Swine flu vaccination advice
Dr Dean Marshall, who's chairman of the BMA's Scottish General Practitioners Committee, was on hand during today's Morning Extra to answer your questions on the swine flu vaccination programme, which is being launched this morning.
I tried to get through as many as your queries as possible, but we were inundated with your calls, texts and emails. Do listen back to see if your question was already answered. If you have any further questions it may be worth visiting the sites below, and if you're still not clear what you should do, then the advice is to contact your GP. But as Dr Marshall told us on today's programme, there's no need to rush or panic as the roll-out will be gradual over the coming weeks. His fear is that people will unnecessarily deluge their GPs' surgeries today with calls.
Links
Scottish Government swine flu vaccination advice
Q&A from BBC Scotland's health correspondent Eleanor Bradford
© MMX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~17~RS~)
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Pandemrix
Today the government, with the assistance of certain drug companies, will be starting delivery of a vaccination program for Scotland. On Graham Stewart's MorningExtra program it was relieved that the vaccination to be provided to Scotland is Pandemrix. Ironically, I found on Wiki a new article about this very vaccine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemrix
In the referenced article it notes the following:
"The vaccine [Pandemrix] is the H1N1 vaccine approved for use by the European Commission in October 2009 upon the recommendations of The European Medicines Agency (EMEA)." It further goes on to note the advantages of vaccine. "Whilst other H1N1 vaccines have been developed (see H1N1 clinical trials), the use of a proprietary adjuvant, known as AS03 (which includes squalene), is claimed to boost the potency of the body’s immune response, meaning that much less of the inactivated virus is needed [3]). This is particularly useful, since once a pandemic is declared and pandemic vaccines are prepared, the inactivated virus will be at a premium."
To provide some balance I have added information I have researched so that those choosing to take such a vaccination are aware of a few points not presented.
[Content researched and emailed to Graham 16th October, 2009]
Flu vaccines can also contain a number of chemical toxins, including ethylene glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde, phenol (carbolic acid) and even antibiotics like Neomycin and streptomycin.
In addition to the viruses and other additives, many vaccines also contain immune adjuvants like aluminium and squalene.
The purpose of an immune adjuvant added to a vaccine is to enhance (turbo charge) your immune response to the vaccination. Adjuvants cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you’re being vaccinated against.
Adjuvants are supposed to get the job done faster (but certainly not more safely), which reduces the amount of vaccine required per dose, and the number of doses given per individual. What does that mean for a drug company making a £1 does but selling it for £6 approximately to the public?
Less vaccine required per person means more individual doses available for mass vaccination campaigns. Two companies developing such adjuvants into their solution are Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. This does not either preclude the creation of vaccines that are safer for the public or that other companies do not create a more suitable solution.
I would ask the readers to further investigate squalene, as it is present in the drug Panderix marketed by GlaxoSmithKline and is being supplied as the vaccination of choice for Scotland.
When a person has as much information as possible to make decisions usually these decisions tend to benefit themselves and NOT others.
Decisions regards our liberties, bodies and property are personal, even when they are aggressed against. Consider yours, obtain as much information you can, ask questions and make decisions relevant to yourself... not others.
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Graham:
Thanks for the information regarding the Swine Flu Advice....
~Dennis Junior~
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