A few parents are still asking about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine.  Please be reassured!  You and your children are much better off with the vaccine than without it.

This is certainly not a “new” vaccine;  the H1N1 vaccines are just like the regular seasonal vaccine, made by the same manufacturers, who use the same egg-culture process.  There’s a different flu virus inside, but that’s little different than the “new” seasonal flu vaccine that comes out each autumn.

Side effects?  I’ve heard of no reactions from my patients so far, other than occasional 1-2 days of fever.  So there’s no reason to be more fearful of the Swine Flu vaccine than any other routine immunization.  (Click here to visit my post last month about the safety of flu vaccines.)

It’s unfortunate that there’s so much noise and misinformation about flu vaccines.  Much of it stems from recent political activity from groups who oppose universal vaccination.  (Click here to see my thoughts about that issue.)

But the facts are plain.  Thousands of people die each year from influenza.  The CDC reports that 324 Americans have died from Flu since April (as of 2/10/10), including 260 children.  (Click here to see the data.) Thousands more have been hospitalized.

But I’m not aware that anyone ever died from a flu shot.  The balance of safety is certainly convincing: we’re all better off getting vaccinated!

–  David Epstein, MD