How Do You Feel About The Flu Shot?

HealthyJess88

At my work we have a choice, and I chose to have mine. I'm not a fan of needles but I like the idea of preparing my body, so that if it has to fight it knows what it's up against. I saw a documentary about the possible effects of worldwide epidemics, and that made me want to be as prepared as possible!

Yakisoba

Never had the shot.

change_happens

I don't believe I need the flu shot. I have gone all of these years without ever having the flu. I did have to take the shot while working in the medical community some years back, but haven't had one since.

kirstyjosephine

Actually, some strains of flu cause more deaths in younger people (young adults) than in traditionally vulnerable populations (the elderly, the young etc). This is because it can cause a cytokine storm.

stephabef

If you're over 50, it's pretty crucial that you get it. Otherwise, unless your immune system has taken a hit that year, you'll be fine most of the time. I typically don't get it, but I support those that choose to!

SueGremlin

It is the flu, people.

Seriously? Comparing it to Hepatitis and TB?
The flu has been contributing to death for a looooong time.
Only recently, with all the shots and vaccines, has it exploded into panic induced hysteria.
Think about it. Vaccines became more common, swine flu emerged.

The flu kills tens of thousands of people a year. It's not a cold.

tmm01

here in the uk you only get it on the nhs if you have a chronic condition that could compromise your immune system. Then you're not forced to. I know nothing about the US system, so wouldn't want to make a blanket comment. However I have it every year, due to a chronic condition I have & suffer nothing more than an aching arm for a few hours. My opinion is is you need it get it, if not don't - up to the individual.

tmm01

here in the uk you only get it on the nhs if you have a chronic condition that could compromise your immune system. Then you're not forced to. I know nothing about the US system, so wouldn't want to make a blanket comment. However I have it every year, due to a chronic condition I have & suffer nothing more than an aching arm for a few hours. My opinion is is you need it get it, if not don't - up to the individual.

rosebarnalice

I work in a snot factory--namely, an institution of higher learning-- and so I get one every year. No ill reactions; no flu.

PixelTreason

Getting a flu shot is a responsible and considerate thing to do for yourself and society at large.

I get a flu shot every year - not for me but for:

My boyfriend who is allergic to eggs so can't get the shot himself.
My grandmother who is pretty frail and at risk for pneumonia / death if she gets the flu.
My niece who is still too young to get a flu shot who would also be more at risk of getting seriously ill because she's so little.
All the kids whose irresponsible parents won't let them get vaccines at all.


To all the people who think that your immune system is fine and so you don't need a shot - It's not about YOU. It's about herd immunity and making sure you are keeping the frail and immune compromised people safe!
Your selfishness is hurting or even KILLING others. Good job.


Edit: I can't read through this thread. Some of the willful ignorance makes me rage.

Futurefitnessinstructor

My friend was also "forced" to get the flu shot. But because we live in country where ALL vaccinations are recommended, not mandatory, it was more coercion. They were told that if they didn't get the shot and became sick with the flu, they would not be paid. All employees got the shot.

My family does not get the flu vaccine.

The shot only protects against some flu strains and the virus adapts and changes quickly, so you are only protected from certain, known and common strains. It does contain weakened flu virus. I went to a seminar recently on vaccination and even the public health nurse had some reservations.

dad106

To all the people who think that your immune system is fine and so you don't need a shot - It's not about YOU. It's about herd immunity and making sure you are keeping the frail and immune compromised people safe!
Your selfishness is hurting or even KILLING others. Good job.

Seriously.. Get off your damn soap box.

It is about the individual person and their rights.. and if they don't want one, then you need to respect that. End of story. Just like they are respecting your right to call them selfish and tell them they are killing people.

Yakisoba

Seriously.. Get off your damn soap box.

It is about the individual person and their rights.. and if they don't want one, then you need to respect that. End of story. Just like they are respecting your right to call them selfish and tell them they are killing people.

^^^^

TinaMLT

It is the flu, people.

Seriously? Comparing it to Hepatitis and TB?
The flu has been contributing to death for a looooong time.
Only recently, with all the shots and vaccines, has it exploded into panic induced hysteria.
Think about it. Vaccines became more common, swine flu emerged.

History Lesson:

The worst influenza outbreak in the last 150 years occured in 1918-1919. It was called the Spanish flu. It killed over 5 million people the world over. In some areas 50% of the people who caught it died. The scary thing about it wasn't the kill rate, it was the infection rate. Some places had a 40% infection rate. What this means is that if 40% of the population got it, half of them died. 20%. 1 in 5 people died. It was so virulent (makes you really sick) that if a person that died from it is unearthed today the entire site becomes a class 3 containment area (the same as for ebola and other hemorragic fevers). CDC and the WHO both watch influenza outbreaks afraid of the next highly contagious, highly virulent influenza virus. They have been watch and waiting for it since 1919. Go walk through your city's older cemetaries. Make a note of how many people died in 1918 or 1919. Whole families were wiped of the face of this earth. The vaccine for influenza was not commercially available until the late 1950s. It was created because of the fear of a repeat performance of 1918-1919.

