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I have no intentions of waiting on the government to tell me its to late. I want my vaccination now!
This leaves me to wonder how I can acquire such a vaccination?

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This leaves me to wonder how I can acquire such a vaccination?

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I am sure you have already seen this from the CDC website, but for others who might also be wondering:

"There currently is no commercially available vaccine to protect humans against H5N1 virus that is being seen in Asia and Europe. However, vaccine development efforts are taking place. Research studies to test a vaccine to protect humans against H5N1 virus began in April 2005, and a series of clinical trials is under way. For more information about H5N1 vaccine development process, visit the National Institute of Health."
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It is to my knowledge one of the drugs being stockpiled by all governments around the world is Tamiflu, which is not known to be a cure. Here is another link for some thought. Curent testing, and vaccine

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Yes, but Tamiflu (oseltamavir) is one of the ones that they are not sure will be effective. More studies need to be conducted.

Edit: Oh, yeah...you said that didn't you. My mistake.

Now if you want to volunteer to test the vaccines they are working on here are the Universities doing the research. I wouldn't do it, but if you want a vaccine badly enough....

The VTEUs now enrolling adult volunteers are

University of California at Los Angeles (Joel Ward, M.D., Principal Investigator)
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD (James Campbell, M.D., Principal Investigator)
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY (John Treanor, M.D., Principal Investigator)
In addition to the previous contract awarded to sanofi pasteur, in May 2004 NIAID also awarded a contract to Chiron Corporation of Emeryville, CA, to produce H5N1 vaccine for clinical trials.
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The most you can do right now is get a regular flu shot. This will gear up your immune system and prepare it for the hit, if it ever comes. It will not keep you from being hospitalized, but it will give you better chances at survival then someone who didn't get one.

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I don't believe this is true. The flu shots given at the onset of a flu season are tailored specifically for flu strains that may possibly be a problem during that season. While these influenza strains are similar to the avian flu, they are not the avian flu, so a regular flu shot will do nothing toward the avian flu. The flu shot given causes your body to produce antibodies to protect you from the specific viruses that they are tailored for and nothing else. The idea that a flu shot will protect you from anything other than what it was developed for or boost your immune system is a myth.

There are things you can do to boost your immune system, I am not going to go into detail here about it. The old fashioned way may be the best way; eating a healthy diet, exercising, getting plenty of rest and keeping your stress down to a minimum, these will go a long way toward boosting your immune system immensely.

As for protecting yourself and your loved ones against a pandemic of avian flu? Read this, it is a discussion about Tamiflu and Relenza, medications commonly used for flu symptoms.

"For the neuraminidase inhibitors,(Tamiflu and Relenza) the main constraints – which are substantial – involve limited production capacity and a price that is prohibitively high for many countries. At present manufacturing capacity, which has recently quadrupled, it will take a decade to produce enough oseltamivir(Tamiflu) to treat 20% of the world’s population. The manufacturing process for oseltamivir is complex and time-consuming, and is not easily transferred to other facilities.

Following a donation by industry, WHO will have a stockpile of antiviral medications, sufficient for 3 million treatment courses, by early 2006. Recent studies, based on mathematical modelling, suggest that these drugs could be used prophylactically near the start of a pandemic to reduce the risk that a fully transmissible virus will emerge or at least to delay its international spread, thus gaining time to augment vaccine supplies."

"Is the world adequately prepared?

No. Despite an advance warning that has lasted almost two years, the world is ill-prepared to defend itself during a pandemic. WHO has urged all countries to develop preparedness plans, but only around 40 have done so. WHO has further urged countries with adequate resources to stockpile antiviral drugs nationally for use at the start of a pandemic. Around 30 countries are purchasing large quantities of these drugs, but the manufacturer has no capacity to fill these orders immediately. On present trends, most developing countries will have no access to vaccines and antiviral drugs throughout the duration of a pandemic."
source

So, the WHO has said they are stockpiling these medications, that the world is nowhere near prepared for a pandemic, and that it would take ten years to produce enough Tamiflu to cover only 20% of the world population!

You know what, I am not waiting for them. I am stockpiling my own!



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I can remember some doctor guy on TV quite a while ago warning everyone to stockpile vaccines, quite a few countries ignored him.

I hope this thing is like the next plague, next time maybe moron politicians will listen to people. Its allways best to air on the side of caution when dealing with deadly diseases.

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One more time.....there are NO vaccines available against the Avian flu at this time. Research is being conducted at the present time.



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Well, maybe they decided to stockpile chicken soup then.

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You know, I used to advocate the use of chicken soup for the flu, but now..........



