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I think the big problem back in 76 was that a lot of folks who never had had a flu shot lined up for the swine flu shot because of media publicity.

The downside was that a lot of folks who never knew they had egg allergies , wound up getting a flu shot based on egg for the first time and had allergic reactions and many died. (well the record shows "dozens died within hours" of receiving the shot, obvious anaphalactic shock from allergic response) .This out of 40 million vaccinated; not hundreds or thousands of deaths, just a few dozen. ( In its final reckoning, the government counted 25 deaths associated with the shots.) Then the pandemic failed to materialize but another strain of flu struck and people did not realize that the swine flu vaccine they had gotten had no effect on this other strain so when they got sick they blamed the shot.

Also, initially they made the vaccine for children to dilute, but did not test it as they now do. So it failed to protect a great many of those at greatest risk.

We have come a long way since then both in vaccine production and testing; as well as alternatives for those allergic to being injected with eggs.

"Michael Hattwick, a former CDC official who tracked and analyzed the reactions in 1976, said that one in every 100,000 people developed a neurological disorder, a rate that he thinks is similar to what would be seen with other vaccines if they were tracked as carefully. The federal government ultimately reached court settlements and paid more than $90 million to hundreds of victims who said the 1976 vaccine caused neurological problems."

Probably most of that money wound up in the hands of lawyers, not actually helping those who had bad reactions. But still a few hundred our of forty million is a negligeable number when compared to the potential death toll if even one tenth of one percent die of complications (that would be 40,000 dead)

I'm not allergic to eggs. In fact I make a very good soufflé. biggrin.gif

I get the seasonal flu shot every year with no problems. I think the vaccine I got in '76 was tainted. I probably should have looked into litigation, but at the time I was young and stupid.

I did get terribly sick.

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http://www.webmd.com/ = "Antioxidants and Your Immune System: Super Foods for Optimal Health. One of the best ways to keep your immune system strong and prevent colds and flu might surprise you: Shop your supermarket’s produce aisle. Experts say a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help you ward off infections like colds and flu. That’s because these super foods contain immune-boosting antioxidants. ......................................."
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http://www.webmd.com/ = "Antioxidants and Your Immune System: Super Foods for Optimal Health. One of the best ways to keep your immune system strong and prevent colds and flu might surprise you: Shop your supermarket’s produce aisle. Experts say a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help you ward off infections like colds and flu. That’s because these super foods contain immune-boosting antioxidants. ......................................."

I've started eating lots of fruits and vegetables in the last three months. I've managed to avoid infection so far.

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http://www.webmd.com/ = "Antioxidants and Your Immune System: Super Foods for Optimal Health. One of the best ways to keep your immune system strong and prevent colds and flu might surprise you: Shop your supermarket’s produce aisle. Experts say a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help you ward off infections like colds and flu. That’s because these super foods contain immune-boosting antioxidants. ......................................."

Definately! I agree. We have a somewhat reverse growing season here in hell. I'm putting the victory garden in as we speak.

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http://www.webmd.com/ = "Antioxidants and Your Immune System: Super Foods for Optimal Health. One of the best ways to keep your immune system strong and prevent colds and flu might surprise you: Shop your supermarket’s produce aisle. Experts say a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help you ward off infections like colds and flu. That’s because these super foods contain immune-boosting antioxidants. ......................................."

Antioxidants my A*** that is old school and really not valid; most of that crap is disproven.

On the otherhand, there is a compound called Naringenin which is present in Grapefruit rinds; It is the most potent naturally occurring antiviral that is safe to take.

In NIH supervised tests it even stopped hepatitis virus from replicating.

Available as naringen

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http://www.webmd.com/ = "Antioxidants and Your Immune System: Super Foods for Optimal Health. One of the best ways to keep your immune system strong and prevent colds and flu might surprise you: Shop your supermarket's produce aisle. Experts say a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help you ward off infections like colds and flu. That's because these super foods contain immune-boosting antioxidants. ......................................."

Antioxidants my A*** that is old school and really not valid; most of that crap is disproven.

On the otherhand, there is a compound called Naringenin which is present in Grapefruit rinds; It is the most potent naturally occurring antiviral that is safe to take.

