The KInd Life Community Forum

I work in a hospital and there is a lot of pressure to get the flu shot and the
H1N1 vaccine. Since they are incubated in eggs, this is a big no-no for me and it has raised a lot of comments at work. I was just curious about responses from you guys. Thanks

My husband is facing the same pressure. He is not vegan, but we both try to avoid unnecessary medicine.

My personal opinion is that if you have a healthy body you don't need the vaccines. A lot of people don't have that healthy body so I guess it is a really personal choice. I just tell people it is not for me, that usually works.

As a front line healthcare provider, I received the H1N1 vaccine and find your thoughts interesting. I hear your concerns and had not thought about the vaccine containing non-vegan ingredients. That being said, the vaccine may not save us all this year but the hope would be to provide herd immunity throughout the community. Influenza kills people every year and H1N1 is just a new strain of influenza. With it being so new, most of us do not have any immunity for it and therefore it is causing many to get really sick and some to die. I feel that the vaccine is important to our health as a society and encourage receiving it if you have it offered.

Out of curiosity, how do you feel about the immunizations that infants are recommended to receive?

When you look at the 1995 Chicken pox vaccine, children are not getting the chicken pox anymore but more older people are now getting shingles, this is only one example. The National Vaccine Information Center has both sides to the vaccine issues we are now facing. I simply believe that most vaccines are going to end up causing a super bug. Swine flu season is over in Australia and less people have died from the swine flu than malaria. Finland is refusing to pay for the vaccination insurance wise because it has ended up being less threatening than first supposed. I have been flu swabbing people that come into our Emergency Department in the hospital I work at since April. I have had people coughing and breathing in my face with each swab and there are about 10 people a day getting tested. I have not gotten sick and I attribute this a healthy lifestyle, working on keeping my stress at bay, hand washing and such things. Tamiflu is almost 99% uneffective when given by itself yet many ER doctors are prescribing this antibiotic alone. Dr Mercola is also an interesting resource if you are interested. If people are informed and make the decision to get their vaccinations, at least they have done their research. But think about all the people who down burgers and chicken with all the antibiotics pumped into them (70% of all antibiotics in this country go to farm animals) and then think of all the vaccinations people get routinely and then think wow, people are still getting sick. What type of viruses are out there? and how many got to this point because of us?

Nicole~ I understand exactly what you are saying and I agree with you to an extent. It has been pretty bad for the children and we recently had a pregnant woman die. It seems to be the people with underlying conditions that are getting it the worst. Otherwise, it is "just another flu." It is those people that I worry about the most.

Jess~love your comments. I don't find them preachy at all! I'd love to talk to you about this someday. I also work in an ER and have been swabbing everyone, almost too many in my opinion! Last weekend I had 4 out of 5 rooms with Droplet Isolation due to ILI. A main resource for our practices is the CDC guidelines. I'll check out Dr Mercola. I'm not familiar with him. As far as Tamiflu, it is an antiviral not an antibiotic. It does not rid of the virus. It just makes the symptoms less severe which can be helpful in the compromised person.
Interesting thoughts about the antibiotics in meat. It definitely makes me not want to eat meat again! I'm afraid for the practices of prescribing antibiotics for every illness and when we try to explain that a person doesn't require antibiotics becuase it is a viral illness, the person generally is upset!

Many thoughts to ponder!