The current population of the US is 307,956,226 (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html).

Now, the chances are as follows:
getting the flu: 1 in 0.00007262 or 1 chance out of 13,770
dying from the flu: 1 in 0.000002848 or 1 out of every 351,147 people

That’s a pretty small chance of getting the flu, much less dying from it.

Some background on me and my family:
Neither of our 4 children have ever received any flu shot. They have contracted it from other children in their schools, but have gotten over it in just a few days. And one of them has a mild case asthma.
I however had a bad case of asthma when I was young. I would sometime wake up in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen mask on my face. This is in spite of having received some kind of steriod (via a shot about once every 2 weeks for 3-4 years), that was supposed to prevent the asthma attacks I experienced. My choice was to control my breathing (learning how to get by on less breathing), while I was breathing OK … and when I thought of it. I also have noted over the years that certain food dyes can make my (and our daughter’s) breathing more difficult. They are FD&C Blue #2 (Indigotine), FD&C Red #40 (Allura Red), FD&C Yellow #5 (Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow)

The only time I have ever contracted the flu was coincidentally the same year that I received the flu shot (the only time in my life).

As for asthma and possible triggers, feel free to visit this link I found in a Google search: http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=20&cont=285
or
http://www.occupationalasthma.com/occupational_asthma_viewreference.aspx?id=3466

http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=289

Some friends say: Incubation period 4 hours before symptoms.
Other friends say 12 days (these are the people that don’t believe in vaccinations by the way.)
then some people say nothing to worry about you are young and healthy although the young and healthy (especially woman have a higher fatality rate) But then they are saying in the news IT IS THE OLD IT IS THE OLD! But when you read carefully the highest percentage is that of 25 to 49 BUT the headlines is either THE OLD or THE YOUNG and although it is novel what with the young dying why then aren’t 25 to 35 year old women (men too?) ON THE PRIORITY LIST!!!!!?????

Unless of course the fatality rate for us isn’t actually higher. And why do my friends talk to matter of factly huh? Should I call them on it? I don’t like it when people hand out falsities like bandaids

I don’t think Ill get the vaccine until I get some answers because I am clearly very confused….

I think the poor kid that died not long after a hockey game sent the country into more of a hysteria-oriented mood, and perhaps rightfully so given some of the risks this virus poses. I think Harper’s remarks a few weeks back also confused a lot of Canadians about whether he would get the vaccination or not.

I am actually very surprised at the number of conspiracy theorists out there. I wont go into details but I have heard some crazy stories.

Finally, I do find it amusing that the government spent all this money on a marketing campaign to tell everyone that they need to get vaccinated and informed them about all the dangers of H1N1 and then the same government is shocked when people actually listen to them and decide that they will in fact get vaccinated.

I suppose the government IS actually accelerating the fears. I think the reality is that these types of illnesses WILL spread whether there are major attempts at wide-spread vaccination or not – just hope you’re immune system is up to snuff and you don’t end up a statistic

What this really highlights is that if there really was an epidemic with moderate to high non-discriminate death rates, say 2-10% – we’d be screwed. Our government wouldn’t roll out action efficiently, people would riot and probably get violent. Man, all those movies I watched WERE true. Time to get all Charlton Heston on you guys – where’s my machine gun?