Reasons for Flu Vaccine Reluctancy

Nurses COVID

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Hello, I'm a pre-nursing student who has a few questions about influenza vaccination for a class assignment.

What are the reasons for reluctancy of receiving the influenza vaccination by nurses and nurse assistants?

Would it be helpful if the healthcare facility provided an educational influenza vaccine program that addressed these issues so that well-informed, evidence-based choices can be made by these healthcare workers?

If a healthcare facility provided a positive incentive to receive the influenza vaccination, would that influence your decision?

Thank you for your time,

Kimberly

Specializes in Too many to list.
I have not yet found the time to compare the differences (if any) of the current H1N1 vaccine with the 1977 H1N1 vaccines. If it has not changed, I am extremely concerned about the safety.

Are you asking for a comparson to the H1N1 included in the trivalent seasonal flu vaccines of our time or are you referring to the monovalent novel H1N1 swine flu vaccine? They are targeting two different type A influenza viruses.

And, why target the swine flu vaccine for concern if that is what you are referring to?

I get the strong feeling that you think that the novel 2009 H1N1 is the same as the 1976 virus, and along the same line of thinking that the vaccine must be the same. I don't have a clue as to why you would think this could possibly be true, but I am willing to look at the evidence if there is any.

GB is more serious than it was in 1977 because of the increased potential of MDR infections as complications from hospitalizations for GB. I hope there is significant changes so that the potential of GB and other complications is much smaller now. The rates of complications in 1977 is not only unacceptable to me, it caused the termination of the vaccine's use in '77.

You speak of GB as being more serious now but in the same sentence say it is because of the "increased potential" for more serious complications. So, do you have some information that this is ocurring or are you thinking of this purely as a possibility?

Can anyone on this board help me research this?

But, of course.

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

I watched the 60 minutes video...what year was this video produced? It is not contemporary, right?

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Specializes in Too many to list.
I watched the 60 minutes video...what year was this video produced? It is not contemporary, right?

Does not appear to be contemporary. If you google it, it is linked to many, many antivaccine sites.

I can find no references to this alternate vaccine anywhere and would welcome any info on it from

a credible source.

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Reading the thread with great interest. Some good reason, and quite a bit of good research and links to sites/articles of interest, including the 60 Minutes interview.

Of course, what is missing is any direct contact with the manufacturers. Before we received the vaccine, I called our Sanofi Pasteur rep, who gave me the number of someone at Sanofi who could answer my questions. This was a couple of months ago, and I don't have the name of the guy, but, briefly, he said:

1. H1N1 vaccine is made the same way that regular vaccine is made (already knew that)

2. Vaccine manufacturing has come a long way since 1977 (no surprise there, would you rather own, say, a car from 1977 or one manufactured today? Face it, we have better equipment, testing, and procedures than we did 30 years ago, that shouldn't be a surprise, especially in Healthcare...any of your hospitals still using 30 year old IV pumps...or would you even WANT to!).

3. Much of the reason the vaccine is slow to the marketplace is precisely because of the extra testing that was done, not just on the vaccine in general, but on each individual lot. (as a Pharmacist, I know this is true. Used to be, drug manufacturers didn't have to do lot specific testing, could just submit "spot" data, but not anymore...that's why we see shortages of some drugs now, the testing before a lot is released to the market is much more stringent.

Hey, I got mine (seasonal and H1N1), and I recommend it to anyone. Had a bad case of the flu lately?...trust me, it s**ks!

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Specializes in Too many to list.

larryh, have you ever heard that X53A was the vaccine that was given to the public but that

field testing was done on an entirely different vaccine, not X53A as the video is saying? This

would have been back in Oct 1976.

Where do you suppose we could find this info if it exists?

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Indigo Girl..

Short answer to your question: I don't know where you would go to find that information.

