Flu shots? For them or against ?

jgnatca · November 2017

Quarantine was also the preferred method of control for tuberculosis until effective antibiotic treatment was developed. Antibiotics closed the sanatoriums.

Quarantine or natural immunity was the only prayer during the Black Plague.

I believe that pandemic and the Chinese famines were the closest we got to extermination as a species. If I recall correctly the world population dropped to one third.

TonyB0588 · November 2017

jgnatca wrote: »

TonyB0588 wrote: »

I've never had the shot, and most people I know wouldn't have had it either.

Seems to depend a bit on what country you live in apparently.

It might be worthwhile to check the hospitalization/death rates for your country during flu season.

I did. Very low.

Asked my doctor about it recently, as this MFP thread was puzzling me.

jgnatca · November 2017

Now it’s going to drive me crazy until I find out what country this is.

canadianlbs · November 2017

jgnatca wrote: »

I do happen to have a close family member who could die from a single exposure to the flu, and has been hospitalized several times to recover from the flu. You betcha I'm getting vaccinated before I visit my dad.

this, minus the middle part. for some reason flu is a rare thing for me - i used to suspect that having rheumatoid athritis meant that i'd catch things but experience them as a flare-up instead. but i went and got one this year, because i don't want my dad getting all the way to 92 and then being felled by something imported into his home by his own adult kid.

prescottgal7 · November 2017

I fly internationally 2 or 3 times a year. You bet I get a flu shot. Airplanes are giant petri dishes of bacteria, viruses and germs. My whole family gets the shot yearly.

teagirlmedium · November 2017

I don't care if other people get the shot, I view it as thier choice. I am actually against the flue shot for myself. I am afraid of needles. When I lived alone without pets I would not get it. My view is if someone gets me sick with the flue I will just stay home by myself. However, now that I am around my family and have pets I have to take care of I get the shot. The pets need food, and they need their litter box changed/ dogs need to be let in and out, I can't risk getting the flue and being useless for multiple days. I prefer the mist, even though I had minor flue symptoms when I had it. But it is not a needle, so I go for it.

ManBehindTheMask · November 2017

@TeacupsAndToning what are your thoughts about this topic?

ManBehindTheMask · November 2017

TeacupsAndToning wrote: »

@ManBehindTheMask wrote: »

@TeacupsAndToning what are your thoughts about this topic?

You're so mean to me lol

Hey I was just tagging you in a thread I know you love

rheddmobile · November 2017

teagirlmedium wrote: »

I don't care if other people get the shot, I view it as thier choice. I am actually against the flue shot for myself. I am afraid of needles. When I lived alone without pets I would not get it. My view is if someone gets me sick with the flue I will just stay home by myself. However, now that I am around my family and have pets I have to take care of I get the shot. The pets need food, and they need their litter box changed/ dogs need to be let in and out, I can't risk getting the flue and being useless for multiple days. I prefer the mist, even though I had minor flue symptoms when I had it. But it is not a needle, so I go for it.

I'm sorry to hear you're afraid of needles. Thank you for being responsible towards other people despite your fears.

The only problem with your original plan of staying home if you got sick was that you can give the flu to others before you realize you have it yourself. Flu is contagious before it's symptomatic.

teagirlmedium · November 2017

Thanks rheddmobile for your comment. My last job was at a casino. People go to the casino to gamble for hours even when they are coughing and sneezing. The casino had a nurse come in and give the shot to people who wanted it. When she was talking she explained why it was a good idea to get the shot. I agreed with her so I got the shot.

MellowGa · November 2017

Vaccines in general are a wonderful thing, and let me give it to you straight. My three children have been vaccinated for the HPV virus when it first came out, we paid for it, the insurance company did not pay for it at the time, they do now. Why? because you never know.

Now some six/seven years.... I have been Diagnosed with Stage Three Throat cancer from the HPV virus, I have never smoked in my life, I eat a modestly healthy diet (70/30 rule) Drink modestly. Been with my wife for 27 years. The Doctor said I have done everything perfect, there was no way of avoiding this, nothing I could have done. I Will enter into a Seven week Radiation/Chemo treatment at one of the best Hospitals in the country. Luckily it has a 85% cure rate. the HPV virus is in 90% of American adults, it effects 1% of us and another 1% get cancer from it, so I am 1% of 1% to get this nasty thing.

The only thing I can think of as I sit here in pain, that my children have been vaccinated for this cancer, that gives me a silver lining, that they will not have to face this in their lives.

Stop being stupid and get your kids vaccinated.

spikeraw22 · November 2017

I'm a pediatric pharmacist. There are few things that get me fired up like this debate. I have seen children die of preventable diseases because their parents had read some .com website telling them vaccines are dangerous.

The flu kills people. Period. More than anything, it kills children. The flu vaccine is one of our least effective vaccines, but it IS effective, and the side effects for the general population are tiny. Vaccines are easily the safest medications on the market. You're more at risk of harming your children by giving them tylenol and motrin when they get a fever. It's not even close.

So, if you are unvaccinated, don't think of it as a personal decision. It isn't. For every person who isn't vaccinated, everyone else is at a greater risk of contracting the disease. Kids don't get a choice. You do. Vaccinate your kids. Vaccinate yourself. Not just for your family, but for mine.

michael1976_ca · November 2017

i'm going for my shot tomorrow. I never really get sick during the winter

dwilliamca · November 2017

I have nothing against them, but never have had the flu and haven't even had a cold in probably 20 years so I don't bother getting one. Maybe someday I'll sing a different tune.

jgnatca · November 2017

Gosh I wish people would take the time to read the responses. Even stunningly healthy people who don’t get sick surely are the aunt, grandmother, or daughter to a vulnerable person.

klove808 · November 2017

I don't get them anymore. The few years that I did, I had never been sicker. I rarely get sick and I I do come down with something my body thankfully fights it well. But those few years with shots were literally horrible. Maybe it was coincidence but it was such a drastic difference that I think not.

kimny72 · November 2017

This thread is like Groundhog Day. Someone who obviously didn't read the thread posts that they don't get the shot because they don't need it, or they believe it gave them the flu, followed by several posts that ask if they read the thread, and if they just don't care about herd immunity and the people around them, and they never return. Then the thread sits for awhile until another poster who obviously didn't read the thread posts that they don't get the shot because they don't need it or it gave them the flu, and we go around the merry-go-round again.

I guess that's a problem in a lot of society right now, people just go through life reading headlines and hearing sound bites and don't bother to read the actual story and consider other peoples' experience and knowledge <shrug>.

A recap of the continuous rebuttals:

The flu shot is not a live virus so it can't give you the flu.
The flu isn't a bad cold, it is a debilitating illness that will knock you on your keister for weeks. So if that didn't happen, you probably didn't have the flu.
Getting the flu shot can help keep you from passing the flu onto people around you who may be weaker or medically unable to get vaccinated for some reason

I will admit I didn't get it when I was younger out of ignorance, I figured I was young and healthy so I didn't need it. Now that I learned about herd immunity, I get it to protect my parents who are in their 70's, my nephews who are small children and still developing their immune systems, and the random people I meet in the grocery store, movie theater, train, etc whose stories I will never know.

jgnatca · November 2017

Not to mention that children are in the high risk category....

Flu shots? For them or against ?

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