New England Journal of Medicine
December 2, 2010  Vol. 363 No. 23
http://content.nejm.org/current.shtml

Perspective
Influenza Vaccine — Safe, Effective, and Mistrusted
K.M. Harris, J. Maurer, A.L. Kellermann

[This article has no abstract; the first 100 words appear below]

On August 10, 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. It is fortunate that the virus that had spread worldwide so quickly turned out to be less severe than was first feared. It is worth remembering, though, that an earlier strain of H1N1 influenza — the one that emerged in 1918 — sparked the worst closely observed and recorded pandemic in history, killing an estimated 20 million to 40 million people worldwide.

The 2009 H1N1 virus did give us one gift of inestimable value: it provided a full-scale test of the…