H1N1 Paranoia

It seems like this can't be ignored anymore. I tried to avoid it so as to not beat the dead cat since it's been crazily publicized since April, but it's a topic this health blog can't ignore anymore: H1N1.


I initially thought H1N1's overly-publicized nature would mean there's nothing new to be added to the conversation. But there's actually a lot of misunderstanding concerning H1N1, especially its vaccine. This on the left by Jessica Hagy about sums it up.

Concerns about this vaccine has just become unwarranted paranoia. 47 percent of Americans say they would take it, and amazingly 47 percent say they wouldn't, according to Pew Research Center.

Where's this coming from??

For starters you've got people from Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan saying things like "the Earth can't take 6.5 billion people. We just can't feed that many. So what are you going to do? Kill as many as you can. We have to develop a science that kills them and makes it look as though they died from some disease" to Bill Maher twittering (Sept. 26) to his 60 thousand followers, "If u get a swine flu shot ur an idiot."

Then you've got the crazies at watchdog group VacTruth alleging that the entire thing is a government cover-up (with unsaid motivation), citing an unpublished study in Canada saying getting the seasonal flu vaccine doubles your chances of getting H1N1 flu. Of course the CDC refutes the study and there's also an Australian study which did not find such a link. Confusion about where the vaccine was developed is also pretty clear when "who developed H1N1 vaccine" pops up as a google search suggestion as you type it.

But there isnt' a whole lot of any evidence showing the H1N1 vaccine is any more dangerous than your usual flu vaccines, especially compared to evidence showing the contrary. The only thing I could find is skeptics repeatedly accusing the H1N1 vaccine for being "fast-tracked" and being made by shortcuts, without proof, sometimes saying the vaccine was developed by dubious manufacturers, again with absolutely no evidence for it.

On the other side, the CDC, WHO, FDA and manufacturers all say the vaccine has been developed no differently from usual seasonal vaccines. The only reason why there's a separate H1N1 vaccine is seasonality: it takes 6-9 months to create a flu vaccine and H1N1 came onto the scene obviously when no one predicted it. If it had emerged onto the scene a few months earlier, there would've just been one flu vaccine instead of the two we see now (here's a great H1N1 timeline which explains it nicely).

The vaccine manufacturers are also are usual manufacturers (Sanofi, Novartis, CSL, MedImmune, with a full list of all vaccines approved in the US here), and H1N1 vaccine ingredients are listed on the FDA website. And it's not like the government's using these big companies as a front for shadier manufacturers - they are really the ones making the stuff with auditors and financial statements showing profit windfalls (especially Sanofi and Novartis) for Big Pharma because of H1N1 vaccine production.


CBS even took a tour at the Sanofi plant (the only vaccine plant in the US) showing that these vaccines aren't just made in someone's backyard or some shady undeveloped country, if you go to the right place (ie steer clear of website scams and don't depend on what the FDA calls "fraudulent H1N1 products" like tea and vitamins to cure you or help much. Plus you know what I think about vitamins and flu) to get vaccinated. On top of that, there's a ton of monitoring to ensure the safety of vaccines.

As for the alleged "fast-tracking," Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, stressed back in September, "We want to do our job as quickly as possible. When we say that we fast-track things, it means that we streamline the bureaucratic process; there is no question that we would compromise on the quality and safety of vaccines.” And for those who think pandemic vaccines are more dangerous than seasonal vaccines because they're less tested and took shortcuts to develop, the only difference is actually just who pays for it - pandemic vaccines are paid for by the government, whereas conventional vaccines are paid for by ordinary health services.

If you're still wary, Ben Sherwood's got a great piece at HuffPo about unwarranted paranoia which definitely rings true:

"Yes, life is risky. Often, we choose to overlook scary facts every day and go about our lives. And even when there are simple, easy ways to minimize dangers, we frequently don't bother

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-sherwood/swine-flu-vaccine-why-you_b_344316.html&cp".

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Well, last year right after I got tonsillitis (not a pretty illness, got it in China and went to four different hospitals) I became VERY susceptible to the flu, getting it about three times in four months last spring. So let me tell you as a person very acquainted with the flu, you don't want to get it. Please do bother getting the vaccine, if not for yourself then for herd immunity. (Actually this herd immunity study found that people who were vaccinated were more likely to get measles, and it turned out to be because of herd immunity..which just might be the reason for the Canadian study?)