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Damage control is the name of the game in Berlin on Monday as politicians rush to deny that they are receiving a better, safer swine flu vaccine than ordinary Germans. The first of 50 million doses arrived in Germany on Monday. But with news breaking over the weekend that top government officials in Berlin will be injected with an alternative vaccine -- one widely seen as safer -- a debate about an alleged two-class medical system has erupted. The controversy centers on an additive included in the vaccine manufactured by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The additive includes an inactive strain of...

Just a week after it emerged that the German armed forces was getting a different kind of A/H1N1 vaccine to the general population, Der Spiegel magazine reports that the government will also get special treatment. The general population will be offered the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, called Pandemrix, which contains a new booster element, or adjuvant, as well as a preservative containing mercury. Controversy has grown around the rapid licensing of the GSK vaccine – and a similar one being made by Novartis. Critics said not enough testing had been conducted before European licensing authorities rushed an approval. Chancellor Angela Merkel, her...

Health officials on Friday predicted a shortfall in the supply of swine flu vaccine, as the numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths grow to levels unprecedented for this time of year. Flu caused by the H1N1 virus is now widespread in 41 states, and flulike illnesses account for 6.1 percent of all doctor visits. “That’s high for any time, particularly for October,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forty-three children have died from swine flu since Aug. 30 — about the same number...

Vaccination is central to the government’s plan for preventing deaths from swine flu. The CDC has recommended that some 159 million adults and children receive either a swine flu shot or a dose of MedImmune’s nasal vaccine this year. Shots are offered in doctors’ offices, hospitals, airports, pharmacies, schools, polling places, shopping malls, and big-box stores like Wal-Mart. In August, New York state required all health-care workers to get both seasonal and swine flu shots. To further protect the populace, the federal government has spent upwards of $3billion stockpiling millions of doses of antiviral drugs like Tamiflu—which are being used...

Swine flu is causing unprecedented illness for so early in the fall — including a worrisome count of child deaths — and the government warned Friday that vaccine supplies will be even more scarce than expected through this month.

The World Health Organization estimates that a worldwide production capacity of 3 billion doses of pandemic H1N1 vaccines will be used to prevent the outbreak and spread of the 2009 H1N1 flu, or "swine flu," as it is better known. This ambitious plan for widespread vaccine use, albeit inadequate for a total population of 6.8 billion people, has drawn criticism regarding the vaccine's safety, and the use and potential use of vaccine adjuvants. In the alternative health community, chiropractor Ginger Mills, DC, of Redwood City, is concerned that adjuvants, especially squalene, will be added to vaccines used in the U.S.,...

Some Say Getting Immunized Is a Matter of Social Responsibility. Does Americans' right to determine what is best for themselves and their families trump the federal government's efforts to head off what it believes could be a flu pandemic? That is perhaps the primary ethical question at the heart of the controversy surrounding the government's swine flu vaccination campaign, and the answer is deeply contested by those on both sides of the issue. So far, many Americans are balking at the vaccinations, saying there are too many questions about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, considering that, for most,...

Hospitals Begin Giving Kids FluMist Nasal Spray For H1N1 The first doses of H1N1 flu vaccine were given to children today, a day after health care workers began getting doses in what is likely to be the largest flu vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Dr. Richard Besser explains which states have doses of the H1N1 vaccine. These early doses of swine flu vaccine -- all so far given as the nasal spray FluMist -- are being administered at hospitals in Chicago, Georgia and Nebraska, among other places. Doctors, nurses and other health professionals were targeted first so they could safely...

<>A national survey suggests parents are confused about the risks of the virus and its vaccine. Germ-spreading schoolchildren are expected to be the focus of a massive U.S. vaccination campaign against the novel H1N1 flu. But if their parents are hearing the rallying cry to have their kids vaccinated, they're not buying it, says a new national survey. In a poll of 1,678 U.S. parents conducted by the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, 40% said they would get their children immunized against the H1N1 virus -- even as 54% indicated they will get their kids vaccinated against regular...

