“If u get a swine flu shot ur an idiot.”
~ Bill Maher

“Hail, Zeus. The Greek god of timely pharmaceutical research! But… Is the H1N1 vaccine a deadly poison? … and are we running out of it??!”
~ John Stewart

i decided to include a little about H1N1 here after an extensive texting conversation with my worried mother this morning. sometimes i take working in a healthcare environment for granted and forget that there are a lot of people who only know what they see on the news.

all questions are from my mom and all answers are from from the Center for Disease Control (retrieved October 20th, 2009).

wow! aren’t you worried? it’s dangerous for people your age!
yes, it does seem to be hitting my age group (25-49) pretty hard. but most of those hospital admissions and deaths are people with comorbid conditions such as heart disease, kidney disorders, asthma, weakened immune systems and pregnancy. i don’t have any of those. nope, not even the last one.

how do you know it’s H1N1 and not the flu?
last week, 2,505 out of 2,520 flu viruses were tested and found to be 2009 H1N1 influenza A. that’s 99.4%. it’s everywhere. i like to think i’m one in a million, but i doubt i’m in that 0.6% bracket. i’m pretty sure i have the same ol’ flu everyone else does.

where did you catch it?
we saw a TON of people with flu-like illness at the clinic over the last couple of weeks.

how can i tell if i have it?
it looks just like the “regular” flu: fever, nausea, aches, etc. it sorta sucks, but doesn’t seem to last as long as regular seasonal flu.

i don’t think i want to get the shot. it’s not here till November.
it’s true that many places will get the vaccine too late. and working from home in Canada probably lowers my mom’s risk, but there isn’t much risk to just getting the vaccine. the shot (different than the nasal spray) is a killed viral particle that can’t actually give you the flu. please check out the CDC website for more information on who should get the H1N1 vaccine and how safe it is.

i hope this post either answers a few of your questions or empowers you to use trustworthy resources like the CDC website to find out information that your local news coverage may be missing. thousands of old people and young kids die from the flu every year. H1N1 is no different. arm yourself with reliable and scientific information.

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