The Side Effects of the H1N1 Vaccine

Dr. Travis Stork: And let’s talk more about the side effects Martinez’s shares concerns about the side effects of the H1N1 vaccine on her website ProduceTheDoctors.com asks as to tell “the whole story” so there is this concern that there’s a huge government conspiracy that doctors that we’re lying like Jim said there all these miss out there that there are these terrible side effects that we’re not being honest about, talk about those.

Dr. Anne Schuchat: Sure, here’s what flu vaccines can cause, they can cause, if you get the shot form they can cause soreness at the site where you get the injection, a little bit of redness or tenderness. You can sometimes feel pretty tired but you can’t get seriously ill from a regular flu vaccine. The nasal spray form of the flu vaccine can sometimes cause some stuffiness of the nose, again sometimes a little bit of even a little low grade fever but generally people do well. There’s one important piece of information though about the nasal spray; that’s only recommended for healthy, non-pregnant people between the ages of two and 49.

Dr. Travis Stork: What I want to do right now is show everyone step-by-step how the flu vaccine is made, take a look.

The flu vaccine is conceived and birth from chicken eggs. The eggs are fertilized so that each have a live embryo growing inside. Then they are processed, incubated and sterilized. Eleven days after fertilization, a tech injects a lab grown strain of the influenza virus into the fluid of each egg. The virus infects the embryonic fluid and the embryo inside; the virus multiplies within its live host for several days. After the incubation period, special machines carefully open the eggs to harvest the virus. That active live virus is then purified. The thorough purification process ensures the virus is no longer dangerous and that’s what becomes your flu vaccine.

So Dr Schuchat briefly let’s talk about the concern for mercury and the vaccine, the concern for adjuvants, things like Squalene.

Dr. Anne Schuchat Right let me first talk about those adjuvants, the Squalene thing. Now the influenza vaccines that we’re using here in the US, the seasonal flue vaccines and the H1N1 vaccines do not contain that adjuvant. That’s used in some vaccines that have been in use overseas but we’re not using them here. Now the other question people have and I get this all time is about mercury, about the Thimerosal preservative. I want to say that there’ve been a lot of studies done about that, there’s no scientific link between the Thimerosal preservative and any kind of long term problems but we know, even though there’s no science behind that concern that people have concerns. And so the government has bought a lot of vaccine that’s Thimerosal-free, we’re making available the Thimerosal-free vaccine that doesn’t have the mercury containing preservative in it.

Dr. Jim Sears: You now another adjuvant a lot of parents are asking me about is aluminum, and there is no aluminum in any of these flu shots whether it’s the regular flu shot or the H1N1 shot either.