Everyone to receive jab against swine flu

[sherby]

here

will you be having it?

[nursenatty]

yes, because of my job and I'm a firm beleiver in vaccines

[nursenatty]

however I cant seem to spell today

[paisleyleaf]

I'd want to know more about it
I've read bad stuff about the swine flu vaccine from the 1976 pandemic.

[Tortoise]

I would have the jab.
I have asthma and am a single parent. I don't have any family nearby who could help out with my 4 DC if i got ill.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Yes I would but would be low down on priority with the criteria that will be used. dd and dh always have flu jab because of their asthma. GP has suggested for various reasons that I do too.

belgianbun, its not been tested yet, still has to undergo clinical trials.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Now this is the article that got me slightly concerned this weekend worries about broadband
Hope they sort it out, imagine getting flu and having no MN to look forward to as you get better

[whomovedmychocolate]

OYBK - I live a few miles from a major confectionery factory - they plan to stop production if they get an outbreak

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

because it would get into the chocolate or scared of the outbreak in the factory itself?

[whomovedmychocolate]

The factory staff cannot function apparently if more than 10% of them are sick for safety reasons, so there would be no biscuits, no chocolate bars and no coffee coming out of it

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

WMMC Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Right. Have I got time to get to a shop before it closes? I need to panic buy chocolate right now.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

No coffee!!!!!! no biscuits!!!!!!
gah.
bloody hell that means no coffee breaks.
I'm done for!

[whomovedmychocolate]

I am a tad worried actually - apparently we produce something like 30% of the country's bread, and 40% of the countries confectionary!

No wonder the locals are lardies (Rindercella excluded obv.)

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

Can see the headlines now: 'Mumsnet Causes Panic Buying of Chocolate....'

[whomovedmychocolate]

....Again

[whomovedmychocolate]

But in answer to the OP it would depend very much on the vaccine and whether it was shown to be effective. I would be happy to be further down the queue than others and would be reluctant to be the first wave.

My real fear is they will innoculate all HCPs and kill the blardy lot of them by accident.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

lol! There will be images of huge queues of Mums snaking out of every newsagent and supermarket. Fights breaking out over the last wispas.

(and to think that dh went at me when I was pondering buying a large sack of rice today. Wait til he finds pillowcases stuffed full of chocolate )

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

wmmc - that would be a bit of an oops!

[LovelyRitaMeterMaid]

I don't think I would/will have the jab. I agree more should be spent on helping those who do have swine flu.

DH has asthma and has the normal flu jab - I would probably endourage him to have it, but again I'm not definite.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Well they do have at least two weeks supplies ready to go to the shops at all times, so if the flag goes up, I'll post and we can all raid Sainsburys

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Fantastic! I'll keep a close eye out then.

[MamaHobgoblin]

Probably not - I know that 'healthy people are more likely to be killed by this strain than normal flu' bla bla, but how likely is that, even? I'm not a high risk person, nobody in this house is, and none of us have caught even regular flu in decades. I'd be more inclined for DS to have it because he's weeny and I want to do everything I can to protect him, but he's not high risk either.

[PerfectPrefect]

Just to throw another aspect into the debate (and I am deliberately not falling on one side or the other BTW). What about herd immunity. The more people that take the vaccine if it is offered the more likely we are to eradicate this bug and then we can all get on with our "normal" llives (and put up with some other crap on the news).

[bubbleymummy]

I wouldn't get it. Can someone also explain how this vaccine will still work if the virus mutates and becomes more dangerous? Someone mentioned that it would still be effective but then why isn't this years flu jab (which is also a H1N1 strain) any use against swine flu? I definitely won't be first in the queue for it and tbh if my child had underlying health issues I would be a bit wary of a 'new' vaccine that was thrown together within 6 months - where are the safety trials??

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

The h1n1 bit is just a small component of the flu. They are molecules that cover the virsu surface.

The h stands for hemagglutinin and is the bit that helps it get bind on to a cell and allows it to get in, the n is neuraminidase, it helps it get out.

The number after the letter (ie 1) says which receptor on the human (or animal) cell that the h and n bonds on to. So you can have different h1s or n1s. It isnt a label that is specific to one particular flu virus.

The swine flu is a very different virus from the h1n1 seasonal flu. It has components from swine, avian and human flu bugs. Thats why the seasonal flu vaccine doesnt help. As long as it doesnt drift too far away from how it is now then any vaccine made using this swine strain should help protect against future strains of the swine flu. The more it changes though, the less help vaccines made now will be.

helpful article hopefully