Setback for fighting swine flu - vaccine recalled

Health officials in the United States are recalling 800,000 swine flu vaccines intended for children.

They say their efficiency wears off after a short period of time, however, before the recent events reports had been circulating that the vaccine in question could possibly be linked with the Guillain-Barre syndrome.

The President and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, Barbara Loe Fisher, spoke to RT about the dangers of both the swine flu and the medicine that was designed to prevent it. Fisher said that recalling the latest vaccine meant that people would have to consider giving their children an older vaccine, or the multi-dose vaccine, which they are reluctant to use as it contains mercury. Besides, the disposal of the unused multi-dose vaccine is very complicated in the US for the same reason and, thus, the recalling of the newer mercury-free vaccine is bad news for health officials.

She added that though the alleged hazardous effect of mercury on children’s brains has never been confirmed, vaccines containing mercury were banned in the US in 1999, but this act still allowed for distributing multi-dose flu vaccines. The recall of the newer vaccine would push people to use the older, controversial drug or give up on the vaccination, as such, which is very dangerous given that the H1N1 virus has already claimed up to ten thousand lives in the United States since April.