Even in these days of 24/7 media coverage, it's hard to imagine three major flu vaccine stories all hitting the news services within hours of each other, and all of them potentially very deadly for your health. The news about flu shots and Guillian-Barre isn't very surprising, considering recent reports that some college-age patients contracted Guillian-Barre after being given the meningococcal vaccine. And the dangerous side effects of Tamiflu have been known for quite some time. Most reports of Tamiflu side effects come from Japan, in large part because the Japanese use Tamiflu more often than any other country in the world (30 million prescriptions over the past five years, compared to 8 million in the United States). Sadly, every use of Tamiflu does more to line the pockets of fatcats like former Secretary Donald Rumsfeld than it protects you. If you follow my proven flu guidelines, however, you won't need Tamiflu or any other vaccine. You may not realize that you can now comment AND vote on articles at Vital Votes. Your participation will actually help select the articles that are sent out in this newsletter. And if your comments are good enough they will be posted in the newsletter. If you aren't registered make sure you do so resiter now at Vital Votes. You have a chance of having your comment posted like an RN from Cabool, Mississippi shares a personal story about Tamiflu's effects on behavior: "When Tamiflu first came out our MD prescribed it for my daughter for mild flu symptoms.  I was not prepared for any adverse effects and none were described in the literature that came with the product.  I always ask for the patient information and side effects. After 1 dose my daughter was literally bouncing off the walls and could not stop.  Needless to say she only had one dose of the Tamiflu and nobody else in our household has had any dose of that medication." Dr. Lloyd Fielder from Schaumburg, IL writes: "Reminds me of the story about the guy who is on vacation and cannot sleep so he gets up and takes a walk on the beach and comes upon thousands of starfish washed up on the beach.  He sees an old man slowly bending down and picking one up and slowly tossing it back into the ocean.  He just watches him for a few minutes repeating this act mythodically and finally approaches the old man.  "what are you doing?" he asked the old man. "saving the starfish" he replied.  "but sir, there are thousands here and they will certainly die, at your pace you cannot make a difference!" The old man bends down and picks up a starfish, he tosses it into the ocean and smiled as he said "I did for that one!"