Swine Flu Shots, The Final Verdict.

I've posted before about the swine flu shot. The last time I talked about it I talked about the government considering forcing you to get the shot by law. I of course opposed it then as I do now.

I never told anyone not to get the shot as I don't believe it's my place to do so. In fact what I said in my last post about the swine flu was this:

"If you choose to get the flu shot then that's fine as long as YOU CHOOSE."

My position has not changed there. We're hearing stories from both sides of this issue regularly. Legitimate doctors on one side will say you're crazy if you get the shot while other's say you're crazy if you don't.

I was critical of President Obama for not getting the shot and for not having his kids get the shot. While the president still hasn't since he claims to want "priority" people to get it first. His children have now gotten the swine flu shot.

In a previous post about Obama's health care plan I mentioned that my mother is an RN so I called her to get her opinion about the swine flu shot.

Here's the deal. Do not get the inhaler version of the virus, the injection is safer. The inhaled version is mostly for people terrified of needles. The injection is a dead version of the virus and the inhaled vaccine is a live version of the virus.

I've heard about some people getting rashes etc. from the vaccine and she explained the most possible explanation for that as well. The vaccine is made inside of eggs, (don't ask me how since I have no idea), therefore it's possible for people to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine. It's actually a reaction to the eggs used in making the vaccine, an allergic reaction to eggs may cause an allergic reaction to the vaccine.

If you get the vaccine and still end up with the flu it's most likely that you had the flu to begin with but it can be in your body for several days before you come down with the symptoms. You'd be in worse shape without the vaccine.

The biggest risk for those of you with kids are whether or not they are in school. I have one in school and due to all of the interactions with other kids and germs in general it puts children in school at higher risk.

If you have children who are too young to be in school the risk comes from the risk of an older sibling who is attending school or you getting the virus at work etc. and bringing it home.

Now that I've been given this information from a source I trust I will be getting the swine flu shot's for my kids. I can't tell you to do the same any more than I could tell you not to. It's your family and therefore it's your choice. I can only pass on the information I've received and give you my thoughts on the subject.

I asked about the vaccine in the '70's making more people sick than the actual virus and was assured that the advances in medicine make the current vaccine safer so we shouldn't have to worry about a repeat of the past with this one.

This vaccine was tested on children around 5 years of age whose parents were doctors and the testing was successful. While I've now made up my mind to give my children the vaccine I have another problem....supply.

Remember the outrage over the seasonal flu shot shortage during the Bush administration? Example.

"This may be Bush's Waterloo!"

That's just one example and of course there are many. Even though that vaccine wasn't developed in America and we got a bad batch. Besides that was just for the seasonal flu.

Now the government has scared the crap out of everybody convincing us all that our kids will die if we don't get them the swine flu shot and when many of us actually listen we show up to hear that there aren't any vaccines available. In fact the Obama administration is millions of doses behind schedule.

"But the administration, and in particular Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, have come in for strong criticism from those who say they created a false sense of expectations with overly optimistic predictions about the availability of the vaccine."

Bush was criticized for the shortage of the flu vaccine before and it's rather amusing to see the Obama administration take the same kind of heat. What's not amusing is the fact that people, especially children, are dying because of the swine flu incompetence of this administration.

Mr. Obama is learning rather fast what we've known for years. To criticize an administration you oppose, (like Bush's), is easy. To defend your own failures is much harder.

This administration has spent months worrying us about the swine flu. They've spent months warning us to get the vaccine and especially to give it to our kids. They claimed there would be plenty of vaccines in the previous link I provided.

Early on, Mr. Obama told his aides he wanted them to “learn from past mistakes,”

The biggest question to ask is this:

If the government can't handle distributing a flu vaccine they had several months to build a supply of and prepare for do you really think they can handle controlling the entire health care system of the country?

I don't.

This post wasn't about the health care debate but I think that last question is one that had to be asked.