Flu Shot

So it's that time of year again where a lot of people are getting the flu shot.

They have a clinic at my work doing free ones for the next couple of days.

How do you all feel about getting the flu shot. I read and hear a lot of good and a lot of bad. I don't usually get one but my gut tells me that I should this year. But I don't trust it either. Not sure what to do...

Thanks!

All I can tell you is when I did not get the flu shot I got the flu all the time sometimes turning into something very nasty and since I started getting the shots two years ago, I've been sick only once and it was a month ago, but it was not related to influenza.

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

The flu shot is not what you think it is. Back away, slowly, while smiling and saying "No thank you."

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

I used to have to get the flu shot every year for my work (worked at a hospital). It would make me feel like crap for 2-3 days, and would seem to actually make me more susceptible to other sickenesses as if it weakened my immune system. I still got the flu one of those seasons as well even though I got the flu shot (I got it 3 times in total).

I normally have a strong immune system and ever since I stopped getting the flu shot (4 years ago) I haven't gotten sick since except for once by the norovirus (that was baaaad).

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

The flu shot is a scam.
It's mandatory for me, but manage to finagle my way out of getting it more often than not.

The CDCs own studies show that you're more likely to get the flu if you've had the shot.

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

Never get it.

I did, however, get it once when my wife was deployed to Iraq so that I would be healthy to be home with my then-two-year-old son.

That's the only year that I have ever gotten the flu.

On top of that, it's a literal crapshoot if the strains in the vaccine will be effective against what's going around. Then couple that with not being a fan of putting things in my body for which I don't know all of the ingredients, and you'll see why I'm not a fan.

If I get sick, I basically quarantine myself away...but keep in mind the amount of times that I've had the flu versus getting the flu shot...

Everyone's body and experiences are different, though, so weigh your own health against getting the flu and decide for yourself.

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

I don't get it. My job is doing them free next week.

I have only had 1 and I got sick still.
Sick with. Sick without.

Not my bag

Every time I've ever gotten a flu shot, I've had a perpetual cold for the entire winter.

About ten years ago I stopped getting them. I've had the flu once since, but I'm generally never sick...

Do it for the Herd

Heard Mentality

Or not. I know its about beer but same principal should apply.

Yeah right, see? I don't trust it. I don't really know what's in it.

Some guys from my office all got theirs and they started reading their papers (list of ingredients), I was like LOL... ing! Just because it's on a piece of paper from a bio-lab doesn't make it true!

I have gotten the flu shot in the past but get it or not, I get the flu every year. It downs me for a week. It's a regular annual occurrence.

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

The flu shot basically tinkers a bit with your odds of getting the flu. You're just sort of hedging your bets a bit. It's not a guarantee one way or the other for you.

Every year, the scientists sort of study the circulating flu strains a guess which ones are going to be the most prevalent over the course of the season. From these, they pick three to go into the vaccine. The three they pick are from different viral "families" because they won't be the only strains in circulation, but sometimes, closely related strains will be partially protected against by the vaccine meaning if you catch a closely related variant strain, the one in your vaccine might lessen the severity of the one you do catch because you body will have a partial immunity to it and head start in fighting it.

However, even if you are exposed to the exact same strain as what is in your vaccine, you should understand that you're only looking at a 50 to 60% chance that the vaccine will grant you protection. That's because the flu strains mutate so quickly rendering the vaccine strains less perfect, but it should still blunt the severity of the illness you do catch.

So basically, you would be looking at the odds of getting sick from an exposure which are seldom 100% anyhow and then whatever your vaccine chance modifies it to.

In other words, your annual flu vaccine is far less likely to protect you than your MMR vaccine will, so only you can answer the question of how worthwhile that hedging of your bets is. For some people, like those with COPD or asthma or pregnant women or those with weakened immune systems or the very old or very young whose systems are just naturally weaker or health care workers who risk transmitting the flu to severely immunocompromised patients, I'd say the extra hedging is likely a good idea, if not for their own sake then the sake of those around them.

originally posted by: Skorpiogurl
So it's that time of year again where a lot of people are getting the flu shot.

They have a clinic at my work doing free ones for the next couple of days.