H1N1 (swine flu) was very contagious that is true, but it was also not very virulent (didn't kill a lot). Many virologist postulate that this might be due to the fact that we are vaccinating so many people against the flu. That in vaccinating people against specific flu viruses, we may be inferring a degree of protection against other flu viruses. Not complete immunity but enough to change a lethal infection into something you can fight off.

bayles1

here in the uk you only get it on the nhs if you have a chronic condition that could compromise your immune system. Then you're not forced to. I know nothing about the US system, so wouldn't want to make a blanket comment. However I have it every year, due to a chronic condition I have & suffer nothing more than an aching arm for a few hours. My opinion is is you need it get it, if not don't - up to the individual.

Exactly.

DWPedsRN

I do work in a hospital in FL where the flu shot is highly advised. Heck, we're even financially motivated to get it through discounts on our insurance premiums. If you choose to decline the flu shot, you are required to wear a mask anytime you're within 6 feet of any patient during peak flu season (12/1-3/31)
Common sense people, don't rely on a vaccine to keep you from getting the flu. Keep yourself and your surroundings clean and disinfected (phones, keyboards, doorknobs, pens) and WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY. Still the #1 way to prevent transmission of bugs like colds and flu!

LethaSue

I had one once and I am lucky to have lived thru it. I usually get the flu every year or a cold that turns into a nightmare broncitis every year, and I had taken my elderly mother into the dr. He was trying to get her to take one, she refused to, as it had made her so sick before.
So I decided I would, and that might of seriously been the worst mistake I have ever made. I was violently ill for weeks. Fever, vomiting, coughing, chills, miserable, miserable. I don't know if it were a bad dose or bad reaction but I wont be doing that again ever.

Wynterbourne

I'm 38. I've never had the flu and I've had maybe five colds in my entire life. I've never gotten the shot and I don't plan to in the future.

TinaMLT

Your family has got to be the most unlucky family on the planet, to catch influenza so frequently.

And as a side not, we do not vaccinate health care workers so that they don't catch influenza while at work. We vaccinate them so that they don't make their patients sick with the virus. The vaccine prevents you from being a carrier.

That was condescending. It is unlucky but my family certainly can't be the unluckiest on the planet. Vaccinate the patients because it should still be my choice.

Many of the patients cannot recieve the vaccine because they have absolutely no immune system. Examples are SCIDS, chemotherapy (especially for bone marrow transplants), HIV seroconverted (some not all). These patients cannot have the shot because they cannot, physically, mount any form of an immune response, becasue they don't have an immune system. We are their immune system. We create a bubble around them and protect them by keeping viruses and bacteria away from them.

If you work in a hospital, you can potentially bring the the virus into the building if you don't have the shot. Once it is in the building it is so easy to transfer that virus around. You have the flu, but don't know it yet (it can take up to 48 hrs for the symtoms to appear). But you are infectious (you can spread it). You scratch your eye. You go to the elevator and press your floor. 20 minutes later a nurse working with a SCIDS patient has to go to your floor and presses the same button as you did (the flu virus can live for upto 1 hr on a dry, room temperature solid surfuce). She now has the virus particles on her hand. She rubs her nose. The flu now has a hold on her and she doesn't even know it. She goes to work with her patient 24 hours later and voila, the SCIDs kid is now exposed. Not because the RN working with them did not follow isolation protocols, but because you decided that vaccinating yourself was not important enough.

Health care workers, although in most places are not required to get the shot by law, should, for professional ethical reasons. The patients in the facilities in which we work trust us to provide them with the absolute best care we can.

TinaMLT

Better safe than sorry for me! I don't see how a 25 dollar, 5 minute inconvenience isn't worth it. I started getting the flu shot 2 years ago, and sure enough those have been the only 2 winters that I did not get the flu. Works for me.

it isnt worth it for me because ive never gotten the flu anyway.

That's more luck than anything else.

Wynterbourne

Better safe than sorry for me! I don't see how a 25 dollar, 5 minute inconvenience isn't worth it. I started getting the flu shot 2 years ago, and sure enough those have been the only 2 winters that I did not get the flu. Works for me.

it isnt worth it for me because ive never gotten the flu anyway.

That's more luck than anything else.

Maybe sometimes, but not always. I've never had the flu and only four or five colds in 38 years and I'm constantly around people who have the flu and colds. Some people have great immune systems. Oh wait. Maybe that's where the luck part comes in... being born with a great immune system.

PixelTreason

To all the people who think that your immune system is fine and so you don't need a shot - It's not about YOU. It's about herd immunity and making sure you are keeping the frail and immune compromised people safe!
Your selfishness is hurting or even KILLING others. Good job.

Seriously.. Get off your damn soap box.

It is about the individual person and their rights.. and if they don't want one, then you need to respect that. End of story. Just like they are respecting your right to call them selfish and tell them they are killing people.

Not sure why you seem angry and telling me to "get off my soapbox" if you are also saying in the same breath that I have the right to be ON my soapbox.

