How often should one get the flu shot?

Every year, because the strains change each year. The shot for each year is a predictive mix of what strains they think will be active this year.

I think it’s a scam by the pharmaceutical companies to get people to buy unnecessary products. Everyone I know who got the shot became very sick. I don’t know anyone who didn’t get the shot, that got sick. I think it’s more of a risk than a help. I would compare “flu season” to “valentines day” which is just a corporations excuse to get people to buy cards. In answer to your question, never. Don’t worry about it. You’ll be just fine.

I get vaccinated every year and I have never gotten the flu, or otherwise ill from it.

The strains change each year so annually.

Well, @DWW25921, everybody I know who gets one every year, including me, has NOT gotten the flu. It’s no scam in the same way climate change is no scam.

@DWW25921 May I ask about your educational background?

Also people can get sick from the flu shot but it’s not the flu illness that they receive.

What @Mariah said, it’s annual.

Every year I know a few people with the flu, I’m glad I don’t have to join them in the puke-a-thon.

@pleiades I graduated high school in the public propaganda system just like everyone else. I went to 3 colleges off and on, none of them particularly interested me so I stopped at 74 credits.

@DWW25921 is wrong in every way.

Flu shot lasts for a few months. You should get it every year.

@Rarebear I just choose to not give in to propaganda. There are liars bounding everywhere trying to pound their “crisis” into the minds of sheeple and sifting through the muck gets tiresome and frankly I don’t care to sift anymore. “Facts” are only relevant to the people inside the same bubble of thought. Are the side affects of a “flue shot” worth the risk if you are in an area with very low risk for getting it anyway? Is it really healthy to just “do as your told” when you end up worse off… My wife was incapacitated for over a week last year and will never take the shot again. I am right, in every way.

No, you’re not. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan so aptly said, you’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.

@pleiades are you going to trust a college dropout or someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and does this for a living?

@pleiades Are you going to trust someone deeply ingrained in propaganda or someone who owns their own business and has experiences to back up their comments?

Once a year – the best time is in the early autumn before the flu hits; but later in the season is better than not getting it at all—you just run the risk of having already been exposed, which is very likely the case with people who claim to have gotten sick from the shot.

I’ve gotten mine every year for over 20 years, since I work in Health Care – It is elective in the facilities I work for, so I choose to do it for my own protection. I’ve occasionally gotten a sore arm (massaging the area after the hot helps reduce soreness), but have never gotten sick or any other side-effects from the flu shot.

Never, until you reach 67 years of age.

Some people have had adverse effects from flu shots, but most have none. I choose not to get flu shots. My wife always does. Neither of us have had the flu in years. We’ve shared many colds, however, but after 20 years we still like kissing, so what’s a sniffle and cough or two. I digress.

Based on these data, it doesn’t matter whether one gets flu shots, the chances are about 50/50. However, the sample for this statistic is very small, two actually. The data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health institute of the United States, draws upon have multiple magnitudes more in their samples. They see a risk of getting the flu as greater than 50/50, and are likely correct.

Choose to take the risk or not. However, the information the CDC provides is not propaganda. As in weather forecasting, a lot of science, and a basic understanding of some of the elements that can produce an outcome, is applied to the task. While pharmaceutical companies make a very small profit providing a product with the potential to ameliorate an epidemic, it is a trade off they make with a government that allows them to have exorbitant prices on the rest of their products.

@Hypocrisy_Central is also incorrect.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm

I really hate this shit, what a f’ing conundrum. I’m pretty well on the “better to get it” side but am still suspicious of some of the motive.

what a f’ing conundrum

Nope.

The flu is bad. People who are vaccinated are unlikely to get the flu or spread the flu to others.

@DWW25921 “someone who owns their own business”. Yes. That gives you medical expertise…how? When it’s time for @pleiades to ask a question about starting their own business, you can answer with authority.

@Rarebear So doctors are totally above being bribed by the same big corporations that regularly bribe our illustrious leaders? Of course! Doctors only have our best interests at heart! Well, as long as you can pay… If you have good insurance I’m sure they’ll (with great insight and honestly) never recommend expensive tests you don’t need! You’re full of bologna, they’re just as self serving as everyone else.

@DWW25921 whatever man. Most doctors I have met do really care and actually have YOUR best interests at heart. They recommend things only to have their carefully worded arguments fall on deaf ears. That said, they can be misguided by the system and I have seen this happen on rare occasion. In general you NEED to trust your doctor but do your own research. You’ll usually find that your doctor was right 90% of the time.

@DWW25921 If doctors are being bribed, I’m still waiting for my check.

If I were self serving I would tell people should NOT get their flu shot so then they get sick and I get to take care of them. Those who get their flu shot don’t get sick and I would never see them. As it is, I’m lazy, and I’d just as soon have a quiet ICU and get my salary while farting around on fluther, then I would taking care of idiots who don’t get their flu shots because they think doctors are out to get them.

If you hate doctors so much, as you seem to, then you should get your vaccination.

My whole family has gotten the flu shot every year for the past several years. Not one of us has gotten the flu in all that time.

@Rarebear – I think you need to call in your bribes from the pharmaceutical companies. That telescope of yours is looking a bit small, compared to what a guy at work has been showing me.

[Mod says]:
Please remember: This question is in the General Section.
Responses must be helpful and on-topic. Thanks!

In order to fight the chance against the flu, doctors recommend to get an annual flu shot. Chicago’s Med Spring Immediate Care offers free vaccines each Tuesday in January 2014.

NEVER! I’ve never had a flu shot, and I’ve never had the flu. Go figure

@AskZilla why not?