Some reasons to avoid H1N1 vaccine are better than others

I'm stubborn. I'm still not getting my H1N1 flu shot. And it looks like a lot of people are with me there.

Like more than half the population. I'm getting my numbers from a CNN poll:

According to the poll, 55 percent of adults don't want to get the swine flu vaccine, and don't plan to get a shot. Another one in five say they want to get inoculated but haven't taken any steps to do so, 14 percent want a shot and have tried to get it but have been unsuccessful. Just 7 percent have been inoculated for H1N1.

H'mmm. Interesting, yes?

I have my own reasons for avoiding the needle. I've never had a flu shot, and I don't plan to start now. If I get some sort of flu -- which I get every few years, I usually let it run its course, dose myself with vitamin C, slam down a bunch of juice and water, gobble aspirin, pile the blankets on top of me, and sweat it out by force. Then I'm done with that for the year; I usually don't get sick again.

I've known too many people who got sick off a flu shot -- basically it's an innoculation, which introduces a small (controlled, they say) amount of the virus into your system so you can build up your antibodies. Taking the longer view, it's an effective way to go -- that was how we essentially wiped out smallpox. But thinking short-range, when that sample of the flu virus is injected into your system, what your body does with it is sometimes a crapshoot.

So, no flu shot for me. Rather than burden my body with what is basically a false alarm, I'd rather it raise up the antibodies as needed, legions and legions of them, and stamp that flu out like ... well, like a disease. That's my strategy, and I'm sticking to it.

Here's how CNN interprets its findings:

"The perception that the vaccine has dangerous side effects is the top reason," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Roughly half of those who don't want a swine flu shot say that the possibility of side effects is one reason why they don't plan to get the vaccine. That works out to 28 percent of the adult population who don't plan to get inoculated due to the risk of dangerous side effects."

While the H1N1 (the bug formerly known as Swine Flu) seems to be a particularly nasty virus, all indications show it won't be any more deadly than your standard-issue flu that strikes every year.

I wrote this last month:

According to the CDC (I got these numbers from the World Almanac), various influenza viruses will hospitalize 200,000 and kill about 36,000 people in the United States every year. That's every year.

But these are good, sound reasons for someone to avoid the flu shot. I've heard some really crazy reasons, too. Ready to hear one?

Good. It seems that a famous Croatian priest, Miroslav Bustruk, is saying the H1N1 vaccine carries a microchip.

Don't give me any trouble, OK? While I may have a good imagination, I can't make this stuff up. But here's the story from Macedonia Online:

“I appeal to you, to not get vaccinated for the so called Swine Flu under any circumstance. There is a plan for massive destruction of humanity worldwide. For this purpose we will see new diseases springing up everywhere” reports Croatian daily “Jutarnji List”, quoting father Bustruk. “The H1N1 vaccine itself is a very sophisticated weapon whose implanted microchip will control the health of the human being” added the Croatian priest which prompted a great deal of disagreement by Croatian officials ...

Did y'all get that? Implanted microchip? While I've been accused of harboring some pretty strange ideas (comes with the territory when you write a blog), this one's a little goofy even for me. The ol' microchip-in-the-flu-vaccine trick isn't on my list of favorite conspiracies.

For the record: I ain't skeered of no flu bug, and I ain't skeered of no microchip. Got that?

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