The current Swine Flu Pandemic appears to be being used as a new tactic to scare people into being vaccinated. Vaccinations are a touchy subject. Some people really believe in them, others have their doubts, myself included.

So for those of you planning on getting vaccinated this fall, do your research! Make sure you are making the best decision for yourself. Some of the information I have discovered about the Swine Flu vaccination currently being developed, shows that it is clearly unsafe and unreliable.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this summer that H1N1 was a level 6 pandemic, the use of untested vaccines and drugs will be permitted in Canada. By the time the vaccine comes out this fall, not enough testing and human trial runs will have been conducted, since human trials only began in mid-August.

More alarmingly, some of the ingredients being used in the H1N1 vaccines are disturbing and incredibly harmful to the human body. They include chicken embryos and/or chicken tissue culture, influenza virus (live, attenuated), ASO3 (containing squalene which is linked to autoimmune diseases such as Gulf War Syndrome), polysorbate 80, a harmful preservative), and thiomersal (mercury, which is already an ingredient in the commonly used seasonal influenza vaccine).

So be safe, do not get sick during this flu season, take precautionary measures for H1N1 and have a great semester! Check out these sites for more information.

General information about Swine Flu and Vaccinations:
http://vran.org/about-vaccines/specific-vaccines/influenza-vaccine-flu-shot/h1n1-pandemic-influenza-vaccine/ (Vaccine Risk Awareness Network, a Canadian site)

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/08/14/swine-flu-vaccine.html (A CBC article)

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/08/06/swine-flu-vaccine.html (A CBC article)

Symptoms of H1N1
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/Symptoms.aspx (A British and Irish national health site)

Pandemics
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/pandemic-0411.html (Massachusetts Institute of Technology article)