Or follow advice for Santa:

This week Morin leaves for his seasonal Santa job at a Bass Pro Shops store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he estimates more than 10,000 children will cross his lap.

When he couldn't get the H1N1 vaccination he desired, he consulted with a nurse at the Centers for Disease Control. On her advice he plans to sanitize his hands after every child and wipe his face with baby wipes several times an hour.

Good luck!

Seriously get the vaccine. Our entire household had H1N1 in the last two weeks. One adult with asthma and an 18 month old baby included. It was really scary and I am thankful for Tamiflu.

totellthetruth: If I heard correctly at an inservice yesterday for the Portage clinic, this is the first H1N1 clinic being held in Columbia County and their total supply is going to this clinic. I know of no counties not facing a shortage. In fact, there are 128 flu nurses working with my employer and most of us have not received an immunization either.

Sarah - I mistook credible diagnosis as meaning a test result.

It's an interesting site to read through but I do get a chuckle out of how they like to use words like 'probably' and 'likely to be' and that 'we believe...' throughout when talking about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. But I guess they need to cover themselves for when people get the vaccine then get the flu and all try to sue someone because they made certain statements instead of stating the possibility that it doesn't work.

"Seasonal influenza vaccines are highly effective in preventing influenza disease. The expectation is that a vaccine against 2009 H1N1 influenza would probably work in a similar fashion to the seasonal influenza vaccines. CDC and FDA believe that the benefits of vaccination with the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine will far outweigh the risks."

"All data point toward the fact that the vaccine is likely to be much safer than getting the disease," said Neal Halsey, Director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

They do choose carefully

Nucknuck: It's really unfortunate that there aren't a lot of preservative free vaccines available. I called the health dept yesterday and they didn't have any. I was told by my doctor's office that they have limited availability and it was first come, first serve for those people, even pregnant women.

So SarahB1, how come the rock county health department can't get enough to immunize all that want it? Last I heard that Rock County health department only got 100 doses of injectable H1N1 when they ordered 7,000 doses. Something sounds fishy? I can't drive to portage nor can my immunodeficient relatives. I guess that is good for Columbia county but it doesn't do crap for us.

MikeF:
Thank you for coming on here and relaying educated comments. I am in the healthcare field and these comments anger me especially when people don't know what they are talking about!

Ouisch: MikeF is correct. Unless you have a test result showing you have had H1N1, the CDC recommends that you receive this vaccine. There are millions of different viruses in our world and without a lab test, one does not know which virus caused them to be ill. Totellthetruth: President Obama's children received the vaccine during a time period when any person age 6 months to 24 years was eligible to receive it, regardless of their health history. This was the guideline under which H1N1 clinics were being held in some Wisconsin schools, such as in Dane County. I am a flu immunization RN and we administered thousands of doses to Madison schoolchildren during that time period. It was only in the midst of doing those vaccinations that it became known that the production was slower than anticipated. Also, Obama's oldest daughter most likely received a vaccine containing the preservative. Why? Because her health history and/or age excluded her from receiving the intranasal mist or any of the preloaded-syringe doses. The preservative is contained only in the multidose vials. On another note, there will be an H1N1 mass clinic between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) in Portage. We are anticipating that many seeking the vaccination will be from outside that county (Columbia). The latest guidelines (referring to age, health history, etc., of those eligible to receive a vaccination at this clinic) and more information is available on the Columbia County Department of Health website. We nurses have been told that there will be about 2,000 doses available.

After reading the CDC recommendation and re-reading the earlier posts, I need to make a slight correction to my earlier post. The vaccine will not help someone who is currently sick, but it may help those who only suspect they have gotten this strain. It is possible to have flu like symptoms without actually having the flu, much less having the H1N1 strain. So unless there has been an absolutely positive (as in a lab test showed it) confirmation, you cannot assume you are protected.
That said, getting the vaccine will not prevent you from getting this strain, but it will help lessen the intensity and duration of your illness. Your body will be able to react more quickly to fight off the illness.

If the pres's daughters didn't get it, people would claim it was because it wasn't a safe vaccine and fewer people would trust it for their kids...it was a lose/lose proposition (someone would find fault if they got it or not) so getting the vaccine was the right thing...even though some people will whine about it.

"So, even if someone has had an illness that’s similar to influenza, even if there was perhaps a credible diagnosis of H1N1 infection made, our recommendation would still be to receive the vaccine so that you know that you’re immune."

So CDC doesn't trust the swine flu test results much so ...go ahead and get the vaccine even after you've been sick, just in case you didn't really have it since there's so many kinds of flus?

That just sounds goofy to me. Are the test results that unreliable? So how far off are all these numbers circulating around?

I am just so glad that we had the opportunity to vaccinate the president and his high risk family before us!

luvujvl: "They" are the Centers for Disease Control.
http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2009...
.
Remember, most of the symptoms of the flu, especially the ones that make you miserable like body aches and a fever, are your immune response kicking in. If you get a second whammy of the virus, your body will still respond and you might get a milder illness. Dr. Sanjay Gupta thinks you're OK, but there's really no reason not to, as the vaccine is safe and will not itself make you sick.
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2009/...

By the time it comes availible the Janesville school kids will already of had it. Most of the Craig kids have had it...Janesvillean my kids doctor total us once you get swine flu you don't need the shot now your immune to it.

Ironic how the H1N1 virus has been sputtering around since the early winter months; and now the billion dollar effort to vax the masses is sputtering as well.

Its never too late for the high-risk populations. I hope that those individuals receive a preservative-free vaccination before the mass distribution campaign begins (again).

Getting the vaccine will not help those that have already been exposed to the virus. A vaccine is not like an antibiotic or a symptom reliever. A vaccine is a dead or weakened copy of the virus that is not strong enough to actually make you sick, but will trigger a response from your own immune system. This response is then "remembered" when you are exposed to the real thing and your body is then able to fight off the full strength virus. Essentially, you are mildly exposed to the illness in order to teach your body how to respond. If you have already been exposed to the illness, your body is already trying to respond and exposing it further will do no good.

Napalm....Janesville=Fail who in Janesville failed? If you can't get the vaccine, you cant get it.

Did Carnac the Magnificent make those predictions?

janesvillean - who are "they" ?

It is not too late for a vaccine -- they even say it will help people who have already been exposed. Current predictions are that most of the country will have been exposed by the end of NEXT year, but most Americans will have access to the vaccine by the end of THIS year.

Napalm: It's not too late.

Its too late for a vaccine any ways. Everyone is already sick. Janesville = FAIL.