Obama girls' swine flu vaccine: Favoritism or good example?

Dear Kathy,

Anytime a concerned parent shows vigilance and proper diligence towards their children's health, I applaud their efforts. However, I would not put vaccinations in this same context. They are as much of a health gamble as is facing the actual flu virus itself.

The flu vaccines have not been shown to be effective through independent studies, and YES, people DO get injured from them from time to time! Paralysis from vaccinations is nothing new. It actually happens more often than we realize, but has been mostly whitewashed by the government. Most cases of vaccine injury are underreported, or reported as a mere coincidence with no ties to the vaccine. This, of course, is a medical travesty; and we are none the wiser (or healthier!) for it.

As far as pregnant women are concerned, there have been NO studies produced (not even by the government) showing that this population is more susceptible than any other. I am especially wary of the growing fetus, since studies on the placental barrier show very little tendency for this tissue to discriminate against toxic/foreign chemicals in any situation. We have little data on the safety/efficacy of the flu vaccine in general, much less for the fetal infant.

The moral to this? Simply guard your health and that of your families' by eating properly, exercising, resting, etc. to maximize your immune potential. IF you get the flu, and your body is not compromised, then you will soon defeat the virus naturally! (Please understand, many people DO get injured/killed from the flu itself, but this is Nature's prerogative, not mankind's....)

Good luck, and God bless!

Your breasts produce colostrum beginning during pregnancy and continuing through the early days of breastfeeding. This special milk is yellow to orange in color and thick and sticky. It is low in fat, and high in carbohydrates, protein, and antibodies to help keep your baby healthy. Colostrum is extremely easy to digest, and is therefore the perfect first food for your baby. It is low in volume (measurable in teaspoons rather than ounces), but high in concentrated nutrition for the newborn. Colostrum has a laxative effect on the baby, helping him pass his early stools, which aids in the excretion of excess bilirubin and helps prevent jaundice.

When your baby is breastfed early and often, your breasts will begin producing mature milk around the third or fourth day after birth. Your milk will then increase in volume and will generally begin to appear thinner and whiter (more opaque) in color. In those first few days it is extremely important to breastfeed your newborn at least 8-12 times each 24 hours, and more often is even better. This allows your baby to get all the benefits of the colostrum and also stimulates production of a plentiful supply of mature milk. Frequent breastfeeding also helps prevent engorgement.

Pregnant women pass their immunity to their children. The reason pregnant women should be immunized is to insure the fetus is protected, they are soley dependant on the mothers antibodies for any and all reistance, protection from disease, infections.

If the child has already been delivered, it may not have any protection - since it was not born with a fully functioning immune system. Give the number of women with plasticized breasts or those that do not breast feed - recommending a 2 stage cycle of immunization for infants is similarly a reasonable recommendation; giving them preferential treatment is better too. Balanced against a person who has a fully developed immune system verse those without it (chemo, newborns, disease induced immunity compromised patients and transplant recipients), the clear compassionate choice to tho service those with the least protection before those that have natural resistance, even if it isn't specific to this particular strain of flu.

The "Me first mentality", which led this country and the rest of the world into the financial crisis we currently suffer under - obviously is still in full effect with some posters.

they're kids who are around other kids. OF COURSE they're high-risk!

it's not like the secret service provides them with some space age NASA hand sanitizer or something!

The Obama kids are in the vaccinate first group, per the CDC. They did not get vaccinated until the vaccine was available to all school kids in D.C. Should they have waited until every other school age child in the U.S. was vaccinated? I think not.

I'll accept your claim that you harbor no racist tendency, maybe its just that you didn't think this through?

With all the other issue that the President has to deal with, none of us should expect that he worry about his own health or the health of his family while in office. There is, at least to me, a certain comfort in knowing that person with the "key to the codes" has an investment in his family when dealing with aggression from without and within.

Insuring the health of his children is a small price to pay for having his full attention directed toward Our, collective welfare.

A needle up your kids nose????? It's not a needle up the nose. It is a live virus spray. When they get the needle it is suppose to be a dead virus in the arm. A needle up the nose, hell no one would want that. It's your choice to do as you please, but keep your kids away from my grandaughter who had heart surgery. Your so called germs infect her.

http://imgsrv.1010wins.com/image/DbGraphic/200910/1398994.jpg?1256728672

http://imgsrv.kyw1060.com/image/DbGraphic/200910/1396915.jpg?1256571992

Yes, up the nose. Granted, I'm sure that that isn't the way ALL kids get the vaccine but a lot do.

