The H1N1 vaccine--what's a person to do?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, pondering whether or not I'll get the vaccine for myself, whether or not I'll get it for Maia. It's been a source of consternation and frustration, in part due to the fact that I feel like getting actual information (rather than scare tactics) from the media has been difficult to do, to say the least. What a surprise.

We're not getting it for Maia. When I talk about the difficulty of making this decision, this aspect of it hasn't been hard. The chances that I'd "test" a new vaccine on my two-year-old (who's also never had the seasonal flu vaccine) are slim to none. I know that using the word "test" in that sentence is loaded, and I don't want to imply that I believe other parents are testing things on their kids willy-nilly. But this is what this year of H1N1 vaccinations feels like to me: a testing year. I know that controlled testing has been happening throughout August and September, but I guess in my gut (a gut reaction to science! Who am I, George W.?) I still feel like this first year is a big testing phase, albeit built upon some data from controlled trials. For me, the bar is set a bit higher because of the newness.

If Maia had had the seasonal vaccine before and had not reacted negatively to it, I'd perhaps feel differently about it for her. Maybe? I don't know.

Now on to me. Were it just me and my family unit, I'd probably skip it for myself, too. But here's where my belief in the common good comes into play. I work with pregnant women all the time. I am a day care provider. I attend toddler playgroups in closed spaces, and, last but obviously not least, I work in hospital settings which are filled with pregnant women. (And, to top that off, I've had the flu vaccine before and didn't have any side effects.) I feel that my obligations to my community outweigh the resistance I feel within myself, my tendency to be highly skeptical of the moments when the medical community and the national media join forces to hit the panic button.

(There are some days when I wish using scare tactics to coerce people into making decisions could be grounds for malpractice lawsuits. If that's not a violation of the contract of informed consent/refusal, I don't know what is. As in, "Yeah, we can talk about benefits and risks, but if you don't do X, your baby might DIE!!!!!")

So, yeah, that's where I am. I'll most likely be heading in to do it, whenever it becomes available, although Maia will most definitely not. We're a family of relatively resilient immune systems and good health--we get colds, sure, but with or without the vaccine, I don't think I've had the flu in ten years, and Maia's not had an illness worse than a mild case of croup. So, we'll sneeze into our collective elbows and wash our hands and stay away from the mall play area, and we'll ride this one out. Finally, I'll close with some information from Dr. Sears, who wrote a book for parents called The Vaccine Book. He advocates for childhood vaccinations in general, but on a delayed schedule (not as many vaccines stacked on top of each other at the same time). Here's what his website has to say about flu vaccine testing and some specific concerns for pregnant and nursing women:

What safety and efficacy testing has been done on these vaccines?

Here is where we are flying by the seat of our pants, so to speak. The product inserts make it VERY clear that the “swine” flu versions of these vaccines have NOT undergone any testing to demonstrate whether or not they are safe and whether or not they even work. They are relying on the fact that they are so similar to the regular flu shots that they should work just as well.

Although I don’t like that approach, I must admit that they may be right. I don’t see any reason to doubt that our immune systems won’t respond to this vaccine the same way they respond to regular flu shots. And I don’t expect that the side effects would be any different either. In The Vaccine Book, I give a lot of detail about flu vaccine ingredients and side effects that you should be aware of before getting this shot.


I’ve heard that the last swine flu vaccine caused a really bad reaction called GBS? What about THIS swine flu vaccine?

Every product insert for this new vaccine discusses this issue from 1976 in which the old swine flu vaccine caused a higher rate of GBS (weakness and paralysis reaction) than expected, so they stopped using it. That was a completely different strain of the swine flu than what we have today. Plus, that vaccine was made much differently than how they are made today. So, I see no correlation between the risk of GBS from that old vaccine and the current one.

Having said that, everyone needs to be aware that ANY flu vaccine poses a very small risk of a GBS reaction. Although I don’t think this new vaccine has an increased risk, what I DO worry about is that infants will be getting FOUR (count them, FOUR) flu vaccines this year – two doses of the regular one, and two doses of the swine flu vaccine. That’s unprecedented. We’ve never given anyone four doses of a flu vaccine in one year. There is no way to predict what the side effects might be.


What about pregnant and/or nursing mothers?

This is a little scary. The flu shots are ALREADY recommended for pregnant and nursing moms, BUT (and this is a really huge but) the vaccine product inserts make it very clear that the regular flu vaccines have never been tested on pregnant or nursing women to determine if there is any harm to fetuses or young babies (with one exception – the Flumist nasal spray brand did have some testing in this area, BUT not enough, as is stated in the product insert).

Despite this complete lack of research, it is recommended for these moms anyway. Anyone see a problem with that?

If you do get a flu shot, at least make sure it is mercury free (or at least only TRACE mercury).