State of Emergency -- Three Things You Need to Know About the Swine Flu Vaccine

President Barack Obama has declared the H1N1 swine flu outbreak a national emergency.  The move allows health officials to bypass some federal regulations and paperwork as they take measures to combat the outbreak and deliver scarce vaccine supplies across the country.

More than 1,000 people have died from so-called flu in the US, including nearly 100 children, and 20,000 have been treated in hospital. Health authorities expect the figure to increase markedly as the regular flu season starts.

With so much fear and misinformation about the swine flu, here are the three things you need to know about the new H1N1 vaccine:

How safe is the swine flu vaccine? 

No vaccine (or medicine) is 100 percent safe for everyone. People with egg allergies can't take flu vaccines because eggs are used in manufacturing the vaccines.

Flu vaccines can produce adverse reactions. One third of people get a sore arm, redness or swelling.  Another 10 to 15 percent feel tired or achy. Others get a low fever.

Vaccines can also trigger rare but serious reactions, even among people with no apparent allergies or sensitivities.

But here the bottom line.  Experts say the vaccines are much less risky than the swine flu itself.

"This H1N1 vaccine is made just like all the flu vaccines we have been making for 60 years, which have an extraordinary record for safety," says Kenneth Alexander, an infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago, in the Los Angeles Times.

Robert Bazell of NBC News adds: "There is no reason to believe that the H1N1 vaccine is any more dangerous than seasonal vaccine, which is given to about 100 million people each year."

"On the off chance that there could be a rare side effect, there are huge monitoring systems in place," Bazell explains. "They'll detect any side effects pretty quickly, especially in the military, where service members are required to get the vaccine. Since the health of the military members is followed very closely, if something were to happen, we’d see it there first."

Is the swine flu vaccine brand new? Yes and no, according to WebMD. The 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine is made exactly the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine, by the same manufacturers using the same materials -- except for one brand new component – in this case, the relevant part of the swine flu virus.  

The regular seasonal flu is about 75 percent similar to the new swine flu. Last year, some 100 million people got the seasonal flu vaccine. No safety issues appeared.

According to an excellent overview on the WebMD website, in clinical trials, 10,000 to 15,000 children and adults have received various manufacturers' brands of H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

How do we really know what drug companies are really putting into the vaccine?

The flu vaccines contain a number of chemicals that could be dangerous in large quantities but are harmless in individual doses.

Thimerosal, for instance, is a controversial chemical used in trace amounts in the flu vaccine as a preservative to keep two-shot doses from deteriorating in storage.

Thimerasol contains ethyl mercury, and critics allege it can cause autism and other neurological disorders, according to the LA Times.  But researchers say there is so little thimerasol in the vaccine that it poses no harm. Nevertheless, they have produced thimerosal-free single-shot doses that can be ordered, and they say there is no thimerosal in the nasal spray.

"I continue to be amazed that people bring this issue up," said Paul Offit, a pediatrician and University of Pennsylvania vaccine researcher. "There have been six exhaustive studies [of a possible link between thimerosal and autism]. . . . They each came back with a definitive answer: No. Three other studies were done to see if thimerasol caused any signs of mercury poisoning. All three answered: No."

Thimerosal is no longer used in most childhood vaccines, however, because of potential health concerns.

Others have raised concerns about "adjuvants" -- compounds sometimes added to vaccines to stimulate the immune response in recipients. It is added in several European nations, but not in the U.S.

Vaccine labels are not easy to read. But they are made public by the FDA and other sources. If you want to know exactly what's in each kind of 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine, WebMD says, read the label. You can find all the labels by clicking here.

For more about surviving the swine flu, please visit the Survivors Club Swine Flu Support Center.