Flumist ethics?

[RachelGS]

I'm feeling uneasy about the wide proliferation of flumist and the live H1N1 vaccine, just from an ethical standpoint. These things shed, and there's no recommendation to quarantine a recently-vaccinated person. Anyone getting those vaccines is making the decision that it's okay to expose countless other people to flu. As someone with a few family members at heightened risk, I resent this. If I were inclined to get a vaccine, I could see this being the least scary, but only for me. It's making a choice to take a lesser risk for myself at the cost of increasing risk for people everywhere I go.

I don't like it.

[13Sandals]

I hear ya, and talking about ethics, the first doses of swine flu being shipped are the mist and they are going to health care workers first. Can you believe this? The folks most often around immuno compromised people will be getting swine flu mist. and in this article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=acdOznijEOeg, the CDC officials are quoted as saying its impossible to get sick from the mist:

The nasal vaccine is made from a genetically weakened form of the virus and is approved for people ages 2 to 49, excluding pregnant women and people with breathing difficulties such as asthma. Side effects are similar and may also include runny nose, wheezing, cough or headache. It’s impossible to contract the flu from either vaccine, the CDC’s Frieden said.

this is a sad time for everyone. I guess no liability does lead to unscrupulous behavior.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

Side effects are similar and may also include runny nose, wheezing, cough or headache. It’s impossible to contract the flu from either vaccine, the CDC’s Frieden said.

That makes no sense. The vaccine gives you all the symptoms of the flu, and then they say that it's impossible to contract the flu from it. Well who cares??? You essentially have the flu anyway and can walk around getting other people sick. That's craziness.

[Cristiaz]

I don't see LOGIC in this. The people who make these vaccines you'd think are smart people (they are chemists/scientists right?) but they seem to have no common sense whatsoever.

Off topic a tad, but, flu season started at the exact same time the vaccines became available. Coincidence? I think not. This includes the regular seasonal flu shot. Every year they give it earlier and every year, flu season starts earlier. When I was kid, flu season didn't start till December or January. I'm 32, and don't remember when the flu vaccine became part of the list of must haves.

[nia82]

Mmmh Mr. Frieden, if it is impossible that it sheds, how come the package insert of the very Flumist and Swine Flu Mist lists a 2.4% risk of shedding, that was actually shown and known to happen in clinical trials????

[amnesiac]

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