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Flu shot time is coming around again up at my work place and around the country.  The place I work for gets a clinic to come to our building to give shots and I only have to pay a 5 dollars copay with the particular HMO that I have (Southern Health).

There are some people that I work with that are absolutely scared of getting flu shots as they believe that they'll actually get the flu by getting the shot.

Do you all get your flu shot each year or do you choose not to? If not, why?   

Nope.  I've known too many people who got the flu despite having the shot.

Never even crossed my mind to get one. Maybe because I like living on the edge. Also I don't have health insurance. Also flu shots are just another way for the reptiloid cabal at the earth's core to control your brain.

The flu shot lady was in our office today, as a matter of fact. And, no, I didn't join the queu to get pricked.

I used to get one regularly until I figured out having the flu was the perfect guilt-free excuse for laying around the house for a week or so in dirty sweat pants to catch up on movies and old tv shows.  :smile:

I'm supposed to get one tomorrow.  We'll see how that turns out.

I've noticed that during the years I have gotten flu shots through work, I get sick more often, whereas during years I skipped on the shot I have not gotten ill as much. So I opt to forego them.

I've never had a flu shot ever and the reason for it is that a doctor told me that they inject you with flu germs to counteract the other germs, that is why you get sick anyway.

Our department has flu shots for free, I never go and hardly ever get sick, while those who go for their jabs get sick and are off work for a while.

I think the flu shots work like any other immunization, and this term might be misleading. Basically your organism gets exposed to a very small dosis of some specific virus. The immune system starts raising antibodies against this specific virus. In doing so, the contributing cells sort of "save the construction plan of the specific type of antibody to their harddrive" - sort of hard to explain in english. As this is technically an infection, immunocompromised people might suffer some influenza symptoms afterwards. However, the cells can react faster and more effictive to any new "invasion" of this virus. In very strong infections, symptoms might well still occur, but usually not as strong and as long as without a shot.

Summary: The doctor makes you sick - but just a little - so you get used to it.

No comments on the reasonability of this. I just wanted to post something including the words: invasion, infection, dosis and virus.

 My feelings exactly!!!!  :bouncegiggle:

I am one of those annoying people that others hate when it comes to sickness. I get sick and within a day or so feel completely fine, but those who came in contact with me during those 2 days get some form of bubonic plauge. I get the sniffles, and the wife and kids (except for my daughter who is my clone) are reduced to quivering blobs of mucus generating meatbags. EXCEPT the one time I got the flu shot. The one time I got the shot I was sick as hel, and 4 out of the 5 people in my office wound up in the hospital hooked up to I.V.s 'cause they got some evil form of stomach flu. So now I just avoid the shot.

I get a flu shot every year, the only bad thing for me is the shot itself, I hate needles. I don't get sick so I assume the shots have been effective. There is one thing about this flu shot business that annoys me to no end, the HMO I belong to will not pay for the shot if I get it from my "primary care physician" (family doctor for the last 20 years) but if she refers me to a pulmonary specialist who charges about 5 times what she does for an office visit, he is a specialist after all, then they will pay for the shot. The charge for the shot is the same at both places, the copay for me is the same, the only difference is in the charge for the office visit and the HMO pays that, and for the paper work, copies of which are faxed and mailed to everyone involved in this bit of stupidity. I honestly believe the HMO does this because most people do what I do, which is pay the $21 to their doctor for the shot rather than go through all this red tape so in the long run they get out of paying for almost all the shots.

I have to say no as well. I hardly ever get sick, and when I do, it's usually mild and brief. I got a flu shot back when the local health department started with the free travelling clinics, and I got sicker that winter than I've been in years - twice. It took a couple of years to get back to the old pattern.

I also noticed that the public health department and the Ministry of Health were always pushing the shots and presenting a very one-sided case. They were, and still are, quick to stomp all over any suggestion that the shot might be ineffective and perhaps bad for some people. Not saying they're out to deceive, but I get the image of a pushy salesman drawing attention to the good and away from the bad.

