H1N1 flu vaccine news can be seen and heard everywhere everyday.  It amazes many people quite a bit because this so-called novel H1N1 flu is likely no more harmful than seasonal flu and the media is not supposed to be so enthusiastically reporting one death here and one death there.

Right now the governments acknowledge that this H1N1 flu is mild for most people, certaily not for everyone.  The  good news is that the virus is not mutating into a more serious form and no one could expect that to happen any time soon in the future.

Regardless, the government still urges the public to receive the H1N1 vaccine shots just because it is safe. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was cited by the AP as saying that the H1N1 flu vaccine is definitely safe and she urged people to get vaccinated.

American people have already decided as polls showed that only less than 50 percent of them will accept the vaccine.  The accepting rate may be even lower in medical workers who the CDC says need to be given top priority for receiving the H1N1 flu vaccine. 

In New York, nurses are required by law to receive the H1N1 vaccine or they will be fired. Thousands of medical workers (it's unknown how many physicians were among them) opposed the rule saying that the vaccine is not effective and they deserve an option not to use the H1N1 flu vaccine.

Dr. Joe Mercola says on its website that wide-scale vaccination is still being encouraged even though H1N1 flu vaccines have been tested on only a few thousand HEALTHY Americans for a few weeks.

It is a fact that swine flu hit children hardest, particularly Hispanics and blacks who are more likely to be vitamin D deficient and are at higher risk for H1N1 flu than white children.

Mercola says that there is a little or no information about how safe the vaccine is for pregnant women and chronically ill or disable children who are at high risk for H1N1 flu.

The efficacy and safety of the H1N1 vaccine is in doubt while there is no doubt that the vaccine manufacturers and any person administering flu shots are exempt from lawsuits if people get hurt or die. And there is no funded government vaccine injury compensation program for swine flu vaccine, Mercola says.

Most people may be concerned about H1N1 deaths. But the fact is that the chance of dying from H1N1 flu is extremely low or close to nothing.  Those who died from H1N1 flu were more than likely to have some medical condition or were vitamin D deficient, evidence suggests. 

New evidence has emerged to suggest that taking vitamin D supplements or maintaining a high serum level of this nutrient helps prevent H1N1 flu.  See early reports at foodconsumer.org.

Some experts suggest that getting infected with H1N1 flu this season may actually be a good thing for most people because it will give them strong immunity against the mutated H1N1 strain in the future outbreaks or pandemic.

By David Liu - davidl at foodconsumer dot org