Totally confused. I never said people should be forced to have a flu shot. I said it's the responsible thing to do. How am I not respecting their right to be irresponsible? Of course I am. But don't expect me not to call them out on it!

NOT getting a flu shot lowers herd immunity and puts babies, the elderly and the immunocompromised at risk of sickness or even death.
If you don't get one for silly reasons, I have every right to consider you an *kitten* and I will certainly tell you so!

Edit: Typo Queen

agthorn

Oh wait. Maybe that's where the luck part comes in... being born with a great immune system.

Actually, newborn babies are at high risk for infections because they haven't developed an immune system until the days and weeks after birth. That's why breastfeeding if the mother is able, even for a short time, is so highly recommended because antibodies are transferred to the infant from the mother. So no, nobody was "born with a great immune system" and people who are around newborns should be very careful (including vaccinating themselves if they are able).

You may have DEVELOPED a great immune system as a child. There's some evidence to support the idea that today's toddler-aged kids' environments are too clean (antibacterial soaps, overprotective moms, less unstructured play time in the dirt) and that they aren't being exposed to enough germs to build a strong immune system.

SarabellPlus3

I don't buy into the scare tactics against the flu shot. The ones I've read rely heavily on tainted or slanted information, and prey on miseducation on some of these topics.

My family & I all get it, always have. I know that we could survive the flu, but we also happen to live in a society. I don't want to carry the virus and unwittingly pass it to an immunocompromised person and kill them before I even show a symptom. We are all in a society, I think you should be "allowed" to throw us all an "F- off", I guess, but I don't know why you would-- that's sure not the kind of person I want to be.

That's my answer to how I feel about the flu shot. I have friends that are against it, and most for, inclulding a very highly respected immunologist friend of mine.

Kscardino26

I have gotten the flu shot off and on for several years and every year I get the flu shot I get horribly sick. For the past 2 years I haven't got one and I have not been sick. I work in a Doctors office, I am aware about that they will not make you sick. But for some reason I get sick. Just see how your body responds to it, and go from there.

brocantrs

I've never been hit by a car while on my bike either, but I still wear my helmet.

wearing a helmet is a little different from putting something INTO your body that isnt always necessary

Not really. Helmet is not necessary until you need it; same with the flu vaccine.

dippystick

The only flu shot I've ever had was the swine flu shot in 1976. I don't have trouble with getting the flu. I try to eat healthy and take care of myself. My son has been in a coma for 11 1/2 years and I won't let the nursing home give him one either, or a pnemonia shot. He got sick the first couple of years he was there when the flu and pnemonia ran rampet through the home. But after all these years of nothing, if he does catch anything, he's fought it off in 24-48 hours on his own. His immune system is like iron now and he doesn't do anything but lay in bed all day. The only movement he does on his own is to stretch.

My oldest DD and her 3 boys all get the shots every year, but they have trouble with bad asthma, and they get sick every year.

ruststar

It is impossible to get the flu from the flu shot. The virus is inactivated and dead. The nasal spray one is live, so technically it could happen that you get the flu from that, but still very unlikely. Just wanted to make that clear!

I'm not argueing your point at all because I hear this all the time but what I don't understand is why certain people get the flu after the shot.

I believe it's a reaction to the shot - it happened to me last year within 4 hours of getting my shot and I had to go home because I felt miserable with flu-like symptoms. Within 24 hours I was all better and I didn't get sick once all winter long. M husband and my daughter, who didn't get the shot, kept passing back and forth the same crud all winter. It seemed like they were sick constantly. That convinced me to keep getting the shots, even though I had that reaction, I just choose to get it when I don't have to work.

Wynterbourne

Oh wait. Maybe that's where the luck part comes in... being born with a great immune system.

Actually, newborn babies are at high risk for infections because they haven't developed an immune system until the days and weeks after birth. That's why breastfeeding if the mother is able, even for a short time, is so highly recommended because antibodies are transferred to the infant from the mother. So no, nobody was "born with a great immune system" and people who are around newborns should be very careful (including vaccinating themselves if they are able).

You may have DEVELOPED a great immune system as a child. There's some evidence to support the idea that today's toddler-aged kids' environments are too clean (antibacterial soaps, overprotective moms, less unstructured play time in the dirt) and that they aren't being exposed to enough germs to build a strong immune system.

I realize it's partly passed from mother and partly developed (I believe that theory is justified). I was over-generalizing. My mistake.

But, I don't have children, don't plan on having children, am not a nurse or teacher or in contact with "at risk" people to pass germs on to. I chose not to get the shot.

iishnova

I recently found out that I've never had a flu shot (I'm 24). I thought it had just been awhile and I didn't remember, but my parents and I were talking about it the other day and none of us have ever had a flu shot. I've had other vaccinations, so its not that they were opposed to vacs. I've also never had the flu. I can say if I was forced to get one I would probably resent whoever was telling me it was mandatory. I'm far from the healthiest person in the world, to be sure, but I don't plan on getting a flu shot.