Posted on 10/31/2009 8:25:49 PM PDT by neverdem
THE emergence of the H1N1 swine flu has added urgency to what has become an annual ritual for millions of Americans: getting a flu shot. The good news is that scientists have developed a vaccine against the H1N1 virus. But it is taking much longer than expected to produce the hundreds of millions of doses the government had planned to distribute. And it is still too soon to know how effective the vaccine will be in preventing swine flu.
In all likelihood, we’d have a better H1N1 vaccine — and more of it — if in our preparations we had accounted for the biological differences between men and women.
Under the current guidelines, men and women are to get equal-sized doses of the H1N1 vaccine. Yet women’s bodies generate a stronger antibody response than men’s do, research shows, so less vaccine may be needed to immunize them. If we could give women a smaller dose, there would be more vaccine to go around. And we might also spare them the mild side effects that vaccines can cause, like pain at the injection site, inflammation and fever. All of these are more common in women than in men.
To be clear, it is essential that women get their flu shots, even if the current dose is more than they need. Pregnant women in particular should make sure they are protected, since those who get the swine flu are at least four times as likely as others with the virus to be hospitalized. (We don’t know whether pregnant women are more susceptible to the H1N1 virus, but it’s clear that once they are infected, they have a higher-than-average risk of complications.)
But ultimately we should do everything we can to vaccinate as many people as possible.
Many clinical studies have shown that...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
No letters to the editor yet, I guess I’ll have to look again. You can find some incredible guest OpEds from their contributors, so I check at least once a week.
My wife is coming down with something tonight and she is impossible to keep down and on the farm but there has been so much talk of preventing H1N1 and not spreading it that she may get the message and not go to Church in the morning...
Got mine >HAK< >KOFF< ....>sniffle<
Ping... (Thanks, neverdem!)
I hate to have to break this news to all of youse guys- but the flu shots are worthless. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1
Use 2000 IU (International Units) of vitamin D. Must be taken every day.
Will protect you from virus colds and influenza.
Thanks for the ping!
I actually know/work with one of the authors of that article, btw. It is a well-written piece.
I got my Government Issue H1N1 shot the other day, along with a card with the date given, manufactured, lot number, etc. The nurse told me to “keep it in your wallet at all times for the next year”.
Why would I need to keep the card with me? Will I need to provide proof of immunization at some point? If so, why?
It wouldn’t surprise me if the date of vaccination is very important. There was some contaminated Baxter vaccine in Europe...contaminated with H5N1 and it might have made it’s way onto the black market as there now are serious and severe cases in the Ukraine.
http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/02/questions_about_bird_flu_conta.php
I wouldn't say worthless, but it would be worth a couple of double blind, placebo controlled studies. Thanks for the link!
Good questions that could use some answers.
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