Bad Medicine

In Manitoba, Canada, a batch of the H1N1 vaccine has been recalled due to "higher rates of severe allergic reactions." Before the recall, two deaths were reported in Manitoba, both within one week of receiving the vaccine. Although it has yet to be determined whether the vaccines were indeed the cause of death, sources believe that the vaccines were from the same batch soon after recalled by producer GlaxoSmithKline.

The recalled vaccine doses were from a batch shipped in late October that have been shown to produce "severe allergic reactions…at a rate of one in 20,000," opposed to the normal rate of one in 100,000. The investigation thus far has determined that these allergy producing doses were fairly small and not effecting the overall supply, but with pharmaceutical companies having to answer a call to produce 4.5 billion doses of the vaccine, there may be a higher percentage of vaccines that cause significant side effects. It stands to reason that we should heed the advice of Teresa Forcades and the increasing amount of specialists asking for the public to take caution when deciding whether to receive the vaccination for a flu that is less deadly than the common seasonal flu, yet has a far greater amount of misleading information from governmental and media organizations surrounding it.

"H1N1 vaccine" by h1n1egypt on photobucket courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.