Bean, what you're saying about the government and the media using tatics to scare people into getting vaccinated is spot on to my thinking... you just say it better than I do
I've never had the common flu shot because I've felt like, since I'm somewhat healthy and should I get the flu, my natural immune system will kick in to fight it off. Sure I'll feel like shit and death warmed over for a few days, but I'll survive. My biggest fear ever since the flu (common) vaccine came out, has been that the vaccine would cause my own natural immune to become dependent on the vaccine and weaken and the flu viris would find a way to get around the synthetic man-made imminuity and mutate. I do wonder though if this N1H1 isnt some sort of mutation of the common flu viris, even though "swine flu" has been around for decades, why is it only now that it's become so wide spread? My peronal belief is that so many of the world's population has gotten the flu vaccine for so many years that when a strain is introduced to the body that you're natural immune system would normally fight off, it simply steps to the side to allow the synthetic stuff do the fighting, which it was not designed to fight or protect against this particular strain, and therefore the N1H1 becomes more aggressive and easily spreadable.
With that being said, of course it's an individual choice to a vaccine (of any kind) or not, but I think that people should be more informed than what they are about the risks or getting a vaccination. On the fliside of that coin, I do feel that people who already have a low immune system should seriously consider getting vaccinated, as well as those who work in healthcare feilds aroud those with low immunities should also consider it.
As for my thoughts on the children, if I had children I would most likely have them vaccinated for at leat the common flu and here's why... as an adult I'm not that concered for my self because I understand the chain of events of how a germ is passed form one person to another and therefore I use common sense and take percautions, such as washing my hands, coughing/sneezing into the arm of my shirt ect.. Children on the ohter hand, expecially young ones, don't have the full understanding of how germs are spread and don't think twice about tossing a ball with outher kids then eatting a sandwich without washing their hands first. Even though your child might not be sick, you don't know about the other children that yours are playing with. So for that reason, I would be more likely for my kids to get vaccinated rather than myself.