And yes... allowing children to get sick or rather not actively preventing them from getting sick with things like the cold, the flu, chicken pocks, etc. is what makes their body stronger. It's just how the body works. Preventing your children from getting certain diseases/sicknesses, coming in contact with germs, etc. weakens their immune systems which can lead to far worse consequences in the future due to an immune system that hasn't been conditioned over a life time to deal with invaders.

I looked at your pics. Thats the spray....no needles .

Ok, I was wrong. But my point doesn't really hinge on delivery method.

No, but using faulty info to "prove a point" leads us to suspect the rest of your information.

What you are referring to is the "hygiene hypothesis," and while it may be true that keeping your kids too clean increases their incidence of developing asthma and Crohn's disease, there is ZERO EVIDENCE that vaccines weaken the immune system - in fact, this supposition shows your ignorance in regards to how vaccines work - we GIVE the body exposure to the bug, and LET the body develop the antibodies so they recgnize and kill the bug quicker than it would on its inital exposure (IgM vs. IgG) the next time the body is exposed!!!

Ryan my perfectly healthy 3 year old nephew died Tuesday with H1N1. I hope none of you children are in harms way because of your ignorance.

It is particularly tragic that your nephew missed the chance to be vaccinated and therefore protected by such a short time. People need to understand that kids are at risk! Now that the vaccine is becoming available, folks need to learn from your nephew's tragic death that kids NEED to be protected. People who think that vaccines "weaken" kids or "poison them with mercury" shoud be arrested for child abuse if they do not take advantage of available protection for their kids!

for the people who say that children should be allowed to get the sickness instead of being vaccinated, because it makes their immunity stronger: what do you think vaccines ARE? the whole point of them is to make immunity.e is no difference in the immunity gained by contracting the disease and immunity gained by the vaccine. the vaccine is much safer, however, because people DIE from the disease. especially children. yes, ive had the disease and i think it has been blown out of proportion, but im a healthy young adult, and both this and the normal flu are dangerous, and should be fought.

Only your credibility depends on getting your facts straight if you are going to recommend or offer advice which goes against conventional wisdom.

Needles up the nose? That mistake is not something to gloss over, it was sensationalism - meant to evoke a response. It was also totally incorrect - anyone that has seen the evening news, read a newspaper or been on-line would know that from "pictures" - you don't even have to read one line of information.

If you can't get the obvious facts straight - then the rest of the message is null, moot, not worth repeating.

Actually, little girls do not need the vaccine. Nearly every child by the age of 2 is capable of fighting this off, building antibodies and going on to live a normal, happy, and healthy life style.

Wait till a child in YOUR family DIES of this terrible, painful, nasty virus! You'll have a change of opinion! The priority is children, yes, but UNDER THE AGE OF 5! BOTH Obama kids are ABOVE that age, they WERE NOT a priority!!! My nephew was 3...

Terrible painful and nasty.... well, nasty maybe. Uncomfortable, sure.

From the NHS... Swine Flu symptoms:

• unusual tiredness,
• headache,
• runny nose,
• sore throat,
• shortness of breath or cough,
• loss of appetite,
• aching muscles,
• diarrhoea or vomiting.

You know what that sounds like? A cold and or the flu that's been around for ages. Why all the hype?

Oh and the NHS also posts no warning for children UNLESS they are under the age of 1 and ALREADY SICK!

Children under the age of 5 are in the "High Risk" group but, the NHS states that increased concern should only be placed when the child's symptoms increase AFTER 5 days.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pandemic-flu/Pages/Symptoms.aspx

How old are the Obama girls?

Ryan MI, I'll be happy to tell the family who's little 6 yr old daughter died of your comments...........................and to think people like you have children.

I don't know who NHS is but the CDC now report as of today, 114 deaths of children due to H1N1.

I'm not sure how that compares to the seasonal flu every year.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=8956661

:)

You can tell whatever family whatever you want. But as for me (if that family you mentioned is a real example), my heart goes out to them and I wish them grace and peace in continuing their lives without the continued happiness that that daughter brought. I'd actually LOVE to be a daddy to a little girl, in fact.

