The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

After repeated media pronouncements about an upcoming pandemic of swine flu, it has turned out that the H1N1 virus is less serious than predicted. According to Harvard University researchers, it is only slightly stronger than the seasonal flu. U.S. demand for vaccines has dropped overall, though it varies across the country.

Tom Skinner, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), states that there may be a surplus of vaccines, although it is still too soon to be sure. There could be more cases of swine flu in the new year and meanwhile, the seasonal flu has started appearing.

Swine Flu Shots Recalled

Sanofi Pasteur is a large French pharmaceutical company that has made many of the swine flu shots used in the U.S. Yesterday they voluntarily recalled about 800,000 pre-filled syringes that had been designed for children between the ages of six months and three years.

In fact, most of those syringes have been used, as they were distributed around the country in November. Testing at the time of shipping confirmed that they had the correct strength, but testing done a few weeks later showed that the strength had dropped a bit below the necessary level. It is not known why they lost strength, but they are safe.

The children these vaccines were meant for were supposed to be given two shots about a month apart. If your child was given two of these shots, you do not need to take any action. If your child had just one shot so far, you should go ahead and have the second one done according to the plan.

Tips For Avoiding Swine Flu

The H1N1 virus is transmitted by personal contact. You can reduce your chances of getting this swine flu, and of spreading it if you do get it, if you wash your hands effectively and often. Also cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough and do not share any food utensils or eat any food samples you might find in stores.

Recalls of defective products happen every day. There can be defective medications, defective vehicles, or defective medical devices. Defective product lawsuits can become complex, with product experts warring over details; but it is important that there be consequences to a manufacturing company if any of their products injure people.

If you have been badly hurt by a product that turned out to be defective, please call or email our personal injury attorneys today for a free case review.

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