Will You Take The New Swine Flu Vaccine?

The CDC is in the process of ramping up development of a new swine flu vaccine to combat the emerging threat of H1N1.  Having been officially classified as a pandemic, the swine flu virus has been described as spreading with “unprecedented speed” by the WHO.  This has prompted rapid action by leading health agencies, as they work to develop and produce a new swine flu vaccine.

The next question is, of course, who will take the vaccine?  Producers have indicated that early yields on the vaccine has been relatively low, but they’re working feverishly at providing a viable product for qualification testing.  To that end, government health agencies have recruited eight university medical centers to conduct human testing.  Adult testing of the new vaccine is expected to start in early August of this year, with testing in children to follow shortly thereafter.  If testing goes well, the new vaccine could be available by October of this year.

Public interest in the new swine flu vaccine continues to rise, as health officials have continued to voice an ever-rising sense of urgency about the potential dangers this new virus could present.  Recent projections by the CDC have estimated that as much as 40% of the U.S. population could become infected by the swine flu virus over the next 24 months.  This paints a grim scenario, made more so because the virus seems to impact a different segment of the population than the seasonal flu.  People at the greatest risk of complications seem to be teenagers and young adults.

CDC officials are currently projecting that as many as 160 million doses of the new vaccine could be available by October, as long as testing confirms their safety.  So the question becomes, who will take the new vaccine?  Will you take it?  This could turn out to be a very relevant question in the near future, as the new swine flu has the potential to be a serious public health threat.

We have religiously taken flu shots in our home, due primarily to my asthmatic son.  But since my wife had a reaction to the flu shot, she can no longer take the regular vaccine.  We still need to whether she can take the inhaled vaccine, but that only addresses regular seasonal flu, as the swine flu vaccine will not be available in that form.  The rest of the family will have to take a long, hard look at possibly taking the vaccine.  Every vaccine has risks, but each of us will have to weigh the risks of taking the new vaccine against the possibility of an illness from the newly emerging swine flu threat.

To that end, I’m running a poll in the sidebar.  Will you take the new swine flu vaccine when it becomes available?

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