# 4125
We are now two months into the global H1N1 pandemic vaccination effort and one thing is abundantly clear; the dire warnings of the anti-vaccine crowd that `the vaccine is deadlier than the virus’ have not come to pass.
The poster produced by The People's United Community
Somewhere between 100 million and 200 hundred million people worldwide have now received the shot, and the number of reported adverse effects has been about what we expect with the seasonal jab.
On Friday the MMWR released an interim safety report on the US (unadujuanted) vaccines, and the early results were very encouraging (see MMWR Vaccine Safety Report).
The vast majority of adverse affects reported have been mild. The CDC is investigating roughly 204 serious post vaccination reports (out of 46 million injections).
While some of these may stem from the vaccination – many will probably prove to be coincidental and not connected to the shot.
Earlier last week, the EU (European Union) reported that the adjuvanted vaccine was presenting no safety concerns as well.
EU: no safety concerns as 10 million get H1N1 shots
Thu Dec 3, 2009 6:36am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Some 10 million people across the European Union have now been vaccinated against H1N1 swine flu and so far no unexpected serious safety issues have been identified, the region's drugs watchdog said on Thursday.
And from Fergus Walsh who pens the Fergus on Flu blog for the BBC, we get this brief update from the WHO on vaccine safety.
150m doses of vaccine distributed worldwide
Fergus Walsh | 12:53 UK time, Thursday, 3 December 2009
A brief update from the World Health Organization's Dr Keiji Fukuda. He estimates that more than 150m doses of H1N1 pandemic vaccine have been distributed in 40 countries and the safety profile continues to be similar to seasonal flu vaccines.
None of which is to say that the H1N1 vaccine is 100% safe. No vaccine can make that claim. But the safety profile of this flu vaccine appears in line with other seasonal flu shots.
And they have a pretty good safety record.
Could we still find some rare, but serious, side effect to the vaccine?
Sure.
And as hard as scientists are looking at this vaccination program, I won’t be terribly surprised if they find something. An event that occurs but perhaps once or twice in every million shots.
But even so, that would have to be weighed against the dangers of the H1N1 virus – and we know that has caused thousands of deaths just here in the US. By just about any rational measure, taking the vaccine is far safer than getting the virus.
All of these safety reports would seem to be good news, unless of course your stock-in-trade is selling vaccine fears, conspiracy newsletters, or colloidal silver products.
I suspect that in order to save face, these purveyors of vaccine paranoia will soon claim that there is a massive cover up going on, and that thousands of vaccine-related deaths are being hidden by either A) the World Health Organization B) Big Pharma or C) or the Illuminati.
And as long as you refuse to accept any `official source’ of information, it is hard to prove that isn’t true.
More problematic for the conspiracy theorists are the lack of forced vaccinations, internment camps, and mass graves.
All of which were predicted over the summer.
And last I checked, martial law hasn’t been declared here in the US (of course, as I write this, it isn’t even noon yet).
The only possible explanation is that the combined weight of the viral vaccine videos on Youtube, the anti-vaccine petitions, and the writings of conspiracy bloggers worldwide managed to scare off the evildoers, and forced them to abandon their insidious plans.
Behold! The power of the Internet.
I’m sure you feel safer, as do I, knowing they are out there; writing sensationalized tabloid news stories, blogging about evil NWO domination plans, and sending letters to the editors of newspapers around the world.
They stand vigilant and resolute, guarding against the dispensing of dangerous and `untested’ vaccines to our children, the planned release of `weaponized’ flu viruses on an unsuspecting public, and worse . . . the spreading of common sense and critical thinking skills in our society.
It’s a tough, dirty, and thankless job.
I’m just glad I don’t have to do it.
