What is in a flu shot? It’s not quite what this idiot says.
May 31st, 2010
|
| Share |
I’m not sure exactly where the following video comes from. The narration implies it’s Canadian. The narration implies it’s Canadian, but wherever this guy is from, he’s a complete and utter idiot who has no idea how vaccines are manufactured or the amount of science and testing that goes into formulating them. They are most certainly not thrown together nor is the virus obtained by having some random guy cough on it.
Although the virus may be obtained from cultures from infected humans, it’s cultured and analyzed before the vaccine is prepared. Indeed, a major challenge for flu vaccine development is that the predominant strain changes each year and researchers must look at thousands of cultures from around the world to determine the best candidate for that year’s vaccine. The formulation of the vaccine must be developed, tested and sent off to full scale production with very tight time constraints.
In addition to being insulting to the entire science of microbiology and all those who spent years in higher education and research to get into it, the video isn’t even funny. Nobody is laughing. That’s just a canned laugh track, and a very poor use of one at that. (You’re supposed to fade it in and out with audience noise more subtly to make it seem like it might really be people.)
It is absolutely no secret EXACTLY what is in the influenza vaccine. All substances, including those found in only trace amounts and even those which may or may not be present (such as those which are filtered out but may sometimes still have trace levels remaining) are listed on the package insert that is shipped with each dose of the vaccine. Whether you receive your vaccine from a doctor or a public vaccine clinic, you can always ask to see the insert.
This information is also available online. The CDC maintains extensive information on all the ingredients approved for use in vaccines and which have been used in vaccines in the United States. If you do not live in the United States, this information is still valid as these ingredients are fairly standard for all vaccines and are common to formulas found both in the US and most other countries. You can also visit sites such as the websites of the companies that manufacture the vaccines or the respective health agencies the country you live in.
What is actually in a flu shot:
A slightly simplified list of common ingredients. These will not necessarily be found in all influenza vaccine formulas. Some formulas may use additional minor ingredients, but these are the ones commonly found in major formulas.
Fillers, solvent and carrier medium:
These makeup the bulk of the liquid in a vaccine.
- Saline solution – simply sterile salt water, used as a medium/solvent
- Sodium chloride – Table salt (this is actually a little redundant to list, since it’s a component of the saline solution
- Other salts – generally present in only small amounts, other salts like potassium chloride, potassium phosphate and calcium chloride. These are also present in standard saline solutions.
- Sucrose – Table sugar
- Gelatin – May be used to improve suspension and thermal stability.
- Polysorbate 80 – A stabilizer and emulsifier. It is sometimes used as a detergent ingredient, but is also used in food products. Present in very small amounts.
Immunologic Adjuvants
These substances are added to increase the effectiveness of the vaccine’s primary active ingredients. While they do not have their own antigenic effects, they increases the immune response to the vaccine and thus improves effectiveness.
- Squalene – A natural chemical produced by the human body and all other animals. Squalene may be derived from shark liver oil as well as wheat or rice extracts.
- Aluminum salts - These tend to be present in low amounts. A number of aluminum salts have proven to be effective adjuvants.
Preservatives and anti-microbial substances:
These prevent the vaccine from being contaminated by the growth of bacteria or fungus in the vaccine medium. They are not present in all vaccines, for example, those which come in individual sealed doses are generally free of such preservatives.
- Polymyxin B (trace quantities) – Prolymyxin B is a moderate spectrum gram-negative. It is commonly used in topical antibiotic ointments such as Neosporin.
- Neomycin (trace quantities) – A similar antibiotic often found in topical preparations.
- Gentamicin Sulfate – A medium spectrum antibiotic which may be given orally for bacterial infections.
- Thimerosol – This is one ingredient that has produced an enormous amount of controversy. It is present in micrograms quantities. It is an organomercury compound (IT IS NOT MERCURY). In the body much of the thimerosol is excreted immediately without breaking down. That which is not excreted in its native form may be metabolized to ethylmercury which does not bioacumulate and is also excreted quickly. There is no evidence that the levels of thimerosol in vaccines are harmful and it has been in use for more than 80 years.
