Posted on 04/29/2009 11:03:48 PM PDT by neverdem
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly doubts that this year's flu vaccine will offer people any protection from the swine flu. "We don't think that any of the existing vaccines are effective," acting CDC Director Richard Besser said yesterday at a press conference.
But some flu vaccine researchers and public health experts say the jury is still out. "If I hadn't already had the vaccine, I'd take it," says Robert Webster, a flu guru and vaccinemaker at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
CDC's Daniel Jernigan says experiments with ferrets done there suggest that the current vaccine has no power against the H1N1 strain of swine flu now circulating the globe. CDC researchers took ferrets never infected with an influenza virus and injected them with this year's vaccine, which has an H1N1 component of human, not swine, origin. They then tested the ferrets' blood sera, the part that contains antibodies triggered by the vaccine, against the swine H1N1 from the outbreak. "The sera do not provide any protection," says Jernigan.
Then again, as Jernigan acknowledges, antibodies provide only one type of immunity triggered by the vaccine.
The vaccine can also stimulate the cell-mediated arm of the immune system, the part that clears infected cells from the blood. The ferret model did not further test the possibility that vaccination leads to milder disease. And many elderly people may also have some immunity from previous infections with similar influenza viruses or previous vaccinations. "There's a lot of information that we don't have," says Jernigan.
Julio Frenk, dean of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and the former secretary of health in Mexico, like Webster, suspects that the vaccine may do some good. Frenk notes that Mexico has excellent vaccine coverage of children under 5 years old and the elderly, the two groups that have been spared in this outbreak. "There's a likelihood that there's at least partial protection," says Frenk, who was in Mexico City at the time.
Webster, who says he wouldn't expect much from the current vaccine because the H1N1 in it differs markedly from the new strain, still says it may make the difference between developing a mild illness and death.
You can find our full coverage of swine flu--including breaking news on the latest developments--here.
I take vitamin D also, but nowhere near 2000 IU. Is there ever a danger of taking too much vitamin D?
-no, you aren’t.
It’s a very convenient “crisis”
-and after nothing happens, they can claim they averted a pandemic.
To my undertanding, you get about 10,000 IU from less than a half hour of full body sun exposure, so 2,000 IU doesn’t sound particularly problematic.
I know Vitamin C is water soluble, and dosage is to tolerance, meaning if you start having digestive issues, back off the daily intake until you no longer have problems.
Ping! (Thanks, neverdem!)
What about people who got the swine flu vaccine from 30 years ago?
sw
Many, many thanks to both of you kind Freepers for the good information.
Where do I go to get a vaccine against all the Obamabullshite?
If a Muslim contracts the “Swine” flu the he is an infidel and must be killed by true believers. It’s in the Ko-ran. /sarc. ???
The pneumonia shot is for Pneumococcal pneumonia (aka Streptococcus Pneumoniae), so it would help to head off a pneumococcal pneumonia, but not a pneumonia caused by a different kind of bacteria. Bottom line: it helps, but won’t totally protect, as there are many different organisms which cause pneumonia (although Pneumococcal is one of the most common AND most deadly; it’s what killed Jim Henson).
You can have ill effects from too much Vitamin D. However, the same applies to water.
From what I’ve read, the upper limit on a consistent daily dosage before there’s a danger is 10,000 IU. I know people who take 50,000 each 2 weeks (plus, of course, what they get in their diet, which amounts to a few hundred a day), but if you average that out it is under 3,500 IU/day.
I, personally, wouldn’t take more than 5,000/day unless a doc told me to do so. What you take, or how much you receive via the Sun, in any one particular day, or even week, is of fairly low significance. You should be in absolutely no danger at 2,000 IU/day (though, of course, I’m not only not a doctor, I’m not your doctor, so this isn’t medical advice, yada, yada, yada) - and I take that much myself and have for a couple years. No ill effects, just less sickness (despite my horrid sleep habits, which by all rights ought to run down my immune system).
Thank you so much for your very helpful input on this. I think I’ll go with 2000 IU/daily and see what happens. I take a small supplement and try to sit for at least 15 minutes in the direct sunlight everyday, but I can see how that is just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Thanks for posting.
Living in Phoenix, I think I am covered in the Vitamin D department.
There is something to this Vitamin D recommendation.
A couple of years ago I was standing in line for a flu shot and struck up a conversation with a nice gentlemen.
When I asked him if he was geting a shot, he replied “No. I came here to bring my wife because she wants the shot. I, myself, have never had a flu shot nor have I ever had the flu.”
The gent was 80 years old, and a lifelong farmer, exposed to umpteen doses of natural Vitamin D from the sun!
FYI
See this article from post #5 regarding Vitamin D and getting sick (specifically influenza):
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php
Looked up Vitamin D on the internet—looks like it is also good for your heart.
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