But please don't insinuate that I or people who share my particular opinion on this issue would be or are bad parents. If we're talking about making an informed decision about this vaccine situation... let me say this. The total number of confirmed deaths in the U.S. from the swine flu as of March was 200. I'm not even going to calculate how teeny tiny that percentage is. Suffice it to say that the risk of GETTING SICK from the vaccine compared to the chance that my child will die from it is relatively enormous! So whose putting their child in harms way more?

"Plans have been made and laws have already been passed to restrict constitutional rights during a pandemic. And in spite of the low severity of the swine flu, a pandemic of the highest level has already been declared by the WHO."

http://www.examiner.com/x-6495-US-Intelligence-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Swine-flu-Vaccine-risks-and-dangers

National Health Services.

Estimates say that the seasonal flu kills about 36,000 people per year (less than 1 one-thousandth of a percent of the U.S. population -- this includes people with pre-existing conditions).

So far, the swine flu is at about 3,900 people (this is actually an over estimate). This is about 1 ten-thousandth of the U.S. population. Of this 114 children (about 3 1 millionths of the U.S. population).

This means that were I to have a child within the age limits of deaths so far, he/she would only have a 0.000003 : 1 chance of getting sick. However, if I took him/her to the doctor to get a vaccination the risk of that child getting sick in some way (germs floating around the doctor's office not factored in), would increase to a relatively ridiculous ratio... probably something between a 10 and 50 percent risk factor. The difference in these numbers increases even farther if any of the children who have died from the swine flu thus far had any pre-existing conditions that might have either compromised their immune systems or contributed to their death.

NEARLY is cold comfort if your kid is the rare one who gets really sick and dies. This is the whole point with swine flu - it's a relatively mild flu that for whatever reason is more likely to kill the young and the pregnant than the regular flu, which you can almost think of as culling the herd of the old and infirm. For me, deaths of 200 healthy young people is a tragedy that is much greater than the death of thousands of old, sick people.

Thanks for labeling me. :-)

I am not anti-government or anti-vaccine. What I am "anti-" is the discovery of a new type of flu virus leading to mass panic. It has a new name there for it has to be a crisis. H1N1 is barely different than other sicknesses that are out in the air now. The only reason we don't freak out about them is because they have been around longer. We've had the time to build up immunities. We've all been sick. When we get sick, we train our bodies to fight off illnesses.

Would I vaccinate my children against diseases that are more serious? Absolutely! All babies should get their regular shots. Tetanus and shots before international vacations. I'm not even against the HPV vaccine. But to vaccinate based on media hype and what the White House calls a national health crisis when we haven't even given humanity a chance in this fight is a little short sighted and gullible.

This is the same scenario (essentially) as the terrible bird flu a while back or before that (I wasn't old enough to care) but I believe there was a scare about a cattle disease. The bottom line is that if the world panics every time a new virus rears it's ugly head, someone somewhere is going to stand to make a lot of money on vaccines. The sad truth for them is that the human body is already built to fight off small illnesses like this one. Do people die from it? Sure. People die from something every day. Pneumonia, the common cold, tripping and falling down the steps that they've traversed countless times before.

Also, when throwing around the word ignorance you should probably not presuppose a strangers actions. I would never sue over the lose of a child due to illness in this situation. It is not the doctors fault he got sick, it's not the governments fault. It's not my fault or my child's fault. People get sick. Unforseeable things happen and not to sound cold (because I take death very seriously) but people do die/accidents happen.

Thanks for sharing the research numbers by the way. I do have one qualm about what you said though. Being that we are talking about the H1N1 vaccine and not the Flu Shot you probably shouldn't use numbers for the "regular flu".

But since you brought up these numbers lets crunch them. According to your numbers 200,000 people each year are hospitalized by the flu. "Never-minding" that an "each year" type of number inherently means that it's relatively unchanging so a vaccine for a different type of flu is NOT going to make that number any better. That's still only just over 6.5 thousandths of a percent of the U.S. population of the U.S. Now, figuring the number of people that actually die - according to you, 36,000 - that means that only 18% of those hospitalized from the flu each year actually die. Again, assuming that those people didn't have other health issues which, assuredly most did and again willingly forgetting that we're talking about two different strains of the flu here... 100% of the U.S. population is aware of a sickness that kills a whopping 1000th of 1% of the U.S. population per year. And... it's even less than that when those with pre-existing health conditions are taken into consideration. And again, were humanity allowed to build up anti-bodies towards this virus, I would be willing to bet that the numbers of deaths NEXT year would be even smaller yet. Now, each death is a tragedy to be sure. But my point is... what makes this swine flu any bigger of a deal than any other virus that has killed a "hand full" of people in the past? It's the media and the government looking for one more way to keep the U.S. population looking to them for all their answers. Who do you think is pocketing all the money spent on these vaccines?