Culturing and manufacturing byproducts:
These are not present because they a direct part of the active ingredients of the vaccine but because they are used in the culturing or manufacture of the vaccine and thus may remain in trace quantities.
- Egg Protein – Present because eggs are commonly used as the culturing medium for influenza virus. Thus some protein from the egg medium may be found in the vaccine
- Embryonic Chicken Cells – Again, this is simply a byproduct of the culturing medium. Generally there is only a trace present.
- Triton X-100 – This substance is found in many detergents, thus adding to the claim that the vaccine contains detergent. That is not why it is present in the flu shot. It is a a surfactant, which is used to disrupt the virus and create a partial virus vaccine.
- Formaldehyde – Although used in the process of virus inactivation and preparation, nearly all formaldehyde is removed from the final vaccine. It is listed due to the possibility that some remains, but if it is detectable at all, it is in micrograms quantities, considerably less than that which is found in the human body as the result of natural processes.
The active viral ingredient:
This is by far the most important part of the vaccine and the ingredient all others are present to support or deliver
- Influenza Virus hemagglutinin – The characteristic Hemagglutinin derived from the flu virus. This is the substance which is responsible for producing the immune response and conditioning the immune system to produce antibodies to fight the flu virus.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Culture, Just LAME, Not Even Wrong, Obfuscation, Quackery, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
View blog reactions
May 31st, 2010 at 10:35 pm
That looks like “Air Farce” which is a show that is supposed to be funny but never seems to really be and makes these kind of idiotic commentaries that are supposed to be smart and topical, but really are not.
The best part is it’s on CBC, so every time I pay my taxes I can rest assured some of my hard earned money is going to support this idiocy. There has got to be some kind of irony about money going into the treasury and then being sent to Health Canada to promote vaccination while other dollars go to push this idiocy.
Actually the same group had a radio show in the 1990s that was genuinely funny.
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 12:24 am
It’s the Royal Canadian Air Farce. I prefer to watch This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Both shows are supposed to make fun of current events and political ongoings here. It’s not maliciously spreading misinformation: it’s us Canadians making fun of ourselves. What better way to use tax dollars?
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 12:28 am
“The best part is it’s on CBC, so every time I pay my taxes I can rest assured some of my hard earned money is going to support this idiocy. “
I agree that Air Farce was funnier when it was on radio, and it deterioted quickly once on TV, and this clip is spectacularly stupid and glib. But in the CBC’s defence, it wouldn’t be a good idea if they were policing the content of comedy shows to any great degree. And this particular show, air farce, is no longer on the air (regularly, at any rate). This ep was broadcast December 2, 2005.
There likely isn’t a Canadian produced show on any network that has not acquired a good chunk of its funding from various government programs.
In 2005, this stupid episode might have passed without comment. But if it had aired 2010, it likely would have encountered some condemnation on some skeptic canadian blogs (like skeptic north).
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 12:39 am
Josh said:
Well I’ll say two things on that.
Yes, it’s humor (bad humor) but it’s also lampooning apparent facts that are not true. It’s like an advertisement for anti-vax, because the supposed joke is that these things are presumed to be true. I’m trying to think of a parallel. It’s almost like a political cartoon, in that there’s an underlying message under the (poor) humor. Like “We’re making fun of how filthy vaccines are.”
Secondly, I have seen this clip before and it has been used all over the internet on anti-vaccine sites.
crf said:
CBC has a supposed mandate to serve the good of the country and provide diverse information and blah blah blah…
The fact of the matter is that they are really not any better than any other network (and often worse) and they get a large portion of their funds from advertising.
It’s considered a “public broadcaster.”
IMHO, a broadcaster can either be 100% private, and broadcast their own content with complete freedom or they can be 100% public and broadcast exclusively things like concerts, educational programing and other kinds of politically neutral content that is not a slave to commercial sales. (anyone here familiar with US public television? It’s a little bland, but it’s pretty neutral) You can’t mix the two, because they’re in direct conflict. The BBC has had similar issues, but I really think CBC is worse. They’re not sure who they are. Crown corporations run into this issue after a while, but they are not cutting CBC lose because there’s still some vestige of the idea that it is somehow a public resource, which it really is not.
