2009-10-03
No Serious Swine Flu Vaccine Side Effects
The H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine has begun finding its way into the blood streams of people around the world and, not surprisingly, there have only been a handful of minor side effects reported. Muscle cramps and/or headaches have been reported in four Chinese recipients of the vaccine out of the 39,000 who had been given it. Fears that the vaccine recipient's brain would melt shortly after injection have been proven wrong.
Not surprisingly, I was right and the fringe anti-vaccine/pro-plague conspiracy right were wrong.
As I've said before, there are possible but rare side effects with any vaccine or medical procedure. I once had a nurse stick me with an IV in my arm, miss the vein, and leave me taking a nap for a few minutes. Let's just say the result would have been comical if it happened to anybody else. Nothing is 100% safe, 100% accurate. So one out of every 10,000 recipients of the vaccine are going to have minor side effects. As more and more people get the vaccine, there might even be 1 out of every 100,000 that have something more serious go wrong.
But if you belong to a demographic of the population that is at an increased risk of contracting the virus, you're better off taking that one in a million risk and protecting yourself from a disease and, in the process, help stop the spreading of that disease. I know there are those of you out there that will cringe at the proposal of doing something that might help other people (God forbid), but the vaccine is really the best option for both the individual receiving it and those around them.
The bottom line is simple. The vaccine is safe. If your doctor recommends the vaccination, GET THE VACCINATION!