And as such this has made the news for as long as it has and I'm sitting here taking up this much time writing about something that, in reality is no worse than any other virus like it and talking about a vaccine that hasn't even been tested enough to say that it works and in fact has been noted to actually CAUSE sickness not stop it.

To Ryan MI:

I don't think that I can totally buy into your rationale. What made H1N1 different (and scared a lot of the world) was that when it was epidemic in Mexico, it killed a lot of Mexicans. But then it hit here, and hardly killed anyone (the first ones, I think, were kids with pre-existing conditions). Very strange!

Same thing with the Bird Flu, it killed a lot of Chinese, but hardly touched the rest of the world with the armageddon it was supposed to bring. Also very strange!

But there is truth in the part about ALLOWING some illnesses to run their natural course. Years ago, when I was 29, I came down with something that appeared for all the world to be mumps. For those who don't know, mumps is just an inconvenience when your a kid, but it's bad, bad news when you're an adult. When I was sure that it was mumps, I learned that if I'd had it when I was a kid, I couldn't get it again. I couldn't remember having it. Two of the many things that could happen when you're an adult is, no possibility of ever fathering kids (my kids were born later in my 30s) and death. I called my mother to see if she remembered. Turns out I had, as a baby. I still to this day do not know what I had, but I woke up one morning (the day I had decided I had to see a doctor) and all my symptoms were gone! Never had them before or since. Apparently, a lot of childhood diseases are good to get when you're a child. It sure makes life a lot safer later on.

To Ryan MI,

If you base a decision on whether to begin a flu vaccination program on just the small percent that might catch the flu each year, sure, it sounds overblown, and perhaps excessive. However Steve makes an excellent point. While most of us in the US might have the type of access to food, clean water, and medical care that allows us to shrug off a case of the flu, alot of countries, and even areas of our own population don't. While maybe only 36,000 in the US will die from it, on average 250,000 to 500,000 others on the planet will also die. And this is from a preventable virus. Take away the flu vaccine from the US, and I would not want to imagine the amount of people who would pay the price. Our country has one of the best transportation systems in the world. In other words, if something gets loose, it's really going to travel.

The media didn't create the "Swine Flu Pandemic" label. The World Health Organization did in June of this year. What a makes a flu virus different from others is each year it mutates slighty, making the previous years vaccine ineffective. When a flu virus picks up material from another host, in this case pigs, it gains a name, ie swine flu. Sometimes this new variant isn't able to infect humans very well, such as the bird flu that was spread beginning in 2004, and sometimes it spreads to humans easily, ie swine flu. What makes swine flu worse than the normal flu is the fact there wasn't a ready vaccine for it. So when you went to get your annual flu shot, you had half the chance to catch it, rather than a very good chance to avoid the flu this year. (a simple example)

I'm sorry but your rationale that this is "big business's way of making more money" doesn't hold water. Flu vaccines are created each year as fast as they humanly possible, but its not a quick process and its not a case of making mega bucks from it. Sure manufacturers make a profit, but each year they have to wait for the next strain to appear before starting the process. Each year they sell as much as they can and yet they still end up DONATING tens of millions of doses to other countries. Common sense tells you that unless you are the government, you are not going to make something without there being money in it. Altruism is 95% myth. You don't slam the non-slip-coating manufacturer just because he didn't supply it free to pool installers. (sarcasm intentional)

As for side affects of vaccines, yes there are side effects to almost anything. In this case the most common being Guillain-Barre.

Lying or misrepresenting fact for personal benefit or undeserved self-aggrandizement, may not be genetic - but surely it must have a congenital component. This observation is based on the freedom some people exercise when it comes to relaying advice based on innuendo, half-truth, barely palatable - food for thought.

Please don't be baited into correcting misspoken "facts" - especially not when the speaker subtly changes each claim, right after some one does the research for them. You would think that shame, if not pride would enough to quiet the worst of these Neo-combatants. But, that seems to assume they have a self regulating governor, something to dampen the accelerator when the throttle is allowed to exceed the ability of the motor to produce reliable power.

Congenital: Present at birth. A condition that is congenital is one that is present at birth. There are numerous uses of "congenital" in medicine. There are, for example, congenital abnormalities. (For more examples, see below.)

