The UK Government signed an agreement with the producers of the H1N1 vaccine offering indemnity should there be any significant side effects from the drug.

So,not only are we paying millions of pounds for the drug to be produced but we face a potentially even higher bill should anything go wrong. Nice to know we face picking up another bill after bailing out the banks.

"The UK Government, on behalf of the four administrations, signed advance purchase agreements in June 2007 and accepted liability for the safety of any vaccines that would be produced as a contingency. All governments signing up to an advance purchase agreement were expected to provide an indemnity for the vaccine and neither manufacturer would sign the contracts without it. The Government's decision was based on the best procurement and legal advice. Accepting liability in this way is in line with Government accounting rules and was cleared by the Public Accounts Committee at the time."

I am hopeful that there are no unwanted side effects from this so called vaccine, but considering that currently regular flu kills more people a year than swine flu has so far, its a little worrying to know we could potentially face such a large claim.