Now that the swine flu vaccine is being shipped, we have answers to some of the questions raised over the summer.

Adjuvants will not be used in the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.  The issue of adjuvants was raised a few weeks ago, when some believed that vaccines in the United States would be shipped with these additives due to shortages of the vaccine.  This turned out not to be the case.

Many people believe that the adjuvants may be toxic.  To help allay these fears, and because we were able to produce enough vaccine for the country, flu vaccines this season will not contain adjuvants.

Only one form of the vaccine will contain thimerosal.  The use of thimerosal (mercury) in the swine flu vaccine has caused a firestorm of controversy.  Thimerosal will be an ingredient ONLY in the multi-dose units of the vaccine.  Single-dose units will NOT contain thimerosal.  The nasal spray swine flu vaccine also will NOT contain thimerosal.

If you are concerned about thimerosal as a vaccine additive, be sure to ask for either the nasal spray or the single-dose unit.

The amount of thimerosal in the multi-dose unit is vanishingly small.  You ingest more mercury when you eat a can of tuna, or take a dose of antacids!  Nevertheless, if this concerns you, simply request the nasal spray or single-dose unit.

Many at-risk people will not be able to get the flu vaccine.  For example, cancer patients who are undergoing treatment cannot take the vaccine.  The same goes for people who are allergic to eggs, or other components of the vaccine.  Egg allergies occur throughout the population, in the very young and the very old.  

If you are on the fence about receiving a flu shot, please think of these people.  Catching influenza could easily prove fatal for them.  When you contract influenza, you act to spread the virus further through the population.  (After all, that is how contagious diseases work!)  The virus that was incubated in your body could end up in the body of someone unable to fend it off.
At-risk, unvaccinatable people rely on "herd immunity" to keep them from getting the flu.  If enough members of a herd (be it a herd of cattle, or a city of people) is vaccinated against a disease, then the entire herd is effectively immune.  If the disease cannot get a foothold, then it cannot spread.

The problem is when that percentage of unvaccinated herd members rises to the point where a disease can get a food hold and spread.  This is looking like it will be a bad season, both for the swine flu and for the regular seasonal flu.  

Remember that if we avoid a lethal flu pandemic like the Spanish flu of 1918, it will only be because enough people get vaccinated, and stop the spread!  Vaccination works against pandemics the same way that fire breaks work against forest fires.  

If you are physically able to get the vaccine, please do your part for the greater good and get vaccinated as soon as you are able.