Flu Shots? thoughts

socajam

Pretty much everyone should get the flu shot. It significantly decreases your chances of contracting, and therefore spreading, the flu.

Plus the flu sucks.

That a load of bull, I never had the flu shot and never had the flu. I always wash my hands every time I return home from outside and after the bathroom. I eat very healthy, only take vitamins when I remember, haven't eaten meat/chicken/sea food for over 20 years.

I take 2 tbs of cod live oil in the winter months and it works wonders.

hananah89

First time getting it was last fall because I started a new job where we are in and out of middle schools on a weekly basis in the fall and spring. It was also free with insurance so thats nice. Only flu shot before then was for the swine flu because my parents wanted me too (i was in college). That was a nasal drop-felt so weird. But I have only had the flu once and that was when I was a kid.

DatMurse

People who are immunocompromised shouldnt be running around with normal people in the first place. It is one of the precautions medical professionals tell them.

Because people who are immunocompromised don't have bills to pay, especially medical bills.

If they are immunocompromised, the flu is really the least of their worries.

They are not supposed to be around normal people in crowded areas or be in too much contact, bottom line. You dont see chemo patients running around

fitbugfreak

Never had them and never will.

LePetitCochon

Got them as a kid, not so much as an adult. My daughter is going on 4 and I think she's gotten it once. We're generally very healthy and don't get sick. We get our vaccinations and wash our hands regularly, deal with colds if they pop up but don't go for antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. I'm thinking this contributes greatly to our healthy immune systems. I understand it's a virus but maybe we've just been lucky.

Everyone should do what THEY feel is right for themselves and their families.

evileen99

People who are immunocompromised shouldnt be running around with normal people in the first place. It is one of the precautions medical professionals tell them.

Because people who are immunocompromised don't have bills to pay, especially medical bills.

If they are immunocompromised, the flu is really the least of their worries.

They are not supposed to be around normal people in crowded areas or be in too much contact, bottom line. You dont see chemo patients running around

Yes, you DO see chemo patients running around! You just don't know it! Have you ever had chemo? Some regimens are 1 day on, 4 weeks off, 3 weeks off. People go on with their lives during chemo--work, go to school, etc. We need that medical insurance to pay for the chemo, because it ain't cheap. You don't sit holed up in your house 24/7. I worked, my best friend worked, a news anchor here in town worked during her chemo. We're not emaciated, pale, frail beings in a wheelchair--we look like everyone else, except when we're not wearing our wigs. In fact, since you get steroids with chemo, some of us actually GAIN weight.

jodynolte

The only year my son didn't get one, he got the flu and it was awful. So we will both get them again.

dodihere

People die from the flu, that can be prevented by getting the flu vaccine. I get the flu vaccine.

Sedna_51

As someone with a compromised immune system: I get mine every year, and thank you to everyone who gets them regularly. Get the flu shot for yourself, but also get it so you're less likely to make a newborn or an elderly person or someone with cancer sick. I used to walk through the HIV treatment clinic at work- I never wanted to be the person who gave someone with a raft of health problems ANOTHER thing to deal with. Pneumonia and pleurisy aren't fun.

DatMurse

People who are immunocompromised shouldnt be running around with normal people in the first place. It is one of the precautions medical professionals tell them.

Because people who are immunocompromised don't have bills to pay, especially medical bills.

If they are immunocompromised, the flu is really the least of their worries.

They are not supposed to be around normal people in crowded areas or be in too much contact, bottom line. You dont see chemo patients running around

Yes, you DO see chemo patients running around! You just don't know it! Have you ever had chemo? Some regimens are 1 day on, 4 weeks off, 3 weeks off. People go on with their lives during chemo--work, go to school, etc. We need that medical insurance to pay for the chemo, because it ain't cheap. You don't sit holed up in your house 24/7. I worked, my best friend worked, a news anchor here in town worked during her chemo. We're not emaciated, pale, frail beings in a wheelchair--we look like everyone else, except when we're not wearing our wigs. In fact, since you get steroids with chemo, some of us actually GAIN weight.

You are not supposed to run around when during nadir. Especially in crowded areas.