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 3:39 am
Gordon said:
I’m not sure when the last time was that you watched PBS, but it’s got an awful lot of “this programming made possible through the generous support of …” between programs these days. And they don’t just flash the companies’ logos briefly on the screen, they play rather high-brow-looking (but still commercial) commercials. I can’t say that PBS bows to the influence of those sponsors, but it was a lot easier to believe that they didn’t when the sponsorships weren’t so prominent.
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 5:43 am
Ya it a weak attempt at lampooning the antivax debate, getting that sort of humour requires knowing what Air Farce is all about.
Frankly they haven’t been entertaining or funny since Dave Broadbent left, and yes it was much better on radio.
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 6:06 am
Gordon said:
I know it’s drifting off topic to some extent, but that’s the fun of a good discussion. At least online you actually can follow the thread back to work out why you ended up talking about something bizarre.
But the BBC has a major identity crisis. It is paid for by three things: government funding from the much maligned “TV licence”; revenues from media sold directly to consumers (DVDs, magazines, show merchandise); and the licensing of it’s shows to other broadcasters, both domestically and overseas.
(There are some other relatively minor sources of income such as the adverts on the website if you’re outside the UK)
The problem is, that despite not needing to directly compete for viewers in order to satisfy paying advertisers, there is a sense that if the Beeb is not winning the ratings war then it isn’t doing its job. Hence, (especially over the Christmas period) you’ll see the Beeb go toe to toe with the other big broadcasters in direct competition for viewers, largely from the same demographic. Instead of accepting defeat and tactically targeting a different group of people, the Beeb will happily fight a straight war with ITV / Sky – fighting battles which just aren’t important to a corporation to whom ratings are really little more than a pat on the back.
And that’s without even getting into its oft-discussed political leanings…
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 7:00 am
It is from the Air Farce show in Canada. The Youtube description says it’s a 2005 clip, featuring Alan Park. Air Farce had a long history on radio and on television, starting as far back as 1970. The show was cancelled in 2009.
Stupid sketch. Not unlike a lot of the Air Farce’s later humour. Not particularly funny, not particularly well-executed.
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 9:00 am
There was a time when social humor and drama on the CBC had a wicked edge to it, and forced us to take a look at ourselves a bit closer than was always comfortable. However those days seem to have passed, and we are now served up rubbish like Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Rez that plod through the same standard storylines that have been done to death everywhere else, while pretending to be topical.
I suspect that the item in question we are examining here was vetted so that it would not offend ether side in the vaccination debate, and that unfortunately has become typical of that network.
Quote Comment
June 1st, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Well it’s quite a fall since Kids in the Hall, which was the funniest thing to ever come out of the CBC. It may be the funniest thing to ever come out of Canada, or the Western Hemisphere and possibly even the funniest thing ever to come from modern human civilization.
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 3:26 am
I prefer MADtv, I don’t know if it’s still on though. And… I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but lately flu vaccines do more harm than help (unless we are talking about a pandemic vaccine). I think that we don’t need a vaccine unless the flu strain is deadly. I don’t mind to miss a few days of work. If we keep making vaccines for regular flu we are just making the thing mutate into something deadlier. Plus, the swine flu vaccine killed a couple of hundreds more than the actual disease, so… I don’t know what to think. My mom’s friend died from an allergic reaction to the thing, I don’t want to get the shot.
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
never had a vaccine in my life. kids? never as well(12,15,18yrs). ive never been sick in my life nor have my kids…..weird huh?
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
nondnabased said:
Not weird. Just stupid.
“Never wore a condom. Never got a girl pregnant. I guess condoms are bull**** and I shouldn’t bother with one”
“Never had insurance. Never needed it. What’s the point of insurance?”
“Well I drive drunk all the time and I have not been involved in an accident. I suppose driving drunk is not dangerous at all.”
“I never wear my seatbelt and I’ve never been killed in a car accident”
Look, there’s a good chance you won’t get a major infectious disease if you’re not vaccinated. Even in the years before vaccination infectious disease killed many, but it didn’t kill everyone. Some people, through sheer luck, managed to not get a serious infectious disease.
