What happened to all the H1N1 vaccine they said we had?

[Tacoma]

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/new...-toronto-plans-for-mass-swine-flu-vaccination

You’d think if adjuvants were safe, they wouldn’t be bothering to make a special vaccine for pregnant women.

I think that is a case of perception becoming a dangerous reality. Sorta goes like this:

- a fear (legit or not, I don't know) that adjuvants are dangerous to pregnant women

- pregnant women choose not to get he needle because of the adjuvants

- a key member group of the higher at risk community, then, is not being vaccinated.

So the choices are, spend the entire flu season trying to convince pregnant women that any risk that the adjuvents pose is lower than the risk of H1N1 itself of just adapt the program, produce some adjuvent free doses and hopefully vaccinate a higher percentage of the pregnant women.

Rather than take it as an indication that the rest of us are getting bad needles, take it as an adaptive health care system trying to adress the concerns of its population.

My understanding is the adjuvant in H1N1 vaccines in Canada is suppose to contain oil, water and vitamin E and the vaccine is being produced by GlaxoSmithKline. Tests have been done to verify that adding such adjuvants safely stimulated the immune response to the vaccine and thus less of it is needed.

However, apparently, there is no safety data yet on use of adjuvanted vaccine in pregnant women and so, until such data becomes available, as a precautionary measure, they're recommending pregnant women use the non-adjuvanted version.

 

[grey]

My understanding is the adjuvant in H1N1 vaccines in Canada is suppose to contain oil, water and vitamin E and the vaccine is being produced by GlaxoSmithKline. Tests have been done to verify that adding such adjuvants safely stimulated the immune response to the vaccine and thus less of it is needed.

However, apparently, there is no safety data yet on use of adjuvanted vaccine in pregnant women and so, until such data becomes available, as a precautionary measure, they're recommending pregnant women use the non-adjuvanted version.

Regarding those oh-so-reassuring safety tests:

Health Canada has been working with GlaxoSmithKline, the country's pandemic flu vaccine contractor, for several years on a process to fast-track pandemic vaccine.

That work, using an H5N1 vaccine as a surrogate, has given the regulatory agency access to data on the safety and effectiveness of GSK's adjuvant, AS03.

"We do have a lot of data which has been generated on the safety of the adjuvant with the H5 background," says Dr. Elwyn Griffiths, director general of Health Canada's biologics and genetic therapies directorate, which regulates vaccines.

Griffiths says Health Canada wants GSK to conduct a small study that would provide "minimum data on initial immunogenicity and some safety data if we're going for the adjuvanted vaccine."

If it is decided adjuvant must be added to get a good response from the vaccine or should be added to stretch out limited supplies, Griffiths says Health Canada would turn to a tool known as a notice of compliance, using interim orders under Canada's Food and Drugs Act.

"Because we can't have the big studies, you see? So we will go on the minimal data, which we would get from a much smaller study, which is being developed," he says.

The US and Canada have never licenced flu vaccines with adjuvants in them before, which is why there have been hurdles in trying to fast-track pandemic vaccines. FDA officials have admitted they would rather not use adjuvants unless they're absolutely necessary in order to provide enough vaccine to everyone.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Ontario facing shortage of H1N1 vaccine next week: health minister

1 hour, 4 minutes ago

By The Canadian Press
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WINDSOR, Ont. - Ontario's health minister says local health units will receive just a fraction of the doses of H1N1 vaccine they had been expecting from the federal government.

Deb Matthews says the province was expecting to receive about one million doses of the vaccine for next week, but will only receive about 170,000 from the federal government.

Matthews - who abruptly left the Liberal party's annual general meeting in Windsor Friday - is flying back to Toronto to speak with Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Arlene King, about how the province will deal with the shortage.

King says one way to deal with it is for all people who are not in a high-risk group to stay away from the flu clinics for now.

Clinics are being limited to priority groups only all across Canada, King told a news conference in Toronto Friday.

Canada's chief public health officer has said that delivery of the H1N1 vaccine to the provinces will slow a bit over the next couple of weeks because the manufacturer was asked to make special batches of the product for pregnant women.

Dr. David Butler-Jones said the slowing of the flow would likely require some to scale back their vaccination efforts.

Matthews says the matter is urgent.

"We just received word that we are going to be getting less than 20 per cent of what we expected to get, so we are now revising our strategy."

"We are committed to getting the vaccine out to those who need it the most," she said.

Health units across the province are scrambling to better organize the opening of clinics to the general public after higher than anticipated turnouts resulted in people being turned away earlier this week.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091030/national/ont_flu

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I got my regular influenza shot today. My GP told me that he just got information that H1N1 will likely be rolled out to all Doctor's offices in two to three weeks, previously that was not going to happen. We briefly discussed the current mess at the H1N1 clinics. He sighed and with an unusual display of anger he said that in 23 years of practicing medicine he has never seen such a public health debacle and mass confusion as to what is happening now across the country with regards to the H1N1 vaccinations.
This is exactly what I've been thinking in the past couple of days, he confirmed it.

