Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Some, perhaps most, of you would have seen the Youtube video of the cheerleader who was paralysed after receiving the Swine Flu vaccine. The caption even stated, "experts claim serious side effects of flu shots amount to about one in a million - well this is what that one in a million looks like."

If that sucked you in, you seriously need to consider doing more critical thinking. Here's why. From April to August, 593 deaths and 9079 hospitalisations from H1N1 swine flu were reported in the US. That puts the death rate at 2 per million Americans, and serious cases at 3 per 100,000. Furthermore, this is based on the entire American population, where many live in rural areas where contact with the virus is much lower. If you are in a city, chances are those numbers are lower than a conservative estimate would be. Plus, that's only up to August. If you don't live under a rock, you would have noticed that lately the situation has escalated. Hence, comparatively, one in a million chance of developing severe side effects to the vaccine doesn't sound too bad to me.

If you were brainwashed by one of those anti-vaccine groups. Here's an article for you to read. It dispels most of their claims. Just because Jenny McCarthy has big boobs doesn't mean you should always listen to her. (Megan Fox would be harder to resist.) There are no adjuvants or thimerosal in the H1N1 vaccine. Do the research for yourself and decide.

Then again, these anti-vaccine people aren't necessarily a bad thing. Although I believe everyone has equal rights to life, less stupid people in the world never hurts. And when an epidemic strikes, it will be those unvaccinated who dies. Win-win. Your choice.