H1N1... Swine flu... Call it what you'd like, but either way millions of Americans went from being afraid of the virus to being afraid of the vaccine.

People have been receiving H1N1 vaccinations for weeks now And health care officials are happy to say there have been no reports of anyone; children or adults; having an abnormal reaction to the shot.

"There is a lot of misinformation about this vaccine" said Dr. Michael Ramsey, Pediatrician at Dothan Pediatric Clinic.

Whether it's the ingredients going into the vaccine or the speed at which it was produced, people have questions about safety.

"Should we be concerned about thimerosal? I can say with great confidence- after millions and millions and millions of influenza vaccine has been given, there is really no evidence of thimerosal in the small doses causing a problem for children or other people" said Dr. Elizabeth Turnipseed, Medical Director for Disease Control at the Jefferson County Health Dept.

Some have heard they should be concerned about mercury.

"The amount of mercury that is present in a flu vaccine is less than what is in a tuna sandwich" said Dr. Ramsey.

Like any medicine, there are certain symptoms that come along with getting the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccine.

"Flu vaccine can certainly cause some swelling and redness of the site, it can cause muscle aches, perhaps a low grade fever" says Eileen Rogers of the Houston County Health Dept.

Dr. Paul Goepfert researches vaccines at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He has clinically tested many vaccines including those for anthrax, flu and hpv.

"We are still using 1950s technology to make flu vaccines, so that is why most people in the country have not been able to get the h1n1 vaccine in their community. it takes a while, we still have to grow it on eggs" says Dr.Goepfert.

This is basically how a vaccine is tested: After researchers develop a formula, it is tried on animals.

"Then you have to test in more people for safety, and then you have to test is for efficacy. Now you are talking about thousands of people you have tested. Then the FDA will review the data and determine if it’s enough to release the drug into the general public"

Dr. Goepfert and other researchers across the country have been testing a vaccine for the virus that causes aids for years so how can an h1n1 vaccine be created in just months?

"If we had an HIV vaccine that worked against one strain, and all of a sudden a completely different strain came out, we would easily be able to change the vaccine to actually match that strain and that is sort of what happened with the H1N1. Fortunately for us, this was really just a different strain of flu and so we had the current technology to be able to change it to that current strain"

Now its time for you to decide if it's worth taking a shot.

Every doctor I asked says the benefits outweigh the risk

"Fortunately this has been a mild illness but not for everybody. We are still seeing people die and we are still seeing people hospitalized" says Dr. Turnipseed.

Doctors also describe the h1n1 vaccine as a limited edition immunization.

If the strain had emerged earlier, it would have been part of the seasonal flu shot.

Tomorrow Rhiana will show us what experts have to say about other routine vaccines.