To inject or not to inject.

Unless you live in a hole you would have heard about the newest news frenzy and the subject of my blog today.  H1N1.  The virus was/is highly contagious and infectious.  Therefore the need for a vaccine was pushed through the conveyor belt and is now approved for public inoculations. 

I have never been one to receive a FLU shot.  I can’t even recall getting a FLU shot as a child.  I did receive all the required inoculations as a child; Measles, Meningitis, your required baby & young child needles, and to this day I have no clue what they were for.  I have worked in the “Medical” field for the past 5 years and had direct contact with both the young & the old.  I will admit I did contact the FLU on the odd occasion, but I never said “I wish I got this years FLU shot”.

I’m on the fence about this upcoming injection.  I like to think I have a fairly healthy immune system. However, the fact that I live in a isolated community is slightly concerning.  Although, I’m a neurotic hand sanitizer and washer  and I admit I’m  a   compulsive Lysol cleaner.  Should I be concerned about the mutation of this virus, and we all know that it will mutate especially when everyone Tom,Dick & Harriet will be injected with the vaccine. 

Will this become as common as the FLU shot; and if that is the case, do I really need to protect myself when I can build up a natural immunity. 

What do you think?  To inject or not to inject?

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I read an article today on the cbc.ca website, and this section caught my eye, does this mean that  we are going to be human guinea pigs.  “Canadian trials began this week

Worldwide trials of the vaccine began in September. Canadian vaccine trials started this week.A German trial involving 130 adults looked at the new vaccine itself. Several other trials involving more than 45 million people looked at various components of the vaccine, including the adjuvant.The Canadian clinical trials will look at 2,000 people at 30 sites across the country. The main goal is to determine which dosage of the vaccine, with or without the adjuvant, will provide the best immunity to the general public. Groups being tested include seniors, aboriginal people and those with compromised immune systems.The Canadian trials are useful for several reasons, said Dr. Ben Lasko, clinical director of Manna Research in Toronto."We can make changes on the fly, because we're going to have our data coming back to us fairly quickly," Lasko said. "Secondly, H1N1, I think, is going to be around. We expect that perhaps next year there will be some mutations of the virus and we can adjust the dosage next year for its use."The Canadian data will be valuable as immunization campaigns roll out, public health officials say. In about six weeks, the data will help inform regulators here whether some people may have to come back for a second shot to develop immunity.”