You have to also consider that the flu vaccine is not like the ones for polio or measles that can give you immunity to a specific bug. New flu strains are coming along all the time, which is why we get the flu more than once. The flu vaccine can never be more than an educated guess. Personally, if I'm going to mess with my immune system, I'd like better odds.

Want to beat the flu? Wash your hands. Carry a bottle of sanitizer. Eat properly and get regular sleep. And if you do happen to get sick, for cripe sakes, stay home. We seem to believe getting our own work done is more important than protecting the health of all the other employees. Even on the weekend, people today can't seem to interrupt their daily lives for a couple of days to wrap up in a quilt, lay on the couch and watch some movies with some hot soup. It's an excuse to goof off. Use it. Everybody will be better off.

Can you tell I've been writing editorials for years?  :smile:

The only flu shot I've ever had was back in the 70's when I was in the Navy. The made us take the vaccine for Swine Flu. They made sure that we got it by setting up in the pay line. You had to get the shot to get paid.

I don't know how many people were saved by getting the shot, but in the end more people died from the vaccine than from the swine flu.


I haven't had the flu in 27 years.

There was one year that I missed my flu shot and I ended up getting the flu that following late winter.

I've never gotten the flu as long as I've gotten my flu shot.

Meh, tomorrow is going to be the first 30degrees celcius day of our new summer season.

Needless to say, cold weather and flu shots are a matter of the past for me [this season at least]

And no, I don't get em.  I'm a trooper.  :wink:  [this means that if I ever got anything serious I probably wouldn't get it checked until it's too late but oh well.]

Of course, I have to get my flu shot every year.  Not much of a choice for a Marine.  The amusing part is that the Navy always seems to put us last on the supply list, so we end up getting them around January (which is a little past the prime time for the shots).

I also had the entire first series of Anthrax shots, though those always made my gums bleed.

I started getting them a few years ago because I work in a hospital.  Although I find the best rememdy is keeping your hands clean and out of your face during flu season. 

The flu shot contains 'killed' virus: it does not inject you with live germs.  OK?

When was the last deadly flu pandemic - 1918?  Someone must have noticed that we are overdue for a nasty one.

All the same, I don't get a shot.   The shot available in any given year is targeted at the strain of flu that 'they' projected was most likely to be a problem this year - a decision made a year or two back, to allow time to manufacture the vaccine.  As AndyC said: based upon an educated guess.  As such it does not cover all strains of the flu and one can still get sick, shot or no.  I'll wash my hands and take my chances since I am not in a high-risk category - not that old yet! 

(Edited to add Friday morning: I just heard it mentioned on our news that this year's shot is expected to be "only 40 to 50% effective" since the strain it was concocted for has mutated.   :tongueout: )

Wasn't the SARS a flu pandemic? I remember they shut down hospitals and airports up here over that. I can't remember if that one hit the states.

SARS had some flu-like symptoms, but I recall it was something else. The whole SARS pandemic was completely blown out of proportion. In Canada, we had fewer than 300 cases and just over 40 deaths. I remember getting the press releases, and seeing the advanced age of most who didn't recover. That was never really emphasized in news reports. A regular flu season can be worse than that.

What all that bad press did to Toronto's economy was ridiculous.

i don't for several reasons.  The flu shot only protects against a specific strain of the flu, usually they select the most common. If the flu mutates, changes it's genetic structure or you get another strain it's not going to protect you.

Also a lot of the people who come out to administer shots and draw blood are sorta..nurses in training. I'm not uber trusting on the cleanliness factor of strangers outside of a clinic poking needles in me.

I've never had the shot and never had the flu. I've been exposed to the flu, too. there's also a risk of having an allergic reaction ..knowing my luck

It's really ideal for people who can't fight off the flu, like the elderly.