Today there is “herd immunity” which basically means enough people in the population are smart enough to be vaccinated to keep most disease from ever getting enough hosts to become a big issue. Idiots like yourself are the reason herd immunity is not universal, however. Thus the danger to the unvaccinated, while still relatively low, is higher than it has been in decades.
I should mention though, herd immunity does not protect against all vaccine-preventable disease.
Meningococcal can be transmitted through contaminated food or acquired from “healthy carrier” hosts. There is still a large portion of the population not vaccinated against it and there is also a possibility of the bacteria existing and spreading outside human hosts.
Haemophilus influenzae is an opertunistic enviornmental pathogenic bacteria. It is often acquired from non-human sources of the bacteria, so herd immunity offers little protection.
The big one is tetanus. Herd immunity is useless against tetanus.
I’m vaccinated so I don’t have to worry about it. If I step on a rusty nail that is infested with tetanus bacteria all I get is a puncture wound and a sore foot that heals in a week. You step on the same nail, you get lockjaw, muscle spasms and possibly death. The same for your kids. Your stupid and reckless decision has only not bitten you because you have not had the misfortune of stepping on a dirty nail or shard of glass or something….. YET
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Jhonny Paranoid said:
First I dispute your claims that the vaccine is regularly deadly. I’ve heard of only the most rare serious reactions. Sorry about your mom’s friend, but do you know if they were allergic to any of the ingredients to begin with? If so they should not have been vaccinated. I’m quite sure that I am not, so I don’t worry about that.
Now as for the flu and its deadliness or lack there of: I’m 27 years old and in excellent health. I’m not at all worried that the flu would kill me. However, it could kill my grandmother, and since I see her from time to time I don’t want to see her die of the flu and have to live with the guilt of being the one who transmitted it to her. Nor do I want to kill any other elderly or immune-compromised individuals by allowing my body to be used by the virus as a means of replicating.
Quote Comment
June 6th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Jhonny Paranoid said:
Reading the rest of your commentary, I’m not surprised.
I’d wager this is an instance of someone not really knowing what the flu is. A lot of people get a bad cold during flu season and miss a few days of work; ergo they’ve had the flu, at least in their mind. But actually having the flu will set them straight. It’s not just a runny nose and sinus headache. The flu is body aches and fatigue that keep you bed-ridden. It is nausea and vomiting. It is feverish chills. The complete funk and ague of the actual flu will make you wish you were at work on your worst day. And it literally kills those who are too weak to weather it.
If to you “having the flu” means that you’re heating up a bowl of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup and plopping down on the couch with a box of Kleenex and checking out the daytime TV, then I’ve got a dollar on a dime that says you’ve never had the flu.
Quote Comment
June 12th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
I Dont care whats in the flu shot. My concern with them has always been this
“Indeed, a major challenge for flu vaccine development is that the predominant strain changes each year and researchers must look at thousands of cultures from around the world to determine the best candidate for that year’s vaccine. The formulation of the vaccine must be developed, tested and sent off to full scale production with very tight time constraints.”
Can you explain what science they use as they pick from the thousands of strains, however many months in advance of the “flu Season”? How much success have they had in picking out these strains compared to the past when no vaccine was available? How much has having the vaccine reduced the number of cases and deaths from the flu since its introduction? We havent had a “pandemic” influenza outbreak in years, yet is this really due to our prognosticating pharmacutical companies, and not the general improvement of health and safety that has come from simply growing wealthier as a nation?
Quote Comment
June 13th, 2010 at 11:10 am
The WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network has been tasked with continual monitoring of flu strain prevalence since 1952. The “flu season” is a bit of a missnomer, as it actually varies by location, and is different in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
They have a very good record of getting the strain(s) right for the seasonal vaccine. Most seasons more than one strain is included. In 2003 the vaccine was less than as effective as it usually is due to a couple of the strains mutating slightly from those used in the vaccine.
There were a couple of missmatches in the 1970’s
Quote Comment