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Assessing suspicions against H1N1, cervical cancer vaccines
In addition to reading a lot of medical blogs, I also read some mommy blogs (it's a dirty secret, but there it is). Once in a while the two overlap, as they have recently over the swine flu and cervical cancer vaccines. Many of the mommy blogs are written by women who share the same values — breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc. Several also have a very healthy suspicion of vaccines as a cause for autism (which, just for the record, I do not believe).
So, there it follows that many are at best unsupportive of the new H1N1 vaccine and the relatively new cervical cancer vaccine (there is a nice, thoughtful conversation about the pros and cons of both vaccines on this mom blog in the comments section).
To add fuel to the fire, a girl recently died after she received the cervical cancer vaccine. Now it has been released that she did not die from the vaccine, but from a chest tumor (huh?) and perhaps a resultant reaction after the vaccine, though that has not been clearly stated from what I have read in the press (here and here).
Many moms are also worried about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine because of how rapidly it has been developed. There are a lot of conspiracy theorists around, including — if commenters and other bloggers can be believed — many pediatricians. Many are worried that the vaccine was too rapidly brought to market, that there are high levels of mercury in the shot, that this is all just a big scam to make vaccine companies oodles of money, that vaccinating for cervical cancer encourages promiscuity. There will always be those people.
I think each family needs to decide what is right for their children and themselves, but for me in health care, having seen lots of flu and cervical cancer cases, I will be getting the shot and my kids will too (including for them, the cervical cancer vaccine). It's all related to your perceived level of risk.