Fears have been raised that the fast-tracking by the government of the new swine flu vaccine may be dangerous and inadvisable. Experts, including Dr. Richard Halverson writing in The Times , have questioned whether pushing the vaccine out without full tests on humans might put people’s health at greater risk than that posed by the swine flu virus itself.

Dr. Halverson drew parallels between current plans and the American swine flu vaccination program of 1976, when a vaccine was offered to the entire population to stop an epidemic. Millions accepted, but after people developed Guillain-Barre syndrome (a type of paralysis, which is usually temporary) the program was halted. One case of Guillain-Barre was reported for every 100,000 vaccinations.

In the article, the doctor, who works as a London GP and directs the children’s immunisation program BabyJabs, warned that rushing the vaccine onto the market would mean we would have no idea how effective it was and said that judging by other flu vaccines there was no good evidence it would help children with asthma, pregnant women or offer more than “moderate” benefit to the elderly.

He theorised that by the time the vaccine was ready to be rolled out to the wider population, possibly most people would have come into contact with the virus and would have developed some degree of immunity.

He described vaccinating people with a medicine that had not gone through the proper safety test, especially as these would be done on healthy people rather than the vulnerable and most in need of it, as a “massive gamble”.

Professor Sir Gordon Duff of the Scientific Advisory Group said that much consideration had been given to the risks of offering the vaccine but that they had decided that the benefits outweighed the risks of “letting the flu run away with itself.”

It’s a difficult call to make. Personally, I think I would rather put up with a bout of flu than take a medication that had not properly tested. That said, I am not in one of the at-risk groups.

The government is trying so hard to reassure the population that they are in control that it is to be hoped that they haven’t let the desire to seem uber-decisive and on top of the situation push them into the decision to vaccinate, even though it may be extremely risky.