How do you all feel about getting the flu shot. I read and hear a lot of good and a lot of bad. I don't usually get one but my gut tells me that I should this year. But I don't trust it either. Not sure what to do...

Thanks!

You summarized my thoughts about the flu shot. I've never gotten one but I'm scheduled up to get one, along with my wife, this year and for the first time. And there's two major reasons.

1) Last years flu season in our area was absolutely brutal. We live 4 miles from a small town of 800 and 36 miles from the nearest "city" (town) of 17,000. But word came out that in the town of 17,000 that the flu was hitting the area like a ton of bricks and totally overwhelmed the regional Hospital and the area clinics and that problem continued for MONTHS! Worse, they ran out of the vaccine with in 30 days of receiving it. To complicate matters, the outbreak didn't start until about 30 days after they ran out and didn't peak until March!

By February we were practically entirely home bound for fear of catching the flu. Its pretty bad when you know a trip to the grocery store in the town 34 miles hence could be your last trip to the grocery store.

2) I've seen reports to the effect that "they" are expecting this to be a particularly severe flu season.

My recommendation would be to get the shot while you can. Even if its only partially effective and you do get sick, you'll get far less sick than without the shot.
Thanks,

If you are a healthy person I wouldn't get one.
Never had one myself and I'm 47

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

I don’t have a choice. I work at a hospital. They’re harmless and can really help you if the strains are correct.

I personally will not get a flu shot, but I do not have any type of compromised immune system.

To be honest the best thing you can do is wash your hands. I mean a lot. If you are out running errands come home and wash your hands, before you eat (every time) wash your hands, at a meeting where there is a lot of hand shaking, wash your hands as soon as you can.

Your hands will be chapped by the end of winter but I bet you won’t get the flu. It is a pain in the drain but it works.

a reply to: Watcher777

And don't touch your eyes, mouth, nose.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
If you are a healthy person I wouldn't get one.
Never had one myself and I'm 47

This.

I generally don't get one myself either, but I will occasionally if something has happened that has set off my asthma recently. If I'm going into flu season with aggravated asthma, then I will. But if I've got my health under me, I'm good to roll.

Now, as I get older, I will likely start getting more often because my immune system will weaken. It just happens to all of us with time.

originally posted by: Skorpiogurl

I have gotten the flu shot in the past but get it or not, I get the flu every year. It downs me for a week. It's a regular annual occurrence.

When I worked and without having the jab, like you I got the flu every year

and went to bed with flu medication for about a week.


I have been retired now for just over 20 years and have not had the jab

(even though its free) I have never had flu in all that time.


Touch wood for me ..... I hope I havent jinxed myself.

a reply to: Skorpiogurl

The flu shot is, at best 60% effective. After all, it's a guess -an educated guess, but still a guess -- by the CDC each year as to which group of influenza viruses will be making the rounds that year. Sometimes they guess well (60%), and sometimes they guess poorly.

My Mother, who is 85, gets the flu shot every year. I approve of that. She is in a high-risk group of being killed by an influenza virus. Me and my Bride do not get the flu shot, because we are young enough (60) to fight it with our antibodies, and to kick flu's ass with our onboard systems when we get it. It is rare for either of us to get the flu, but when we do, we allow our bodies to whip it, and whip it good, thus making us immune to that parTICular strain of flu.

You have to decide for yourself. There are some folk who believe that the ingredients in the flu shot can cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome. There are others who believe that the use of the flu shot weaken the body's natural ability to fight influenza over time. I fall into that camp.

I know there are many folk that live around me that get the seasonal flu shot every year and they are still standing. My sense of it is that it has dangers, but not profound ones. The foregoing is jmho.

a reply to: Skorpiogurl
Our office at work was once offered flu shots on these terms; "They've got some doses which are about to go out of date, and they want to use them up." I declined, and I think the others did.

More generally, I take the view that there is a one hundred per cent probability that I'm going to die of something or other. So anything that happens to make one mode of death less likely automatically increases the likelihood of the other modes of death, like heart disease or cancer. I assume that flu would be less painful, so I'm inclined to let it have a reasonable chance of pre-empting the others.