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possible epidemic might occur, so they might as well get injected by the very host (virus) that they're trying to avoid getting! Hell, ok I'll buy that bullshit. Since people are lining up at the first sneeze they see or hear to get injected with the very virus they fear contracting, let's go all the way and get injected with a venereal disease so that in case some of us wants to feel "randy" and take a walk on the wild side by not using protection, at least we'll already have one of the several VD's out there in our system. Damn, I don't know what possesses these idiots to get a VIRUS injected into their immune system JUST so they can have the false sense of security that if they already are sick as a dog (voluntarily I might add) then when the bug actually catches up to them...they'll be impervious to it. Ok...and Elvis is alive and well.

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Let me just clarify something here. You are not injected with a live virus when you get a flu shot. You are injected with a killed virus, that triggers an immune response in your body. It does not give you the flu, it does not give you flu symptoms. It may give you a sore arm, but unless you are allergic to it, it will NOT make you sick.

It is only a false sense of security in that people tend to think that if they get the shot they are protected from all viruses. That is not true. Their bodies will, however, produce antibodies against the specific influenza that the shots are produce to protect against, and that changes from year to year.

Stop perpetuating myths and do some research.


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Well, maybe they decided to stockpile chicken soup then.

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You know, I used to advocate the use of chicken soup for the flu, but now..........



Hail Satan!

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The flu shot given causes your body to produce antibodies to protect you from the specific viruses that they are tailored for and nothing else.

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The flu shot given causes your body to produce antibodies to protect you from the specific viruses that they are tailored for and nothing else.

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The immune system doesn't quite work like that. Smallpox vaccinations are of a related virus, not smallpox. If the immune system only recognizes specific proteins, then how would it be possible for smallpox vaccinations to work? It's simple; the immune system is more adaptable than you give it credit for.

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Okay, I do not profess to be an expert on the human immune system. It is a complex, multifaceted system, that continues to be the subject of much research.


That being said, I don't see how your example of the small pox vaccine disputes what I said in my post about how the immune system works within the context of antigens and antibodies.

I concede that the small pox vaccine is made from a virus that is related to small pox (vaccinia) and not the actual small pox virus.(I don't think that I intimated that you cannot do this.) This virus is antigenically equivalent to the small pox virus, so that it is able to provoke the body into producing the antibodies that will protect you from the targeted virus. It will protect you from small pox, and the vaccinia virus. That is pretty specific. It won't protect you from any other viruses. (Unless of course they are also antigenic equivalents, and I don't know if there are others or not.) It isn't going to protect you from the varicella virus, even though that is also a pox virus. You need to be innoculated with varicella, either by disease or vaccine, in order to be protected from it, otherwise you remain susceptible, no matter how many other different vaccines you get.

It is certainly possible that I am not giving the immune system as much credit for adaptability as it actually has, but you have not shown me anything that disputes that vaccines are target specific. If I get the flu vaccine for this flu season it will protect me only from antigenically equivalent viruses and nothing more, and avian flu is obviously not antigenically equivalent to these viruses. If it were, the WHO would be recommending people in high risk nations receive it, and they are not. I'm certainly not going to count on it.



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As for not having to be a nurse to other human beings....um, but that's my profession. .....runs to put on gas mask.

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Yes, there are times when they just don't pay us enough! When you consider the risks...


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If it were, the WHO would be recommending people in high risk nations receive it, and they are not.

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Well I'm not an expert either, but the notice my father got at the hospital suggested that they all get flu virus shots. And the way he explained it, antigenic equivalence was a factor. So I guess your going to stock up on tamiflu, I'll get the shot, and who ever dies first is wrong.

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Although for those who can't stomach it, perhaps a vaccine would be preferable.

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Your right, the vaccine would be preferable.

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I heard on morning radio that officials in South Korea are encouraging evryone in South Korea, that Kim chi kills all airborne strains of "The Bird Flu."

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As a medical provider, I have been offered the flu-shot every year. I'm not too crazy about getting it, but it beats bringing germs to a medical facility where people can die if they get the flu. In the ten years that I have been getting it, not once did i get the flu. It must be a great placebo.
However, personally I wouldn't take the shots if it wasn't for the above situation. I believe that it is good for the imune system once in awhile to get a good work out fighting something off. Also the flu shot does not contain a live virus, so one is not injected with the virus that makes them sick. The immune system is "Fooled" into thinking that the live virus is in the body, and it creates antibodies, so when the real virus enters the body, it is ready with the antibodies to fight it off, instead of having to wait three weeks for the body to get the defense ready, delaying healing.
Or something like that.

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Hmmm.....I'm confused, were you responding to my chicken soup comment? That was a joke, ya know?

On the other hand, I never said the flu vaccine was a placebo, it was some other poster that made that intimation. That being said, however, I too am a health care provider. I have very rarely taken the proffered flu vaccines, and guess what, in twenty years of providing care I too have never gotten the flu! I guess it doesn't prove anything either way.


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