Incidentally, I write short articles for an online service. They're going to run a bunch of articles on the flu, and one of my assignments is a "vaccine panic" article, since so many people are worrying about it. Let me tell you, it is DAMN HARD to debunk some of the stuff floating around (briefly! concisely! because people read these articles on their Blackberries, not their computer screens!) without suggesting "here, panic about THIS!" to all the people who might not have heard that particular rumor.
I started to address the story about the Canadians and their seasonal flu shot issues (a Mexican study found that people who had the seasonal flu shot were less likely to develop serious complications) but (a) I'm not sure it was exactly DEBUNKED so much as outfitted with mitigating details that are complicated to explain and (b) I don't know if this story has much traction yet. Besides, from what I understand, you aren't supposed to get the shots too close together, so lots of people are holding off in the hopes of getting the H1N1 vaccine first. (And I won't argue that seems more urgent, since the seasonal flu isn't even circulating much yet.)
I did tell people there's less mercury in an adult flu shot than in a 6-ounce can of tuna. DO YOU FEED YOUR CHILDREN TUNA CASSEROLE, PEOPLE? THEN SHUT UP ABOUT THOSE SCARY VACCINES WITH THEIR EVIL EVIL MERCURY. (I researched this last year, but comparing the flu shot to the mercury in a typical sushi dinner. Wow, was that ever a sobering set of numbers. I still feed my children sushi, but now I feel guilty about it.)
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Date: 2009-11-02 04:00 am (UTC)I started to address the story about the Canadians and their seasonal flu shot issues (a Mexican study found that people who had the seasonal flu shot were less likely to develop serious complications) but (a) I'm not sure it was exactly DEBUNKED so much as outfitted with mitigating details that are complicated to explain and (b) I don't know if this story has much traction yet. Besides, from what I understand, you aren't supposed to get the shots too close together, so lots of people are holding off in the hopes of getting the H1N1 vaccine first. (And I won't argue that seems more urgent, since the seasonal flu isn't even circulating much yet.)
I did tell people there's less mercury in an adult flu shot than in a 6-ounce can of tuna. DO YOU FEED YOUR CHILDREN TUNA CASSEROLE, PEOPLE? THEN SHUT UP ABOUT THOSE SCARY VACCINES WITH THEIR EVIL EVIL MERCURY. (I researched this last year, but comparing the flu shot to the mercury in a typical sushi dinner. Wow, was that ever a sobering set of numbers. I still feed my children sushi, but now I feel guilty about it.)