The best defence against getting contagious illnesses is to try and keep clean, wash your hands in hot water with soap. But use hand sanitizer, I have some on my desk at work and during cootie season I always Lysol my desk, chair and everything else down (particularly that people touch). I also try not to use pens at supermarkets and banks (god knows how people people have touched them). During flu season I tend to open doors with my shoulder, foot or sleeve. It's when you bring the germs to your face that you're in trouble

so no picking your nose

Compared to influenza, SARS was a mere blip on the radar.  Have we become such wimps?  :lookingup:  Yes, my poor beloved Toronto is still recovering from the SARS frenzy.

Some quick info: (coobled together from various sources)
SARS is caused by a previously unrecognized coronavirus, called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). It is possible that other infectious agents might have a role in some cases of SARS.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that have a halo or crown-like (corona) appearance when viewed under a microscope. These viruses are a common cause of mild to moderate upper-respiratory illness in humans and are associated with respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver and neurologic disease in animals.

In general, SARS begins with a high fever (temperature greater than 100.4°F [>38.0°C]). Other symptoms may include headache, an overall feeling of discomfort, and body aches. Some people also have mild respiratory symptoms at the outset. About 10 percent to 20 percent of patients have diarrhea. After 2 to 7 days, SARS patients may develop a dry cough. Most patients develop pneumonia. The very young, the elderly or those with already compromised health are at greatest risk.

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than World War I, at somewhere between 20 and 40 million. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four years of the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) from 1347 to 1351. Known as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.
 
The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. The death rate for 15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher in 1918 than in previous years. People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anecdote shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza. Others told stories of people on their way to work suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours. One physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients, "it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate,". Another physician recalls that the influenza patients "died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth,". The physicians of the time were helpless against this powerful agent of influenza.

The influenza pandemic circled the globe. Most of humanity felt the effects of this strain of the influenza virus. It spread following the path of its human carriers, along trade routes and shipping lines. Outbreaks swept through North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South Pacific. In India the mortality rate was extremely high at around 50 deaths from influenza per 1,000 people.

The origins of this influenza variant is not precisely known. It is thought to have originated in China in a rare genetic shift of the influenza virus. The recombination of its surface proteins created a virus novel to almost everyone and a loss of herd immunity. Recently the virus has been reconstructed from the tissue of a dead soldier and is now being genetically characterized. The name of Spanish Flu came from the early affliction and large mortalities in Spain where it allegedly killed 8 million in May alone.

- Sounds like there is reason to respect the potential of the influenza virus.  Wash those hands people!


(Aside: funny how we Canadians on here seem well-represented in these responses.)

yes, the bird flu that surfaces in the news now and again really is a potentia threat because they believe it is of relation to the spanish flu. Both being bird strains, high mortality rate and no vaccine. The regular flu which circulates annually are often mutations of a prior strain or a new strain but once in awhile will have just the right combination to make it a strong virus (such as the hong kong flu) I truly hope the avian flu that is making it's rounds doesn't find the genetic click to open the lock in making it highly transmitable or we're all in big trouble - and that ain't no hype

I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza,
I opened the window,
And in-flew-enza.
-American Skipping Rhyme circa 1918

I watched a program on The History Channel recently about the flu outbreak of 1918, that offered the theory that particular flu bug came from a passing comet's tail.  The theory was largely based on the fact the outbreak happened almost simultaneously across the globe, even in very isolated areas such as Alaska.

 Other very unusual aspects of that particular epidemic was the segment of the population most likely to die from the infection was young, otherwise healthy adults, not the usual children and elderly and that it peaked during the summer and autumn months. They somehow thought this also linked the bug to outer space, but I don't recall their logic on those particular points.

As I understood it, the 1918 flu killed more people in their prime because it so thoroughly set off their immune systems, which would seem to go with the descriptions of symptoms coming on fast and hard. The fluids start running, the membranes swell up, your temperature skyrockets - all part of your body fighting the flu. And these things can hurt you if they go too far. So, somebody with a healthy, responsive immune system would have gotten it worse than someone who was old, or even someone weakened by a recent illness. What would normally put you most at risk was actually a good thing.

I've also read something about people's teeth rotting out due to the Spanish flu. Anybody know why that happened?

A timely bit of thread rebirth here.