Versus "genetic": One dictionary erroneously defines "congenital" as meaning: "Occurring prior to birth, due to parent's genetic input." Congenital does not mean genetic. Something that is congenital may or may not be genetic (inherited). For example, congenital syphilis is present at birth but is not genetic.

Old folks back home offered advice that still hold a great deal of, unrecognized, truth today:

If you don't know something, ask somebody ... or at least read a book.

OH! So people DO care if the President gets sick! Ha! Personally, I couldn't care less...

it's not the presdident's fault about your nephew. I'm sorry for your loss and definitely understand your anger though.

"maybe they waited to see what might happen ... then went and got their's. Would have been nice if they were in line first to show there was no fear of it!!!"

I was just waiting for this, although I know, boobdedu, that YOU weren't bashing the President. Had they got theirs first, you would have had the complaints we're getting from the ignorant ones who thought they did (but of course, they were wrong like they usually are). They waited their turn like everybody else, so now the Obama bashers only complaint can be "Would have been nice if they were in line first to show there was no fear of it!!! The President made them wait to see what might happen...."

From greck, above;

"I heard Rush Limbaugh talking about this: he said that they got in line like everyone else, then he went on to ask if there was any doubt that the got their shots ahead of others, and talked as if his supposition was true with no factual basis."

Knowing that Limbaugh brought it up only proves that, no matter what the situation, Obama bashers, Republicans and the Conservative Right will rake up any muck and try to make a non-issue like this one sound like a cause for impeachment. They have absolutely no shame, using two little girls to further their agenda of attacking our President....!

Your right that high risk kids are not getting it. I read today that health personnal don't like turning someone away so they give the shot/spray to everone who is in line. The stupid comment I read said, "We hate to turn them away when they have already been in line". These people know they should not be there, but they have joined in the mass hysteria.

And thus your family and others suffer the horrible, never healing pain of losing a child.

I am a high risk adult. I got the seasonal flu shot last Friday cause they have alot of it. I will not be taking the H1N1.

The doctors offices ran out of flu vaccine (seasonal) over two weeks ago) as did WAl Greens, etc. The health dept is having a massive seasonal flu clinic at the convention center as we speak.

How about you show me where it says there is so much extra vaccine in Washington before you make that statement. Whats funny to me is the fact that without a doubt, the White House Physician could have obtained the flu vaccine at anytime and given it to everyone there. However the President chose to have his kids stand in line like millions of other people. Good on him. Nepotism is amazinging easy to get away with yet he'd rather it appear that his kids were no more special than millions of others.

To be honest, it doesnt matter which side argues here. He's damned by one side for his supposed favoritism, and damned by the other side for turning his kids flu shots into some media stunt.

There is probably supply in your area now. The tragedy (if you are not making this up, which I wonder since you are the second person here claiming a dead nephew) was that your nephew missed the supply by weeks. I don't think the Obamas (or anyone else) should wait to be vaccinated and therefore possibly die until the supply has reached the last corner of the land

Every thing has a start, a beginning - The disease had a patient "Zero", then someone else got it.

Someone has to be immunized first, the shipments have to be delivered "somewhere" first. There are many diseases which we can easily cure today, which were a death sentence 10 years ago.

Your anger, your pain - while understandable, is morbidly, misplaced. Seriously - seek grief counseling to help get over your loss. By even the most fanatical measure, I'm sure, if you were thinking logically - you would understand that no one specifically withheld vaccine from you or your family.

And I'm sure that it is frightening to know that your other child is not protected. I pray both of your kids remain well.

I doubt it will be months. The supply is fairly good here in California. If you are that concerned, keep your kids home until it is available.

boopdedu:

Sorry, I guess I made a mistake. I said I thought you WEREN'T bashing Obama. Apparently, your reply says I was wrong.

The Right LOVES this. If Obama DOESN'T vaccinate his kids, he knows it is a plot to poison the nation's kids. If he DOES he is killing toddlers who didn't get the vaccine in time. Most rightwingers were on record as refusing to vaccinate their progeny because, after all, it was all a government/big pharm plot to inject mercury into us all. But now that the Obamas have done the sane thing (taking their turn in line to do so) they are suddenly preventing every toddler in America with asthma or a similar disease from being protected.

Dunno, when I went to get my shot (being in a CDC approved group), there was no line.