The common cold, flu is seasonal and swine flu is caused by a different virus but can have similar symptoms.

Cold: The symptoms usually include runny of stuffy nose, sneezing and sore throat. It can also be accompanied by cough. Cold is usually unaccompanied by severe chills, body aches, headaches and fever, if present, those signs will be mild.

Flu: In flu, fever is generally present along with headache, chills, moderate/severe body aches. Symptoms of flu can come on rapidly, within 3-6 hours. Sore throat is rare and coughs are unproductive and dry.

The swine flu pandemic that led Americans to get flu shots last year are now seen spurning vaccines, two studies suggest.

This year only 37% of the population plans to get vaccinated against swine flu this year, as suggested by a consumer reports survey. Around 30% are definite that they won’t get a shot this year whereas 31% are yet indecisive, the survey of 1,500 people shows.

59% of the respondents said they are likely to get flu shot this year, according to another study. The ratio of people attacked by swine flu has surely declined but the danger has still not subsided fully, as per the consumer reports, they are worried about the safety of the people who will skip flu shots this year. Flu shots are now recommended for everyone who is over 6 months old. Many of those who were being surveyed think that the fear of last year’s swine flu pandemic was exaggerated.

Since the danger is not completed tackled by now, therefore most of the doctors are worried that the myths about vaccines are scaring away people from getting the shots that could save their lives potentially, as well as lives of their most susceptible neighbors like patients with cancer, the healthy and elderly newborns too young to get vaccination.