibrated accordingly.

    If your argument is that people shouldn't go out and get random medical treatments without listening to the advice of doctors.. well, yes, obviously I agree with you. Did my original post contradict that???

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