Flu shot?

a reply to: Blaine91555

If your ever in a graveyard old enough, look at the gravestones from that time and you will see all the children's headstones with the little lambs and angels on them.

There is one right down the road from me. I've seen the lambs and a couple of angels. I also took a few photos.

If it does not work all the time, does it mean the lives it does save are meaningless? If it halves the deaths is that important?

Ahem, tighter gun control. But that's OT.

I'm not big on the flu vaccines, mostly cause for a few years they weren't formulated for the types that everyone ended up getting. It's a crap shoot which type of flu will actually spread wildly.
So...
After instead getting pneumonia twice in a year and being hospitalized both times I get the Pneumonia Vaccine instead. Like the one for flu, it's different yearly, since I've been getting them I haven't had pneumonia again ever ( so far) but will be getting another one this fall.
Ironically I haven't EVER had the flu. Go figure?

In a sidebar I can't recommend having a virucide at hand enough! It kills just about everything (google it) and I've used it many times for ill relatives. You mist everything in the house. The bedding, doors, carpets, anywhere anyone has sneezed or snooked. Let it air dry. It will keep folks from passing the illness around.

Online sample I found quick, but a local janitorial supply store should have it under $20 bucks.
www.amazon.com...

a reply to: Bluntone22

Never had a flu shot and don't plan to get one.

I've only gotten sick a couple of times in recent years, and not knowing for sure if it was flu, it was mild enough that I could still barely work at least one of those two times. One lasted ~4 days after onset, the other ~2 after onset.

And I work closely with a lot of people, and those people get sick. I'm lucky I do not.

a reply to: Liquesence

Just the act of going to work when you are sick is putting others and their friends and families at risk. A person can have mild symptoms and still give it to someone who will have severe symptoms or could carry it home to child or elderly person in bad health.

The worst case of a bug I've had in the last ten years was from a bank teller who told me they had the flu when they waited on me. I commented with empathy for how bad she looked and she just looked at me and said I have the flu. Her being inconsiderate enough to do that cost me a week of my time and the income I would have made. Turned out is was bacterial and not the flu. Bronchitis, strep and that fun stuff.

originally posted by: SouthernGift

Just because you’ve been vaccinated, doesn’t mean you can’t get the flu (I used to work in healthcare and had to take MANDATORY flu shots to have my job)

Same here. I got the shot three times after they made it mandatory in 2016. I had major surgery six months before and I got terribly sick that afternoon and the whole next day. The head nurse said it was likely my body making anti-bodies to the vaccine, probably in a huge hurry because I was still recovering from major aneurysm surgery earlier that year. The next two years it didn't affect me at all. But I don't work in a hospital anymore and I don't like the chemicals that are in it, even getting the one without mercury.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Like I said. Some groups should get it. Normal healthy adults are not at risk for death from the flu. the flu vaccine success rate is low. It does carry health risks getting it.

Stop confusing polio, pertussis, and flu, there are differences. The odds of me having a serious reaction from the vaccine are probably higher than me having a serious illness from the flu. Neither is very likely, but the flu vaccine sucks, it's about 50% effective. The kicker is that the elderly and the immune compromised are the populations who need it the most, and they are the populations where the vaccine is the least effective.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Logical fallacy. The people who are at risk for death from the flu are the ones who should get it. I believe the CDC estimates the vaccine saves about 3,000-4,000 lives each year. I fully recommend anyone at risk to get it. And then if you want to feel free, but it's really a pretty bad vaccine in terms of efficacy.

originally posted by: Deplorable

originally posted by: Bluntone22
I have never gotten the flu shot but I am seriously considering it this year...

How about you?

Go to the hospital and ask any Pathologist what they think about the effectiveness of Flu vaccinations.

After that, I'll see you in line.

I work at a hospital, pathologists and Dr mostly complain about having to get it and before it was mandatory almost none of them did. They made it mandatory because compliance was so low. You will see a very high rate of vaccination among Dr and health care workers today, mainly because they have no choice.

Someday they will have a universal flu vaccine, when that happens, it will likely be worth getting.

a reply to: Bluntone22

No, no flu shot for me. I've never had one.
Just had my physical and passed on the flu, pneumonia and shingles vaccines.

I do wash my hands a lot, keep wipes in the car, especially after handling the grocery store cart and money.
And try to avoid crowded areas as much as possible.

a reply to: Blaine91555
Wouldn't it be better to have sick people stay at home, and not pass those flu bugs??

a reply to: Blaine91555

Just the act of going to work when you are sick is putting others and their friends and families at risk. A person can have mild symptoms and still give it to someone who will have severe symptoms or could carry it home to child or elderly person in bad health.

Oh, I know that very well, and have seen it happen, the real time spread of a cold or a flu among coworkers. Some people get sent home by the medic (fever or vomiting). Unfortunately, sometimes there are very few other options, due to line of work. Basically, unless you're in the hospital or physically incapacitated, you go to work because no one else can do your job.

But yes, the bank teller should have been working until she was no longer contagious. I think the last time I was extremely sick was around 5 years ago, working nights, came down with the flu (I think). It started while at work, and slowly got worse over the course of the night.

No shots here unless it's Uncle Jack.

I'm out in the Michigan cold a lot I really think that helps.

Cutting splitting wood and clearing a very long driveway.

No cold for as long as I can remember but don't deal with the public much.

Work building has about half the people it did a few years ago.

Work would rather not have you here if your sick.

Work gives us free shots for all kinds of things but not mandatory,it is part of the health bonus calculation at the end of the year. My admin keeps the naughty and nice list and we're both on the nice list .

a reply to: Gargoyle91

What he said.

I have not had one in decades and I can't recall the last time I caught it *crosses fingers*

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

My current PCP is always lecturing me on taking a flu shot but I have had numerous Drs. and RN's in the past tell me that they don't take them either.

I don't care what they claim, the flu shot made me very sick the two times I got it.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

People staying home was pretty much my point. Problem is people don't do that.

I kept putting off the shingles vaccine and ended up with it a few years back. I immediately regretted that. Shingles was not much fun.

a reply to: olaru12

Oh snap. Had no idea they had that.
Now the states that only offer flu shots will get jealous.

I've never had the flu and hardly ever get colds. I won't be getting the shot.
Walgreens is offering free shots if you have one near you.

( who doesn't, Walgreens is like 711 one on every other corner)

a reply to: Blaine91555

So sad. I have noticed that in older cemeteries. The flu usually targets the very young and the very old.
The spanish flu was an H1N1 avian type that also hit young adults hard which was why it was so deadly. The young, the old, and everyone in between were dying from it.
WWI going full tilt boogie didn't help.
Pneumonia setting in was the contributing factor in young children and the elderly deaths but the young healthy adults were killed by a cytokine release syndrome, also known as an infusion reaction that happens as a complication of some diseases or infections. H1N1 avian is known to do this.
Even today it could take a toll.

a reply to: Sillyolme

I first noticed those sections in graveyards at an old cemetery in Washington State. The section with the children from that flu was nearly as big as the rest of the cemetery. I walked over to it because of all the lambs, angels and what not on the gravestones and realized the what the dates were on the headstones. Standing in the middle of a couple of hundred of them the gravity of what it was like hit me full force. I knew about my fathers siblings, but it never struck home entirely until that day.

I cant imagine what it was like for my fathers family. In the middle of nowhere on a cattle ranch and in a couple of months, 6 of 11 children dead.

Like I said, the flu is nothing to take lightly and even on a good year over ten thousand dead in the US alone and on a bad year over 80,000.