Senior Citizens

[Guest Wayne77590]

There is a news article that can be evaluated by a Google search for the words "senior citizen vaccine."

One of the links is a Kansas Newspaper

I kind of wonder if this is a form of discrimination. Who would think that senior citizens are immune to the swine flu?

[jrwitt]

"Senior Citizen Vaccine"? There is a vaccine to prevent becoming a senior citizen? Hmmm ... I gotta quit reading this stuff in the middle of the night.

[seajaycecil@yahoo.com]

SWINE FLU

A friend of mine told me the symptoms for Swine Flu are as follows:

You get an imperishable hankoring for PURENA HOG CHOW

and you want to ''make love'' in the mud and your tail gets curly......

Thats my story and I'm stickin' to it....

Seajay the sailor man.......

[tbutler]

No, this is not discrimination! It is good medicine. If you read the article it says and the news stories also say that the H1N1 virus is affecting mostly young people. School age children seem to be most vulnerable. Older people have at least partial immunity to it due to possible previous exposure to similar viruses. When older people do get it the H1N1 flu is not so severe and seldom causes death. So the Center for Disease Control has said that IF there are limited supplies, the groups that are most vulnerable should get the vaccine first. The article does indicate that senior citizens in poor health or with certain conditions should receive the vaccine.

Here is the text of the article with references for further reading:

Who should get the H1N1 vaccine?

The latest information provided to the area Health Departments says that the following groups of people are the first who should get this vaccine:

* Pregnant women

* Household contacts of infants less than six months old

* Children from six months to 24 years old

* Adults from 25 to 64 years old if they chronic medical conditions

* Medical care providers

There is no rank or order in this listing. If there is less vaccine produced and shipped than expected, a priority grouping has been developed, which includes:

* Pregnant women

* Household contacts of infants less than six months old

* Children from six months to four years old

* Children from five to 18 years old with medical conditions

* Medical care providers who have direct contact with infected people.

Again, in this list there is no required rank or order. However, if the supply is very limited, area health departments may be directed to only provide the vaccine to this group of people who are at higher risk of contracting H1N1.

This information may change as the situation develops.

Who decides this?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes these priority list as they receive them from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of 15 medical professionals who are considered experts in the field of immunization.

Senior citizens are regularly told to get flu vaccines; why are they not listed?

With the regular seasonal flu, senior citizens are one of the groups that are at a much higher risk of being infected and getting sick. Most of the deaths from influenza each year in the United States are senior citizens. With H1N1, this has not been the case.

Senior citizens so far have for the most part not been personally affected by H1N1. It appears that those over the age of 50 have some immunity to H1N1 from past exposure to other, similar influenza viruses.

It also appears as if this virus targets younger people, rather than the usual groups that seasonal flu affects. If this begins to change, the recommendations will change.

Where can I find more information about H1N1 and the vaccine?

The most up-to-date information can be found at flu.gov, a Web site set up by the federal government with input from the Department of Homeland Security, the Health and Human Services, and the CDC.

[DoggyDaddy]

Wouldn't you gain more confidence in the President of the United States if he,

his cabinet and czars and the Congress were the very first to take the vaccine.

It would make me feel better.

[tbutler]

So Joe, are you afraid of a little shot?? I'll gladly be the first to take any vaccine needed. All the fuss you hear about vaccines is quite simply a load of bull. People who object to vaccines are Luddites who are afraid of anything they can't understand and generally these people don't understand much. Vaccines save millions of lives every year and most people don't realize it because it has become so routine that it just seems the norm. Then someone comes along and makes a claim that a vaccine caused this or that and they don't want to take any shots. There are whole diseases that our children don't have to worry about because of vaccines. When was the last time you worried about getting polio? How about small pox?

I have had the pneumonia vaccine and the shingles vaccine. When they come up with a vaccine for Alzheimer's or AIDS, I'll be first in line!

And, oh yes, I am very confident in our President, his aids, his advisers, his cabinet and even our Congress. I just happen to think that the U.S. government while not perfect by any means is still the best choice on this planet.

[jrwitt]

Be aware that the shingles vaccine, unlike most vaccines, is a LIVE VIRUS vaccine. Although the likelyhood of it causing a problem is low, it is much higher risk than with a killed virus like most vaccines. And shingles is a really nasty illness. My brother was laid up literally for months with it. I decided to take the vaccine even with the elevated risk.

And I agree with you. I would rather take the risk of vaccines than the risk of polio, flu, or any of the other vacinnes. I read awhile back that smallpox has been completely irradicated. The only smallpox left in the world is in labs in places like the CDC in Atlanta and similar places.

Jack

[tbutler]

Jack,

You are correct that the shingles vaccine is a live virus vaccine. The virus is a non infectious variant of the shingles virus. This tricks the body into recognizing the virus as foreign material and creating antibodies to destroy it. Those same antibodies will attack the infectious form of the virus thus preventing the shingles outbreak. The body would produce these antibodies against the disease when it occurs but during the time the body builds up the antibody level, you are very ill. If you have taken the vaccine, your body will build up full defenses against the shingles virus before an attack by the virus. As a result, the disease never gets off the ground. You don't even know you have been saved from a disease which is a very painful and in some patients a debilitating even fatal disease. I've known several people who have had shingles and it is not a disease you want to have in old age.

Joe,

I'm going to temper my above remarks by saying that your attack on the President and Congress coupled with the implied misinformed vaccination information touched a nerve. My service in the Army Medical Service Corps and a subsequent career in science and health education has made me a strong defender of public health programs and of course our government.