It leaves me wondering if I should still go for the H1N1 shot now (assuming my doc has it again).

Potato thanks for some facts and figures around the mercury issue. As a relatively new parent I still have a hard time accepting that this tiny person will have the same amount of toxic material injected into her, I guess you have to weigh in the benefits.

Shevy I’m interested, did you actually get diagnosed with H1N1 then? I ask as I was the one lucky enough to bring something home two weeks ago and infected everyone at home. My wife and I were prescribed this tamiflu stuff but the little one wasn’t and did take a lot longer to recover. It has left me wondering if we’ve already had some exposure to H1N1 or if it was another random bug. Knowing could really make a non-issue of the vaccine issue for us but I have no idea if you just go to your doctor to be tested. He didn’t seem interested when he was diagnosing and prescribing for us.

I would have thought if health organisations are trying to track the disease they would want to have tests on anyone who appeared to have the symptoms, although I do realise that would be a huge undertaking. Without knowing how many people have been exposed though how can we possibly keep track of the statistical seriousness of the illness such as deaths/hospitalisations/infection ratios?

We went to a walk in clinic Sunday evening and I was given Tamiflu. Both of us are pretty much better (no fever for more than 24 hours, although we’re both coughing) and I think we’re going back to school & work tomorrow since the “no fever +1 day” rule is the criteria for when to go back.

I’m weak and still barely eating but I’ve been much sicker with other flus in the past and much, much sicker the time I had Norwalk. I was passing out on the bathroom floor that time in between bouts. I have no clue how much to credit the Tamiflu for all this.

But I would definitely encourage people to get both the seasonal and the H1N1.

The Arepanrix vaccine has 2.5 micrograms organic mercury (Hg) per 0.5mL dose.

Tuna can contain over 0.5 ppm of mercury, so 5 g of tuna would give you as much mercury as the shot — about 1/30 of a can.

The vaccine in no way represents a medically significant dose of mercury, even for children. [I am obviously not a medical doctor, but anyone that seriously thinks a guy named Potato on the internet is dispensing medical advice has more money than brains if they come a-suin'. Aren't disclaimers fun?]

As for waiting on more studies, unfortunately that’s the nature of uncertainty: we have evidence in trials that the vaccine does stimulate the production of antibodies. We know from other vaccines prepared similarly that they tend to be safe and about 90+% effective. We can surmise that this one will be similar. But we won’t be certain of that until the opportunity for a timely vaccination program has long passed. Not being sure is not the same thing as not having a clue.

Here’s how I do it. First Gargling with salt and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar will relieve the throat infection. Eat a lot of veggies and fruits. We most eat Papaya, kiwi, and grape fruit for Vitamin C. Eat Chicken soup! Mix Lemon, maple syrup, and Cayenne pepper and drink it early in the morning and 3 times a day. For cough we apply Organic Apple Cider Vinegar two teaspoons every 2 to 4 hours. Oregano oil for throat and cough. Cut Ginger and suck it like a candy for hacking cough. We also take Coconut Virgin Oil for anti-viral. Cut garlic for fever. For supplements, we have multi vitamins, vitamin c 1000 mg. I also added Vitamin B-complex, flax seed oil, omega 3-6-9, calcium magnesium for myself. I double my supplement intake when I am sick. We keep drinking tea with honey.

By doing this, it only last 1 to 2 days. You can do your own research by googling the benefits of each one of them such as lemon, garlic, ginger, coconut oil, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar, honey and so on.

Just because a certain amount of mercury might be safer for you doesn’t mean it’s unsafe for the baby.

My main concerns are that from my reading (mainly CBC) it appears that
1) My infant will get the same dose as I would which with the mercury seems excessive considering I have 7 times the body mass to deal with absorbing this toxic material. I realise sea food has mercury in it but she isn’t eating that yet either
2) Their haven’t been many studies on the effectiveness of the vaccine and the majority of the studies that have been done are for adults. It’s suggested in the article below we won’t know the effectiveness from the Canadian study until next year, so people are waiting in the cold for 6hrs for something we aren’t sure is going to work. (Sounds like a good way to catch the flu)
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/20/h1n1-vaccine-clinical-trials-canada.html
3) It also seems like the “experts” are concerned about the lack of information for the non-typical adult test group.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/09/17/h1n1-vaccine-babies.html

I’m not against this if it prevents people from dieing and I’d love it if someone can correct anything I’ve got wrong. It just seems like their is conflicting information and not enough research on the stuff I care about, which is my infant, to make an informed decision.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/09/23/flu-shots-h1n1-seasonal.html