I’ve never had a flu shot. I’m willing to start this year. After reading threads like this annually, you all have finally convinced me. Just have to find a place. Walgreens doesn’t seem quite right. Perhaps it’s time for a visit to my doctor, who I haven’t seen in years.
Some people have a strong aversion to needles. Some people are allergic to the ingredients (or have a legitimate worry that they might be).
CVS, Rite Aid, Costco, Safeway, and Target work if you don’t like Walgreens.
If the problem is you don’t want to do it in a drug store, CVS has Minute Clinics and Walgreens has Healthcare Clinics that are staffed by physicians assistants and/or nurse practitioners. They are adjacent to the drug store, but have their own private exam rooms.
Given the current realities of billing for doctor’s offices, it is unlikely that your doctor is your doctor any longer if you haven’t seen him or her in years. Doctors need to maximize the number of patients seen in their practice, and don’t have resources to spare keeping up with paperwork for patients they don’t see.
Yes. I try to do it on a Friday, because I generally feel like absolute crap for a few days after.
To those that say you don’t bother because you don’t get the flu, I have one question:
Have you ever been contagious without showing symptoms and infected other people without knowing it?
I will when I can but my employer had been eerily silent on the when and where. Have heard no details at all actually.
I got mine almost as soon as it was available. I also took my 88-year-old father with me to get his.
My dad actually got the flu last year despite having been vaccinated. It was an odd case, in that it didn’t present with all the normal symptoms. He had a little bit of a cough and was very weak, but had little to no fever and no sore muscles. The doctors eventually diagnosed it with a lab test. It didn’t help that he had pulmonary embolisms on top of the flu.
It’s possible that the vaccination saved my dad’s life. Even though it didn’t prevent the illness, it may have made it less severe. As it was, he spent a few days in the hospital and was in a rehab facility for a couple of weeks after that.
Influenza is a nasty, nasty illness. I last had it in 1996, when I was 39 years old and had no chronic health problems. I could barely move for three days, and was weak for several days after that.
Yes, I plan to get a flu shot. The last time I had the flu, I was sick for days. I don’t want that again.
Due to being on dialysis in an open room, I am required to get the flu shot. It will probably be next week.
I can’t. As a child, I tested positive for an allergy to eggs. My doctor is extremely reluctant to okay the vaccine because of it. I know that medical science has advanced light-years since I was a kid, that people outgrow childhood allergies, and that they have a mist that many people prefer, and that it’s a very slight allergy. But my doctor still recommends against it.
I just heard on the news that older people should wait to get their flu shots b/c the shots don’t last that long . I only got a flu shot once when I was a health aide .
No I don’t think I am getting one .
Just got mine.
I also heard that you ought to wait a bit and not get the shot so early. The efficacy subsides in a couple of months.
Of course, I heard about this after I got my shot in mid-September! Next year I think I’ll wait until about November 1 to get it.
I am not so sure about that. This article (8 years old) suggests getting it early is OK, but may depend on your age, immune system reaction, and other factors:
*The immunity from the vaccine actually lasts for a substantial period of time. In past years people used to be concerned that the immunity would fade but we have much better data now that supports that immunity actually can extend throughout the influenza season into the spring, and in many cases actually into the following year. *
And, from the CDC:
Flu vaccination should begin soon after vaccine becomes available, if possible by October. However, as long as flu viruses are circulating, vaccination should continue to be offered throughout the flu season, even in January or later. While seasonal influenza outbreaks can happen as early as October, during most seasons influenza activity peaks in January or later. Since it takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body that protect against influenza virus infection, it is best that people get vaccinated so they are protected before influenza begins spreading in their community.
They give them out at work for free, I’m going to sign up to get one when I go to work.
I did have a friend send out a group text, not really sure why, that he wasn’t getting the flu shot because of mercury and that the shot really doesn’t work. I wanted to reach through the phone and smack him, but wasn’t in the mood.
There is no mercury in the single-dose flu shot.
I just got a mailing from my insurer urging me to get mine early.
I know this, and you know this, but the woo sites don’t and that’s what he’s been reading.
What’s this about “older people”? Anyone who gets the shot should get it at the beginning of the season–every season. There are some “extra strong” shots for the elderly.
In Texas, we’re having an early flu season. We get our free shots this week–there’s no reason to wait.