Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I don’t know if millions of doses have been given out or not, but even if they have, we do not (yet) know what the longterm side effects of this vaccine may be. It is not like the typical flu. When I was hospitalized recently, I overheard nurses talking about their concern that they were being forced to take the vaccine. I asked my doc for it, but neither he nor most doctors in the neighborhood are willing to give it yet, and they will not assure us that it is safe.
In the 1950s, pregnant women were given a drug called thalidomide, which calmed their nausea. A statistically significant large number of those women gave birth to babies with horrible deformities, having limbs either missing entirely or foreshortened, as well as other malformations. All their doctors thought they were doing the right thing at the time. The H1N1 vaccine is relatively new and there has not been sufficient time for a thorough follow up at this point. It is a gamble, according to the people with whom I have spoken. I sincerely hope that none of my doctor’s patients, myself included, come down with this illness. But I have to also believe that if my doctor is so concerned, there is a valid reason for that. Meanwhile, I just had major surgery, and I cannot even take a REGULAR flu shot yet, much less a swine flu one.