swine fluOld and busted: Regular old flu. New hotness: Swine flu. Yes, much like the dreaded bell bottoms of the 60s and ugly neon of the 80s, swine flu is making a comeback. And it's coming back hard.

Think it's not going to hit here in the States this year? That all that hype in Britain and Asia is just crazy talk? Think again. There's a reason the CDC snuck the H1N1 vaccine into your annual flu shot this year.

Earlier this year, there was a huge uproar over the flu vaccine that included the relatively untested H1N1 vaccine. Each year the CDC includes three flu strains in its annual flu vaccine. They basically guess at which strains are going to be most dominant every year.

I, for one, thought it was reckless and dangerous to include the swine flu variant. It hadn't really been tested any more than it was the previous year. It still contains mercury and other potentially dangerous preservatives. It just sounds dangerous. Even though I don't love the idea of vaccines anyway, after finding all that out, no way in hell was I getting the shot.

Now I'm second guessing myself.

Was the CDC right after all? It won't be long before swine flu cases here start to skyrocket — just for the week of December 12, 22 cases of H1N1 were officially reported. That's just one week! Ten people in Britain have already died since Thanksgiving, and twenty two have died in Sri Lanka. In a month.

Are you second guessing your decision not to get the H1N1 shot? Will you go out and get one now that you know swine flu is on the rise again?

 

Image via Creative Blok