 

[Therion]

I was all set to get the swine flu shot sometime next week, then read in Metro today that there's only 6 million doses available. Ie. less than 20% of Canada's population is covered. 3 million should be arriving "soon". I don't think I'll have a chance of getting a flu shot for at least a month at this rate, since I don't have time to go stand in line for 4 hours, like all those people in front of the municipal building at King and John today.

 

[golodhendil]

You're missing a lot of information, Dr. Swarley. The difference between “good†and “bad†squalene is the route by which it enters your body. Injection is an abnormal route of entry which incites your immune system to attack all the squalene in your body, not just the vaccine adjuvant.

Your immune system will attempt to destroy the molecule wherever it finds it, including in places where it occurs naturally, and where it is vital to the health of your nervous system. This has happened in tests with lab rats and guinea pigs, and it's why the US and Canadian health authorities haven't approved squalene.

Rather than getting your information on these things from random internet sites or oft-befuddling news reports, I advise you to consult some sources that are slightly more reputable (like this), or just pick up any introductory immunology textbook. Adjuvants have been used safely in vaccines for almost a century, and flu vaccines with squalene adjuvant has been used in Europe for more than a decade already. That FDA has not approved such vaccines says nothing about its safety but instead is a result of the difference in evaluation standards between FDA and EMEA; there has been many drugs that are not approved in the US but are in Europe, and vice versa.

That's a subject of heated debate. The FDA discovered the presence of squalene in certain lots of Anthrax vaccine that was given to deployed Persian Gulf personnel during the war. A clear link was established between that vaccine and all the Gulf War Syndrome sufferers who received it.

This is not a subject of "heated debate" and there is no "clear link", it is only a debate for conspiracy theorists and people who cherry-pick facts for their own agenda.

 

[OttoSchloss]

All the vaccine is going to Quebec, that's why!

jk.

 

[CharlotteR]

If it is, I'm certainly not seeing it here in Hull. lol

 

[Redroom Studios]

I dont take any medication (other than the ocassional glass of wine) and certainly would never take any injection at the recommendation of the medical industry or government. Maybe I'm just reckless but i havent been to a doctor in over 22 years. We're all going to die eventually... why fight it? More to the point, why make the bio-med industry rich off this campaign of fear?

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

I dont take any medication (other than the ocassional glass of wine) and certainly would never take any injection at the recommendation of the medical industry or government. Maybe I'm just reckless but i havent been to a doctor in over 22 years. We're all going to die eventually... why fight it? More to the point, why make the bio-med industry rich off this campaign of fear?

i think the medical industry loses money off of preventative medicine. imagine how much more money the industry could make off of treating an illness. i'm sure these companies that make vaccines for regular flu and H1N1 also make all kinds of medicines to treat the symptoms of flu and H1N1.

 

[golodhendil]

It's always amusing to see how people of the West, all the while reaping the benefits of centuries of science with or without knowing it, would gleefully turn around and denounce it as useless and nothing more than capitalist ploys.

 

[Roy G Biv]

Now they're delaying the public vaccinations that were supposed start on Monday, for "2-3 weeks". What a joke this has become.

The vaccine takes 10 days to kick in. This is far, far too late. Most of us will get our immunity by getting H1N1, and not the vaccine.

 

[tkip]

The nightmare continues....

It's becoming all too clear that most people are not going to get the shot in time if at all. And the entire thing has been bungled since day one. I was told that only one company was given the contract to manufacture the vaccine while there are something like 3 other companies that were capable of do it here in Canada.

And since they are so far behind on production and delivery common sense would suggest that having more than company involved in the process might have helped get it out faster. It just makes you wonder what's really going on behind the scenes.

And how much money is being made getting millions of doses done with the government picking up the tab. Apparently private clinics have the vaccine but in order to get it for free, you need to be assessed which costs approx $3400 before getting it.

I think the whole thing is a giant con job being pulled on the entire population making a handful of people very weathy.

 

[Second_in_pie]

I don't think that this is a capitalist ploy by the drug companies.

That said, this is definitely a very, very stupid way of handling things. They shouldn't be hailing the vaccine as the solution to the problem. H1N1 is in no way overly dangerous. Pregnant women should be getting it, but to the general population, it's no more dangerous than the regular flu is. The reason it's different is that it's more unstable, and has a higher chance of mutating into something that could potentially be dangerous, like the Spanish Flu. It hasn't shown that, so why do we need to worry so much?

Just make sure people stay inside if they're sick. Maybe close down schools and community centres in hot areas, and make sure all pregnant women get the vaccine as an extra precaution. But that's really all that should be done, not mobilizing the factories to make sure the entire population can get immunized before the third wave! People are definitely taking this way to seriously and are making a huge situation out of something that's only big.

 

[kettal]

to the general population, it's no more dangerous than the regular flu is.

Only if you ignore the alarmingly high fatality rate amongst some usually low-risk demographics...

The reason it's different is that it's more unstable, and has a higher chance of mutating into something that could potentially be dangerous, like the Spanish Flu. It hasn't shown that, so why do we need to worry so much?

Because even if this is a 'test run', it has exposed just how incompetent our system would be if there was a spanish-flu style pandemic. I'd say that's something to worry about, wouldn't you?