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Flu shots? For them or against ?

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  • JDMac82
    JDMac82 Posts: 3,192 Member
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    Get um every year.
    1 Its a preventative medicine measure, like washing your hands with soap and water.
    2 Its not a live virus, cant "give you the flu"
    3 Medical Community has several strains to choose from to mass produce a vaccine, they look off trends around the world to see which one. Why so many strains, viruses mutate.
  • walktalkdog
    walktalkdog Posts: 102 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    wanzik wrote: »
    Never had one. Don't plan on getting one any time soon but when I'm older I might need them.

    I don't view vaccines as being for yourself, they are for the community. Its a societal thing. I don't get a flu shot because I am super worried that I am going to get deathly ill from the flu, I get a flu shot because I view it as part of the protective shield helping stave off potentially life threatening diseases from the community as a whole. Not because I am old but because I might be around people who are.

    I get the TDAP vaccine because I'm occassionally around children, not because I'm worried about pertussus for myself. I get the flu shot for similar reasons.

    I view it as a civic duty. Unless I have a very good reason to not get one I get one and to date I haven't had a good reason to not get one. I have medical insurance so its 100% free, so why wouldn't I?

    With everything its a cost:benefit analysis

    Cost: No money. No risk of illness (other posters are right you cannot get sick from a flu vaccine).
    Benefit: Possibly avoid the flu yourself. Avoid transmitting the flu to others.

    Seems like a no brainer to me.

    Pretty much my thoughts as well...it's the primary reason we had to get them annually when I was in the military.

    This, too.
  • walktalkdog
    walktalkdog Posts: 102 Member
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    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    wanzik wrote: »
    Never had one. Don't plan on getting one any time soon but when I'm older I might need them.

    I don't view vaccines as being for yourself, they are for the community. Its a societal thing. I don't get a flu shot because I am super worried that I am going to get deathly ill from the flu, I get a flu shot because I view it as part of the protective shield helping stave off potentially life threatening diseases from the community as a whole. Not because I am old but because I might be around people who are.

    I get the TDAP vaccine because I'm occassionally around children, not because I'm worried about pertussus for myself. I get the flu shot for similar reasons.

    I view it as a civic duty. Unless I have a very good reason to not get one I get one and to date I haven't had a good reason to not get one. I have medical insurance so its 100% free, so why wouldn't I?

    With everything its a cost:benefit analysis

    Cost: No money. No risk of illness (other posters are right you cannot get sick from a flu vaccine).
    Benefit: Possibly avoid the flu yourself. Avoid transmitting the flu to others.

    Seems like a no brainer to me.

    This.
  • lukilton
    lukilton Posts: 9 Member
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    I started getting flu shots back in the 1990's. Back then health care for non-natives was not all that great, unless of course you lived in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau or were in the military. ."Bush" Alaska is a petri dish of bugs, viruses, and all sorts of highly communicable diseases. And very few people trust medicine enough to vaccinate against those communicable diseases. The one year I skipped the shot, I spent about nine months fighting off the flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia. I have not missed one since even though I am no longer in Alaska. Since I get my shots as early in the season as possible, even though I am confident you cannot get the flu from the vaccine, I figure I am fully covered by the time others start getting sick and could infect me. That is my logic for getting vaccinated, based solely upon my personal experience.
  • kq1981
    kq1981 Posts: 1,098 Member
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    MellowGa wrote: »
    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.

    This makes me so sad :( i wish you all the best x
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    GuyWinton wrote: »
    Yeah, I'm opposed to injecting mercury into my body. My kids, into their mid-20s, have never been vaccinated. Thank god we live in a supposedly free country where we can make our own medical decisions rather than the government or various busy-bodies.

    Well, if you insist on ignoring the evidence about thimerosal, why not just get a single-dose vaccine? Thimerosal is generally found in multi-dose vials.

    My guess is that you'll have an excuse not to do that too because this type of decision is made on the basis of emotion, not facts.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
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    Since this seems as good a place as any to ask...

    A while ago, my husband and I read an article somewhere that I can't recall exactly or locate that suggested that, in order for your body to continue to produce strong antibodies, it might be a good idea to skip the flu shot every few years (I believe years where it is least effective were suggested for obvious reasons?)

    I'm not much of a science brain and, while it seemed reasonable to me - my recollection is that in studies, a diminished ability to produce antibodies was noted in subjects who consistently received the vaccine vs. those who skipped certain rounds - I think it goes against conventional wisdom that getting the shot every year provides a kind of cumulative protection. "I read an article a while ago that I kind of remember" also isn't really compelling evidence on which to make health-related decisions, so it would be great if someone else knows to what I'm referring and can comment.

    I get my flu shot every year in the interests of public health, but obviously if there is a benefit to skipping a year once in a while, I would consider doing so.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    peleroja wrote: »
    Since this seems as good a place as any to ask...

    A while ago, my husband and I read an article somewhere that I can't recall exactly or locate that suggested that, in order for your body to continue to produce strong antibodies, it might be a good idea to skip the flu shot every few years (I believe years where it is least effective were suggested for obvious reasons?)

    I'm not much of a science brain and, while it seemed reasonable to me - my recollection is that in studies, a diminished ability to produce antibodies was noted in subjects who consistently received the vaccine vs. those who skipped certain rounds - I think it goes against conventional wisdom that getting the shot every year provides a kind of cumulative protection. "I read an article a while ago that I kind of remember" also isn't really compelling evidence on which to make health-related decisions, so it would be great if someone else knows to what I'm referring and can comment.

    I get my flu shot every year in the interests of public health, but obviously if there is a benefit to skipping a year once in a while, I would consider doing so.

    @peleroja not sure if this was it or just another research source reporting on the subject.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/1804162/canadian-study-finds-flu-shot-could-increase-risk-of-getting-sick/
  • urloved33
    urloved33 Posts: 3,325 Member
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    never had one.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,995 Member
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    peleroja wrote: »
    Since this seems as good a place as any to ask...

    A while ago, my husband and I read an article somewhere that I can't recall exactly or locate that suggested that, in order for your body to continue to produce strong antibodies, it might be a good idea to skip the flu shot every few years (I believe years where it is least effective were suggested for obvious reasons?)

    I'm not much of a science brain and, while it seemed reasonable to me - my recollection is that in studies, a diminished ability to produce antibodies was noted in subjects who consistently received the vaccine vs. those who skipped certain rounds - I think it goes against conventional wisdom that getting the shot every year provides a kind of cumulative protection. "I read an article a while ago that I kind of remember" also isn't really compelling evidence on which to make health-related decisions, so it would be great if someone else knows to what I'm referring and can comment.

    I get my flu shot every year in the interests of public health, but obviously if there is a benefit to skipping a year once in a while, I would consider doing so.

    I do not know the article you are referring to - but i do know I've worked in medical centre for 8 years and in various other health roles prior to that and a large part of my job is giving flu vaccines - have never heard this recomendation nor is anything of the sort in the Australian Immunisation Guidelines - - the comprehensive reference 'bible' for any vaccine information here.

    I also see an obvious flaw in this plan because doing so " in the years where it is least effective were suggested for obvious reasons" - the whole idea of flu vaccine is to get it before the flu season - how will you know in advace which years it is going to be least effective in????
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