I have had 2 family members that have had chemo. I pretty much was at the hospital every week over several eyars

FrenchMob

People die from the flu, that can be prevented by getting the flu vaccine. I get the flu vaccine.

No.

I got it once about 7 years ago, a month later, got the flu. Haven't had a shot since, nor the flu. I like my odds. Plus I'm not a fan of injecting all these random viruses - dead or not - in my body.

BlueBombers

My kids get them every Fall.

Pangea250

I get the flu shot every year, have never had the flu. Never want to either. I work in EMS & deal with flu patients in close contact all winter long. If it wasn't for the vaccine, I'd be in big trouble.

I also have 2 elderly parents and I would never want to transmit the flu to them. While they too get the vaccine, they could still become infected, though to a lesser degree. I wouldn't risk getting them sick. Ever.

My daughter (11 years old) gets the vaccine. My son (now 18) is wildly needle-phobic, and I just won't fight with him any more to get the vaccine. He did contract swine flu the year it was prevalent, though not very severely, thank goodness.

Pangea250

I did once and got the flu four times that year. I was useless for weeks every time.

Best flu shot ever-eat right. I dont get sick anymore.

Wow. You cannot get the flu four times in a year. It's just...wow. Also, if you had the needle injection, it's a dead virus. It physically cannot cause the flu. Ever.

MissCherylAnn

I work in the medical field and I am in constant contact with people so it would be pretty irresponsible not to. I never bothered before

suecan2

I am a previous non believer in vaccinations. But, now that I work in healthcare and see just how sick people can get - even healthy people, when a bad illness enters their system, I would never skip.

my take: the vaccination is a inactive or nonliving form of a disease and when vaccinated with it, your body will develop a memory to this bad illness and if/when you come into contact with the disease - your bod ALREADY has the memory of it to kill it off IMMEDIATLEY, instead of having to get all the symptoms and be miserable for a few days while waiting for your body to make the concoction to begin killing it off days after you contracted the disease. AND a bonus, if you do get an illness - you fight it off before you can pass off and spread it to your loved ones in the family who now don't have to suffer.

Pangea250

People who are immunocompromised shouldnt be running around with normal people in the first place. It is one of the precautions medical professionals tell them.

Wow. Just...wow.

leebesstoad

You bet I get the flu shot. Every year. The shot cannot give you the flu because it is a dead virus. The nasal spray has the potential to because it is only partially inactivated, so there is a slight chance with the nasal spray. But the vaccine does not and cannot cover every possible strain that can exist. Every year, CDC and other epidemiologists meet and decide based on trends elsewhere in the world which strains are most likely to appear here, and then the vaccines are created to prevent those strains. But there are some strains which can appear not covered, which is why you can get the vaccine and still get the flu. It isn't the vaccine giving you the flu. And even if you do get a different strain of the flu, you will most likely get a much milder case than if you hadn't gotten the vaccine at all.

But healthy people can die or become very ill and have to be hospitalized from the flu. It isn't only those who necessarily fall into the higher-risk categories. And there is also great benefit to herd immunity. The more people who get vaccinated, the less problems there will be for everyone, even those that don't get the vaccine.

I guess I just don't understand not getting it. Cowardice over being needle-phobic? Apathy? Mis-information? Feeling of invulnerability because you are young and healthy? But as for me, I'm getting it as soon as my employer offers it.

jendraka

I have never had a flu shot. I cannot, to my recollection, remember ever having had the flu in my life.

To my knowledge, the flu shot covers 2 to 3 strains of flu "predicted" to be the most common strains to be in the population in the upcoming season. There are many different strains of flu. Whether or not the strains vaccinated for are the actual strains that will be prevalent in your area is really yet to be known and whether or not you will even be exposed to those particular strains is entirely up in the air. The strains of flu that you may be exposed to may be entirely different than what you were vaccinated against.

All in all, good diet, well practiced hygiene, and other factors (the state of your own immune system) come into play a lot as well.

leebesstoad

People who are immunocompromised shouldnt be running around with normal people in the first place.

Normal people? Boy how derogatory towards immunocompromisd people can you get? Guess they aren't "normal". Whatever in the hell normal means.