Consult with your personal physician. No one is forcing you to get the vaccine. The Guillain Barr warning is on every Vaccine Information Sheet that a patient has been given each time they receive the seasonal flu vaccine. This is not new information. If you aren't at risk and are afraid of a possible side effect, don't get it.

This is of course the traditional method for contracting it:

{{gwi:1550048}}

I'd also like to refer you to an article in the U.K. Telegraph which states, "Up to half of GPs and one in three nurses say that they do not plan to take the vaccine, some because of concerns over safety". And "Another study published online by the British Medical Journal shows that half of 8,500 healthcare workers in Hong Kong say that they would refuse a swine flu vaccine, because of safety concerns and worries that it would not work very well".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/6087782/Swine-flu-Doctors-who-refuse-vaccine-putting-patients-at-risk.html

This information is thought provoking and there is plenty more of it published by reputable sources.

I am very concerned about vaccines in general and this one in particular. Vaccines in the past have been tainted with mercury and squalene. There is concern that the Swine Flu vaccine will also deliver toxic squalene.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/08/04/Squalene-The-Swine-Flu-Vaccines-Dirty-Little-Secret-Exposed.aspx

And why the big push to vaccinate without proper testing to be sure of the safety of the proposed vaccines? Less people have died of this flu than the seasonal flu. Most had pre-existing conditions. So why the big push when even healthcare workers are concerned about this vaccine? Why make the public guinea pigs? Why is Switzerland and Greece rumored to institute mandatory vaccination programs?

I had Guillain-Barre Syndrome when I was six. Not a disease I care to get again, obviously. Mine more than likely wasn't linked to a flu vaccine, but my family won't be getting flu vaccinations; especially not the untested swine flu one.

It really bothers me that pregnant women are high on the list of people that the swine flu vaccine is recommended for. How can the makers of this vaccine possibly know that it will not harm a growing baby? Of course, they want (already have?) immunity from lawsuits if the vaccine does cause harm...

From what I've read this week, families in the U.K. are finding that many of their teen girls are reacting to their HPV vaccine, especially after the third shot. And the doctor's and government are making the mother's feel like they are crazy for associating their daughter's debilitating symptoms with the vaccine. Shameful!

A colleague of DH's father recently got sick from his swine flu shot. We're in PA and his aging father is in TX. He's been paralyzed from it (the father). But I don't know the name of the disorder?

Anyway, DH's colleague is saying he might have to leave his job and move to TX to take care of his parents! Because of a swine flu shot.

A colleague of mine [some years ago now] came down with severe rheumatoid arthritis after her annual flu shot and had to retire, being unable to walk well enough after that. They told her it was a rare reaction but in some people that could happen. The flu shot causes the early onset.

I think these are rare events, but should be considered along with the pros and cons before getting the shot. I personally feel I am healthy enough to survive the flu! ;) If I get it, I'll get sick, but I don't think I'll DIE. So why bother getting the shot? Besides, I don't work with children or the elderly.

This flu shot is no different than the normal flu shot except it's for a different strain. We make a new flu shot annually and it's not tested (they use the most likely flu's for the season). All flu shots come with a warning about Gillian B syndrome.

I have a close friend who's daughter is in the hospital dying from complications of the swine flu. She lost the baby and isn't likely to recover from the lung complications. Her mother wishes she'd been vacinated but they weren't available in Alaska as early as they were elsewhere.

If you don't choose to get the shot, please don't go out in public. You risk killing or seriously injuring anyone who might come in contact with you. Most people do not know they have the flu when it first comes on (it starts with a headache). You're contagious and still out in the public....not a good combination.

Health care workers here do not have the same worries as their European counterparts. Most are getting the shots. Many avoid the live virus but you'd find those same people avoid all live virus shots.

Many more have died or had serious complications to this flu than have died or had complications to the normal flu. It's also come on earlier in the year...we're not even in the main cold and flu season....The death rates among children are pretty horrible.

If you don't get the shots, please think of those you could infect and wear a mask when outside. It might save someone elses life.

I got both of them this autumn, the seasonal flu shot in September and the H1N1 in October when I worked at a City Flu shot clinic. No problems with either one. I get a flu shot every year.

I work every day with very vulnerable people. Having had the flu before, I NEVER want it again, and I certainly don't want to pass the flu on to someone who might die from it.

Yes, there are risks, as there are with anything we do, but the risks from a flu shot, or any other immunization are very, very small, considering the millions of people who get immunizations every year.

Several years ago I got both the flu shot and the Pneumovax and 4 days later I had shingles. It might have been too much of a jolt to my immune system (but it might have had nothing to do with the immunizations), but with quick medication, I got through it with minimal discomfort. In the future, I'll continue to get both vaccines, just not at the same time.

It's the non-immunized who spread disease - whether it's a preventable childhood disease or influenza. Non-immunized children pass measles, rubella, whooping cough, etc, to children frequently too young to have been immunized. These diseases can still kill children.

My SIL was not allowed to get his smallpox vaccination before he left home for his deployment in Iraq because of the risk to both kids.

I agree with igloochic, if you are not going to get flu shots, stay away from others if you feel sick, don't assume it's not the flu, the risk is too great to other people.

I debated getting the H1N1 but that same week, a friend of mine got that flue,
then my son, his girlfriend, her daughter got it; plus, I'm in planes a lot throughout the year.

I got the shingles vaccine also at the same time; DH has been dealing with shingles, now with the post herpetic neuralgia PHN, which often follows the oubreak of shingles, he's going on week 10 of dealing with this; the shingles vaccine removes 60% of the risk anyone has of ever getting shingles. They recommend giving it to people over 60 but I figured at almost 58, I was close enough.

Momj47, igloochic - Thank you for this very timely discussion. I already had the seasonal flu shot and am scheduled to get the H1N1 on Friday. The only time I know I had the flu I'm pretty sure it was H1N1 many years ago. It was awful and I do not want it again. DH lives with CML and we would rather take the small risk of GBS than worry about the flu.

Well said about not going out if you are ill. That really bothers us too.

I would trust the advice of those who make recommendations based on research studies of effectiveness and side-effects (e.g., CDC). I would certainly not trust individual reports/experiences and I would not trust the advice of individual clinicians if their advice is contrary to recommendations since in my experience they are among the most supertious folks I have ever met.

I was all ready to get the H1N1 vaccine in early December. Then our local news revealed that two healthy people who had gone to the same clinic on the same day to get their shot, both came down with Guillain Barre Syndrome 14 days later. According to the percentage of people who contract GB after a vaccine, the odds of those people happening to acquire it randomly was just not believable. Since they were both vaccinated at the same clinic on the same day, it appears there was something wrong with that batch. Both have been in intensive care since December and both suffered complete paralysis requiring a ventillator, although the 39 year old is now able to blink one eye.

It scared me enough to go without for at least this year. So far I've been lucky as I haven't had the flu in 45 years, since I was a child.