Longer answer, if I had the time and the desire, I would:

1. Contact CBS, ask for the transcripts of that particular 60 minutes, including any references, if available. They might or might not have information going back that far, but that would be where I would start. Might be able to get knowledge of what sources they got their information from. I've actually done this before, and you might be surprised what you would get. Of course, we are still talking about an show from

2. Barring that, find a good Medical Library (brick and mortar or on-line) that will let you query their indexes (Medline search or similar). Take some time researching, I would bet that 60 minutes got the information right from some article in NEJM or something like that. Its back there somewhere, probably on microfiche, hopefully scanned to computer format, but who knows?)

Would be nice if stuff from 25 to 30 years ago could all just be Googled, but that's probably going to take awhile.

Sorry I couldn't be more help!

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Indigo Girl..

Short answer to your question: I don't know where you would go to find that information.

Longer answer, if I had the time and the desire, I would:

1. Contact CBS, ask for the transcripts of that particular 60 minutes, including any references, if available. They might or might not have information going back that far, but that would be where I would start. Might be able to get knowledge of what sources they got their information from. I've actually done this before, and you might be surprised what you would get. Of course, we are still talking about an show from

2. Barring that, find a good Medical Library (brick and mortar or on-line) that will let you query their indexes (Medline search or similar). Take some time researching, I would bet that 60 minutes got the information right from some article in NEJM or something like that. Its back there somewhere, probably on microfiche, hopefully scanned to computer format, but who knows?)

Would be nice if stuff from 25 to 30 years ago could all just be Googled, but that's probably going to take awhile.

Sorry I couldn't be more help!

Here is one article referencing X53, X53A from 1977.

Correlation of Laboratory Studies with Clinical Responses to A/New Jersey Influenza Vaccines

Francis A. Ennis, Ronald E. Mayner, David W. Barry, Jody E. Manischewitz, Ruth C. Dunlap, Martha W. Verbonitz, F. Marilyn Bozeman and Geoffrey C. Schild

The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Vol. 136, Supplement. Clinical Studies of Influenza Vaccines: 1976 (Dec., 1977), pp. S397-S406

(article consists of 10 pages)

Published by: The University of Chicago Press

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30107506

Abstract The large, uniformly performed clinical investigations with influenza A/New Jersey vaccines provided an opportunity to correlate results of laboratory tests of vaccines with human reactivity and antibody responses. These vaccines were given to large numbers of subjects under code, and significant differences in immunogenicity and reactivity were observed in unprimed individuals. A single, relatively large dose of intact virus was more immunogenic and reactive than split-virus vaccines in unprimed subjects. Differences in immunogenicity and reactivity in unprimed subjects correlated with the amount of intact virus in the vaccines (measured by column chromatography or electron microscopy) and with the amount of viral hemagglutinin in the vaccine (measured by immunodiffusion), but not with the number of chick cell-agglutinating units.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/30107506

full article requires payment of fees.

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I know this is an old post... but just signed up and have been researching this for the past year.

Here is the journal article that shows swine flu reassortment from X53 to X53A

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC390113/pdf/pnas00648-0269.pdf

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

I got the seasonal flu shot last year. No problems minus a mild yucky feeling symptoms. Then I got the H1N1 shot. HORRIBLE nerve pain in that arm that cost me a lot of money in MD bills and missing work. It started a few days after I got the shot.

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I got the seasonal flu shot last year. No problems minus a mild yucky feeling symptoms. Then I got the H1N1 shot. HORRIBLE nerve pain in that arm that cost me a lot of money in MD bills and missing work. It started a few days after I got the shot.

How about this year's flu shot. Have you gotten it? Did it make you sick again?

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Specializes in NICU Level III.
How about this year's flu shot. Have you gotten it? Did it make you sick again?

I'm not going to find out!!

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Hello, I'm a pre-nursing student who has a few questions about influenza vaccination for a class assignment.

What are the reasons for reluctancy of receiving the influenza vaccination by nurses and nurse assistants?

Would it be helpful if the healthcare facility provided an educational influenza vaccine program that addressed these issues so that well-informed, evidence-based choices can be made by these healthcare workers?

If a healthcare facility provided a positive incentive to receive the influenza vaccination, would that influence your decision?

Thank you for your time,

Kimberly

Hi Kimberly,

Came across this article today: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323208/Patient-anger-swine-flu-jab-stealth.html

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