Flu vaccines. Your stand?

Nay. I got side affects for a week after. I only took it to look like a good little boy.

I feel for some it is almost mandatory…the elderly, the infirm whose immune systems are compromised, those in the medical field and those of us who cannot afford to stay home sick for a week or more should indeed get the flu shot. Otherwise I know that the vaccines in the flu shot are a crap shoot, educated guess as to which strain will emerge the next flu season and more often than not the shots are a poor match up for the circulating strain that is getting people sick.

There is a lot of controversy over all vaccines but I have yet to encounter a doctor who does not offer an emphatic “yes!!” when asked should I get the flu shot. Influenza can kill and takes about 35,000 lives each flu season. So get the shot and increase your chances of staying healthy or don’t get the shot and increase your chances of dying if you get the flu.

I think I had maybe one in my lifetimes, but I avoid them like the Black Death of Europe.

I consider myself lucky to be able to receive protection against flu viruses. It’s not a matter of a “stand” with me. If someone would prefer to get sick, fine. I just hope they stay away from me, because I don’t.

“Yea” is the word for “yes” when paired with “nay.”

I’m in favor. Granted, it only provides full protection against a handful of the strains the CDC feels are most likely and they guess wrong a lot, but it still offers a little protection against whatever strain is currently roaming around your neighborhood.

I also know enough about biology to understand why some people have a reaction to the vaccine that makes less knowledgeable people think that the flu shot made them sick. Given that I’ve usually had my flu shots around the same time that a particular non-influenza bug is going around, I’ve long attributed any post-flu-shot illnesses to be the result of my wife sharing her case of the sniffles with me than to anything about the shot itself.

As for those that cling to the “Vaccines cause Autism” meme, all I can say is that the First Amendment gives all US citizens the right to put their ignorance on display while also granting the right to ridicule ignorance in any derisive manner short of actual credible threats.

@Cruiser Those living in major transportation hubs are also a bit more in need of any immunity boost they can get. While a small town store clerk may be exposed to every bug the locals bring in, someone in a place like Seattle, NYC, or Chicago could potentially be exposed to bugs from all over the world.

@Hypocrisy_Central, I’m with you on that. What are your reasons?

@Jeruba, oops thanks. Didn’t realize about the yea, nay thing. Thanks for your input btw.

I have had the flu vaccine every year of my adult life and have never had the flu.
So if someone doesn’t want to get the vaccine that is up to them, but please don’t come to work and expose everyone else with it. Stay home and get well.

@OriginalCunningFox I’m with you on that. What are your reasons?
The ONE time I remember getting the shot, I got the flu it was supposed to prevent. I thought why get a shot if it won’t or doesn’t work. Later, rumor or fact, it was enough for me, was that whatever flu it is, the shot exposes you to it in minute fashion so that your immune can build a resistance to it, in short, they are infecting you with a small point of the flu so the blade of it don’t hack you down. Fact or rumor, I do not want any exposure to the flu so I avoid the shot, and it works very well for me, I avoid those with the flu, and I don’t get it.

I get one every year and never had a bad reaction, and haven’t had the flu in many years. I’ll never understand how people in this day and age can be against it.

Yea.

. Just got mine on Nov. 2. I too never have a reaction, only slight soreness for a day or two at the injection site.
I’ve been getting them now since 2008 after getting two flus in a row in ‘06 & ‘07.
It was baaaad. The first I was traveling and thought I was going to die in a hotel room in New Mexico for 5 days. haha

The second the following year was just as bad.
Never again,and made a believer out of me.
Now that I am in my 50’s I have no desire to get that sick and risk complications.

I get my flu shot every year. This year September 21, 2015.
I had the flu so bad in December 1957, the doctor thought I had Polio AND Rheumatic fever. Temp went to 105.1 *F, had washcloths soaked in rubbing alcohol on me to cool me down.
My reaction this year was tenderness and warmth at shot site.

Yea. Thanks for reminding me, I need to do that this weekend.

I’m not opposed to them, but I choose to not get one.

I always get mine in early Nov. since it takes 2 weeks to kick in so I have been told and lasts 5–6 months. Both my bad flus were in Feb.-March, so I wait a little longer. Seems like the brunt of the flu season is usually more like Jan.-Feb.-March.

Not against it but lately I have heard so much about it that I am worried about getting one again! Really don’t know what to do!

I got mine. You’re welcome.

Lets all have a nice hug and kiss shall we? lol

@jerv Actually those of us who do live amongst diverse and dense populations actually have better odds of not catching the flu or merely getting a milder bout of the flu because of herd immunity where we constantly are bombarded by viruses and germs to where we build robust immune systems that have already developed antibodies to many forms of the flu for. Back in 1917 when the Spanish flu hit…many communities were so isolated because of the lack of easy travel to and fro that were completely wiped out because none in that community had ever been exposed to novel flu viruses.

Many do not realize that those days where we feel like crap and maybe have a mild fever are actually experiencing a mild form of the flu because they have antibodies from exposure to like or similar strains of the flu virus in their bodies.

It is also so easy to maximize your ability to not get the flu by washing your hands throught the day, getting plenty of rest and a healthy diet.

I feel the same as @DominicY. I’ve had a flu shot once my adult life.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve had the flu, but then I’m the one who always grabs those antibacterial wipes when entering Walmart before I grab my cart and everyone looks at me like I’m the weird one.

I’ve had flu shots and not had flu shots through the years and I honestly don’t remember a marked difference in my sickness rate either way.
I’ve never been sickly and I tend to be a stoic, so I probably just don’t remember if I had the flu or not.

