Flu shots page 4

[naiadknight]

I've only gotten the shot once in my life. Coincidentally, I've also only gotten the straight up flu once in my life. Same year, got the vaccine a week before I got the flu. Most likely was actually coincidence, but I'll keep my winning streak going without the vaccine as long as I can.
That said, I get my other shots. Tetanus is nothing to fuck with.

[DinoHunter]

Never had the flu shot, only had the flu once in my life and that was thanks to a very sick clients coming in when she should have stayed home...and coughing all over the place... Even then I only got a mild case...24 hour eddition.
My neibour on the other hand has gotten the flu shot every year since ive known her...(11 years) and always spends 2 weeks down with the flu... This year she decided not to get the flu shot and hasent gotten the flu for the first time....

The way I look at it, id rather work on being healthy and boosting my immune system to naturaly fight off nastys. In the event that I were to get the flu,mmy immune sytem is better able to handle things on its own and the flu is a known component that i know what to exspect and what can be done to minamize down time.

The flu shot is a wild card. Nobody really knows what the long time risk are. There are things in it that I know I do not want in my body. To many variables, to many unknowns to risk pumping it into my body on the assumption that it "might" help me avoid a couple out of hundreds of flu strains. I dont think "avoid poisens" should be limited to my food.
Avoid Sick people that insist on coughing all over you, is also good policy

[janie]

I am a biologist and I always get all the vaccines I can, including flu shots.

Anyone who refuses vaccines is needlessly risking their life and the lives of everyone else around them, period.

It is very sad that this would be the unpopular opinion around here. The value of not getting or spreading dangerous and preventable diseases far outweighs all the needless fear-mongering going on about vaccines being bad. People very easily forget how horrible all the diseases were that are now nearly non-existent because of vaccines. Smallpox, polio? No one even thinks about all the serious diseases prevented by vaccines anymore because they are so easily and effectively prevented now.

About this years' flu vaccine: It is a relatively good match to the strains now seen causing disease AND already killing people. This year I got mine for free and had zero side effects from it. Personally, I don't care very much for myself if I get the flu or not, but I would feel terrible if I passed it onto my elderly parents or someone's young child, risking their lives, just because I was too lazy or scared to get the shot.

Please get the shot, to protect the lives of others, even if you think you yourself are super healthy. Even if you are confident your own system can fight off the disease, you can still give it to people who can't. And getting the shot increases the likelihood that your body will kill the virus before it has a chance to be spread to others.

So you are saying that I should take the risk of having mercury (and god knows what else) injected in my arm in order to protect others from disease? Gee, no thanks.

[EagleRiverDee]

So you are saying that I should take the risk of having mercury (and god knows what else) injected in my arm in order to protect others from disease? Gee, no thanks.

LOL. When I read that post I was a little offended also. I get sick every time I get the shot, last time hospitalized. So, it's selfish of me to refuse to get the shot because I might catch the flu and I might give it to someone else, but the shot is guaranteed to make me sick? If others want to be protected from disease and they believe in the shot, then THEY should get it.

[Knifegill]

If those who believe that the flu shot is so effective ACTUALLY believed it to be so, then why would they fear the un-vaccinated? That's like a knight in full armor afraid of an angry three-year-old.

And for you self-confident, arrogant pseudo-professionals who sell pills to innocent cattle: Get used to it. More and more we're just done being sold things we don't need. Medical "services" included. Just look at the statin fiasco! People are wasting away because of greedy industry recommendations. So get off your "I care about people" high horse and get real. A paper mask is far more effective and safer than any chemical injected into the body.

[Ayla2010]

If those who believe that the flu shot is so effective ACTUALLY believed it to be so, then why would they fear the un-vaccinated? That's like a knight in full armor afraid of an angry three-year-old.

And for you self-confident, arrogant pseudo-professionals who sell pills to innocent cattle: Get used to it. More and more we're just done being sold things we don't need. Medical "services" included. Just look at the statin fiasco! People are wasting away because of greedy industry recommendations. So get off your "I care about people" high horse and get real. A paper mask is far more effective and safer than any chemical injected into the body.

Yes this!!!
And we along with tons of others I am sure, stay at home when we are sick. I don't like to share our germs around.
Not that we have ever had the flu. Colds yes, but never the flu.

[bloodorchid]

wulf... too lazy and scared? seriously?

you funny

[Neckhammer]

I am a biologist .....

I know biologists that make the exact opposite case...and it makes whole lot more sense.

Nope no flu shots for me or my family. Just some vitamin D or FCLO over the winter. All is well

[texas.grok]

When you start looking deeper into the deaths related to the flu, you start finding that a) the people that died had underlying medical conditions, b) they often were admitted into the hospital and c) they usually died of something other than the flu like a staph infection that they got after they were admitted into the hospital.

I have been unable to find any stories of people that got the flu, took care of themselves at home and died at home as a result of the flu.

So what is the lesson here? Get the flu shot or avoid doctors and hospitals?

I don't take the flu shot, I don't get the flu and I avoid doctor's like the plague (or flu if you will). And I don't get sick from anything else for that matter.

And as far as not taking a flu shot endangering others, bullshit!

[Urban Forager]

^^ I did some research and found the same to be true, the majority of people that died of the flu had underlying medical conditions. DS has a medical condition(respiratory) so he gets the flu shot. Last year his doctors said I should get it too, I didn't want to be irresponsible so I got one too. Maybe it was just coincidence but a few days after getting the shot I got a nasty cold (no fever) that turned into a respiratory infection that took 3+ months to cure. I should add that that was after spending 3 weeks in the hospital with DS so maybe I picked up something nasty there.