At the end of each and every summer over the last few decades the big push to encourage people to get a flu vaccine begins. Television and newspaper ads pop up all over the place reminding everyone to begin calling their doctor's office to harass them to give them the flu shot NOW before summer fades away and the annual "flu season" begins. 
 
 
This year promises to be no different, but there is a new player in the game of course, H1N1 a.k.a Swine Flu. According to scientists the regular run of the mill flu shot is useless against this new strain of flu which is frightening the bejesus out of millions of people all over the world. So those clever people have come up with a new vaccine just to protect the masses from the dreaded disease, and you can be sure that whatever country you live in, your government wants you to get it.
 
Because if you do not, they'll tell you, you will be at a high risk for coming down with the swine flu. Then your nasty germs will spread (because you are not smart enough to practice good hygiene standards without governmental guidance) everyone around you will get sick and it will be all your fault, you nasty unpatriotic person.
 

 
 
 
 Of course no government would ever dream of unleashing a poorly tested, practically unproven, potentially dangerous vaccine on millions of people would they? You can trust your government. They appreciate all your hard work and your tax money and have only your best interests at heart. If you die you can't pay taxes, and with less tax money coming in who is going to pay for the vacations they all already have booked?
 
 
So an article that appeared in the British newspaper The Sunday Mail may surprise you (or maybe not if you are old enough to remember the Ford administration) The article discusses a letter that was "leaked" to the publication that was sent to hundreds of neurologists in the UK back on June 29th of this year. The letter warns the doctors to be on the look out for increased cases of a condition called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). Why? Because the swine flu vaccination that is being rushed into production in time for the 2009 flu season just might trigger it.
 
 
Just what is Guillain-Barre Syndrome anyway, because that swine flu stuff is pretty nasty. Guillian-Barre Syndrome is a brain disorder that attacks the lining of the nerves and causes paralysis, the inability to breathe, and in some cases death.
 
 
Why would the British government be worried about such a thing?--perhaps because it has happened before. Back in the Seventies, when Gerald Ford was still falling over things in the White House and Barack Obama was still in high school in Hawaii, there was another scary swine flu outbreak.
 
 
In 1976 a swine flu epidemic hit the US, and concerned that the virus might be as bad as the 1918 influenza pandemic that admittedly killed half a million Americans, a vaccine was rushed into production to protect the general public from the menace (starting to sound familiar yet?)  With the approval of the President mass vaccinations began.
 
Within days symptoms of Guillain-Barre Syndrome began showing up amongst those who had been given the shot. 1 in 80,000 people were affected and twenty five died, while only one died of swine flu. Ten weeks after it began the program was halted and the US government paid a lot of money to the families whose loved ones had died of GBS and then the whole debacle faded into distant memory, forgotten until this year’s H1N1 outbreak.
 
 
It’s OK though, if you are the drug company that is making this new batch of swine flu vaccine. The US government has your back this time. They have granted blanket immunity to you against vaccine product liability. So no need to worry too much about all that testing stuff, we trust you because you've created so many other great products. All drugs have side effects and, well, twenty five is not a lot of people after all.
 
 
All of this aside, there is likely no swine flu vaccine that will protect against the disease any better than a good dosing of Vitamin D--something that governments and Big Pharma are hoping the public will not figure out.