It's been about seven days since I got my H1N1 vaccine. So far no adverse effects. Wait a second. I dislocated my shoulder on Sunday because I was listening to my MP3 player while I swung backwards and tried to rush up a flight of three stairs. Maybe that's an adverse effect but I'm not counting on it. Well that being said, a lot of fuss is made over the kind of stuff they put into vaccines. Like long, chemical-y sounding stuff, which admittedly sounds scary to a layperson. Yet one must make a distinction between a drug and a vaccine. Drugs usually do something to supress/encourage some function of our body by (often) altering the effects of various enzymes. Now vaccines are different. They are meant to elicit an adverse response by the immune system so that when hit by the real disease, you will hopefully survive to tell the tale. Brian Dunning from Skeptoid had wondefully articulated this in his recent podcast on vaccine ingredients. I like the dramatic and interesting way he expresses the idea so you should check it out. Since it's a podcast, you can actually listen to the episode.
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