In NIH supervised tests it even stopped hepatitis virus from replicating.

Available as naringen

I think antioxidents are very useful.

I also LOVE grapefruit, and have a few trees. I'll try using the zest from the fruit. I'm assuming that it's from the zest...or is it the pith? Thanks for the info.

Joe

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  • 4 weeks later...

The local Public Health Department is offering free H1N1 vaccines to anyone who wants one.

I guess I might as well swing by and get one just in case I have not had it yet.

Free is hard to pass up.

Yep. We all had our H1N1 shots last Thursday. Good preventative measure methinks.

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The local yokels out here in the hinterlands still can't seem to be able to procure any vaccines.

I can't wait to see what happens when there is a real pandemic.

We had a similar situation up here in Canada, Joe. It took quite some time for the vaccine to be made available to the general public.

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The government needs to realize hatching from eggs became too time consuming to save us in time.

Other methods will happen in the future !

I agree, leaving vaccine development and distribution in the hands of industry is a failure; especially when combined with a hodge podge of government agencies handling distribution.

We need , as a matter of public health and national (homeland) security to have an effective and fast vaccine development and distribution system.

One thing we should have learned from the H1N1 pandemic is that we may have time but not as much as originally anticipated. We need to have an adequate supply and we need it priced so that people will get immunized. Left to industry the cost will be as high as they can charge in hopes that panic will drive up profits. Unfortunately that path will lead to a great many forgoing immunization until it is too late to slow the spread of the pandemic. The distribution system needs to be easy enough to access that the public takes advantage of it rather than figuring that if the high riskers get it first then probably they do not need it.

I still say that while their "health care reform" is better than no action; it is entirely misdirected and inadequate.

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I disagree with you Pete. I think the last thing we need is to rush any kind of vaccine to the population. It definitely needs high level of quality control and testing before thrusting it onto the masses. Also privet producers need to be positive that the vaccine does not do more harm then good. A bad vaccine could put a manufacture out of business.

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Well I never really expected it to impact the "complications" since most of them are caused by secondary infections (pneumonia, staph ....).

It is designed to slow the replication of the virus so that the immune system can deal with it and win faster; but a vaccine (prevention) is still the best line of defense; not getting sick in the first place beats getting less sick for a shorter time.

I saw on a special on H1N1 that they have identified a portion of the flu virus which appears to be common to all flu strains . If they can develop a vaccine that targets that we could have a single shot that grants long term immunity to all strains rather than an annual vaccine for what they feel will be most common.

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Well I never really expected it to impact the "complications" since most of them are caused by secondary infections (pneumonia, staph ....).

It is designed to slow the replication of the virus so that the immune system can deal with it and win faster

... in order to prevent complications. There's little reason to treat the flu itself.

I saw on a special on H1N1 that they have identified a portion of the flu virus which appears to be common to all flu strains . If they can develop a vaccine that targets that we could have a single shot that grants long term immunity to all strains rather than an annual vaccine for what they feel will be most common.

Yeah. IIRC there's at least one universal vaccine in clinical trials.

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A little news to brighten everyone's day: it turns out that Tamiflu probably doesn't prevent complications from the flu.

Well for us Tamiflu was perhaps a welcome placebo effect.

My daughter had violent chest pain, nausea, fever, etc...all the classic symptoms of H1N1, and the condition was rapidly getting worse. When she took the Tamiflu she quickly recovered.

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Well for us Tamiflu was perhaps a welcome placebo effect.

My daughter had violent chest pain, nausea, fever, etc...all the classic symptoms of H1N1, and the condition was rapidly getting worse. When she took the Tamiflu she quickly recovered.

Tamiflu is supposed to be an effective treatment for the flu itself.

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Well for us Tamiflu was perhaps a welcome placebo effect.

My daughter had violent chest pain, nausea, fever, etc...all the classic symptoms of H1N1, and the condition was rapidly getting worse. When she took the Tamiflu she quickly recovered.

Tamiflu is supposed to be an effective treatment for the flu itself.

Bah....I mis-read your initial point, jcl. Ha!

Yes. Tamiflu is a very effective H1N1 treatment.

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