I don’t have a stand on it. I think if you are in a high risk group it makes sense to take the vaccine. I think if you have no problem with the vaccine and want to get it every year, go for it. Although, I would say if the vaccine is exactly the same as the year before there probably is no point in getting it two consecutive years in a row. You would have to look up what strains are covered.

Each person can weigh their risks and benefits. I don’t get the flu vaccine, but I would in certain circumstances.

@ibstubro I don’t see how anyone can’t remember having the flu as an adult. It knocks you on your ass. You can not get out of bed. Usually, people have a high fever also. The flu vaccine doesn’t do anything regarding being sickly. It is only about the flu. It has nothing to do with catching colds or a bacterial sinus infection for example.

@JLeslie The flu vaccine is almost never the same year to year only because of inferred immunity that occurs in the populations by the previous years circulating strain of flu.

From the CDC…

__“It’s not possible to predict with certainty which flu viruses will predominate during a given season. Over the course of a flu season, CDC studies samples of flu viruses circulating during that season to evaluate how close a match there is between viruses used to make the vaccine and circulating viruses. Data are published in the weekly FluView. In addition, CDC conducts studies each year to determine how well the vaccine protects against illness during that season. The results of these studies are typically published following the conclusion of the flu season and take into consideration all of the data collected during the season. Interim preliminary estimates of the vaccine’s benefits that season using data available at that time also may be provided. For more information, see Vaccine Effectiveness – How Well Does the Flu Vaccine Work? Flu viruses are constantly changing (called “antigenic drift”) – they can change from one season to the next or they can even change within the course of one flu season. Experts must pick which viruses to include in the vaccine many months in advance in order for vaccine to be produced and delivered on time. (For more information about the vaccine virus selection process visit Selecting the Viruses in the Influenza (Flu) Vaccine.) Because of these factors, there is always the possibility of a less than optimal match between circulating viruses and the viruses in the vaccine.“__

Well..the way I see it, if I escape even a couple, potentially bad flu strains, I’ll take my chances on catching one that is not included in the yearly vaccine. As we get older we already have a lot of immunity to viruses past, so it is the newer and mutant strains that will get you.

I have only had the flu vaccine in recent years. I’ve never had any side-effects from the vaccine and I haven’t come down with the flu.

@Cruiser That only remains true so long as immunity rates remain at/above a certain threshold. In most cities, you can have a few thousand people going without and keeping the rates in the high-90s. If you live where I used to live, each unvaccinated person is >0.1% of the total population of the town, so it takes just one family who hates needles to jeopardize a whole community.

Like investments, there is a balance of risk. In the small towns, the risk is lower but the stakes are higher.

For high-risk people like me, it would be foolhardy not to get it. We appreciate it when everyone around us gets vaccinated, too.

The day I was diagnosed with kidney disease, the first thing the nephrologist told me was that I’d have to get the flu vaccine every year for the rest of my life, and the pneumonia vaccine every time an updated one becomes available. I listened, and have been getting ‘shot’ for something like 20 years, with no adverse affects accept a sore arm. Got the updated pneumonia one this year, too. Two sore arms are better than dead, you know?

@augustlan You highlight a front many people have to battle every flu season and for the rest of us, many do not realize the magnitude of that battle you and others fight on a microbial level each and every day. Flu’s don’t kill it is the secondary infections like pneumonia and renal failure (kidney infection) that sets in due to the carnage influenza inflicts on our immune systems.

In a healthy individual our immune systems can handle the attack of influenza and hence why there is such controversy over the flu vaccine. What the mass media fails at is addressing how critical it is for those who have compromised immune systems like you appear to have and how important it is for you to get the flu shot each and every flu season!

I had Guillain Barre Syndrome and was told never get the flu shot again, so I don’t.

@Cruiser Once in a while it’s exactly the same. My mother used to work in vaccinations for the FDA. I know they monitor the viruses traveling the world and make an educated guess which 3 or 4 to put in the vaccine. I’m not saying it happens often that it’s the same 3–4, but it happens. Plus, some people are just obsessed with being immune to a specific strain, like say H1N1, and if they got the shot last year for it, I don’t think they have to this year assuming the vaccine has the same exact strain for that again. Not that I would necessarily discourage them from the vaccine, because really H1N1 was not typically much worse than the typical flu, except for children it seemed to be statically a little worse for severe symptoms, even death. All the flus can be severe and cause death.

@Cruiser Even healthy people sometimes die from the flu, although it’s statistically a small number. It is worth saying that many feel flu deaths are an inflated number. I’ve heard pneumonia gets dumped in there and some others even when there wasn’t flu. At least that’s what I have read regarding older statistics, I don’t know about newer stats.

The fewer healthy people who contract flu, the fewer sick people will be exposed.

@Cruiser Sorry for a separate post. It looks like maybe last year was the same as the year before.

@Seek True. The worst is when someone who can’t safely take the vaccine, is also in a high risk group. Then it’s really important the people around that person stay healthy.

For me it’s um, maybe. It depends on how I weigh the risk vs reward. If they are confident they got the formula right and the flu season is expected to be bad then likely yes. Otherwise it’s a no. When my nieces and nephew were born prematurely with an under developed immune system I had one. I’m in the lowest risk group so it’s honestly not always necessary. I did get one last year but will likely not get one this year.

I feel compelled to add that I only got a flu shot about twice in my life (when it was offered thru my job), and I’ve never, ever gotten the flu.

I’ve never had a flu vaccine. I had the flu twice. Once as a young child and once in my early 20’s. I wonder what the average is for people between the ages of 20 and 50. It has to be reasonably low considering how many people think a cold is the flu. None of those people have had the flu. Very few of them anyway.