America's first family will get vaccinated against swine flu when they are advised to, President Barack Obama said in a television interview broadcast Sunday. "We want to get vaccinated. We think it's the right thing to do. We will stand in line like everybody else and when folks say it's our turn, that's when we'll get it," Obama told CNN's "State of the Union." With the northern hemisphere entering its autumn flu season and infection rates again beginning to spike, many Americans are waiting for the first deliveries of (A)H1N1 vaccines, expected to come in the first weeks of October....

Seniors who for years have made flu shots a fall ritual are being sent to the end of the line for the swine flu vaccine. --snip--Federal guidelines call for the new H1N1 vaccine to be given first to pregnant women, those who live with or care for children 6 months or younger, health care workers, people aged 6 months through 24, and people with chronic health problems or compromised immune systems. Those groups total about 159 million people. Only after shots are offered to those groups will the vaccine be available to healthy adults 64 and younger. After that, if...

(AP) Health officials say the first doses of swine flu vaccine will be the nasal spray version. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that about 3.4 million doses of nasal spray vaccine will be available the first week of October. The government expects 195 million doses will be shipped out by the end of the year, most of them shots. The nasal spray is approved for ages 2 to 49. It's not recommended for some of the people at most risk from severe swine flu complications. That includes pregnant women, children younger than 2, and people with...

The swine flu vaccine appears to work for adults with just one shot and within 10 days, a major boost to the widespread immunization campaign that officials are planning to protect people against the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, researchers reported. Preliminary data from an Australian study found that a single standard dose could produce an immune response in more than 96 percent of recipients, and U.S. studies indicate that the protection occurs within eight to 10 days, scientists reported. The vaccine also appeared safe. The eagerly awaited findings mark the first results from a flurry of studies that...

New Jersey will guarantee free swine flu vaccines to the state's 1.3 million uninsured residents and will try to remove all "financial barriers" for anyone else who wants the shot, Gov. Jon S. Corzine and other officials said Thursday. The announcement comes as the state prepares for the start of school and an expected spike in swine flu cases in the coming months. "We're going to be making the H1N1 vaccine — if it's proven to be safe and effective — available to anyone who wants it," state Health Commissioner Heather Howard said. "We will be eliminating financial barriers." Shots...

"I do want everyone to be prepared," Obama said President Barack Obama said the swine flu vaccine is voluntary but the government will "strongly recommend" that citizens get it. "I don't want anybody to be alarmed, but I do want everyone to be prepared," Obama said. Obama spoke after he was briefed on the nation's preparation for swine flu by officials that included Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. A vaccine is currently being developed and will likely be available by October. A new report from the White House sho

As flu season approaches, West Virginia's largest hospital has given its employees a choice: Get a flu shot, or get another job . . . A mandatory flu shot policy like CAMC's is rare for U.S. hospitals, but it may soon become more common. A New York State law that takes effect this month requires hospitals to provide records showing all their workers have seasonal flu vaccinations or face fines, and

Swine Flu Vaccine: Will It Catch On? Some Health Care Workers and the Public May Refuse the New Flu Vaccine for Fear of Possible Side Effects, Study Shows Aug. 25, 2009 -- Less than half of health care workers surveyed in Hong Kong intend to get vaccinated against swine flu, citing uncertainty about its effectiveness and possible side effects, a new study indicates.And another new study shows that health care workers and some people in the general public may refuse to get immunized or vaccinate their kids, fearing that risks of a novel vaccine could outweigh benefits.The Hong Kong study...

DON'T INJECT ME Very funny, and kind of scary at the same time ...

Armed with a $190 million order from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sanofi Pasteur could begin production of a swine flu vaccine at one of its two Swiftwater facilities as soon as next month. Announcing the news Monday, Sanofi noted the order was issued under an existing pandemic stockpile contract with the U.S. News comes just two weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a license for Sanofi's new, $150 million, 140,000-square-foot vaccine manufacturing plant at Swiftwater. That's where initial work would begin, while an existing plant at the complex continues work on seasonal flu...