# Flu Mist vs Flu Shot **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691 "2009-09-02T22:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boozilu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@boozilu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boozilu)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/1 "2009-09-02T22:57:34Z")
My 6-year-old can get a free Flu-Mist vaccine at elementary school and I don’t know if I should take it. We usually get shots at the MD for $25, so I’m liking the free aspect. But I don’t know anyone who’s had the Flu-Mist and it seems to me like it would feel kind of weird. Any advice? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/2 "2009-09-02T23:03:22Z")
IANAD, but everything I’ve read suggests it may be more effective than the regular shot. It will not protect you from the swine flu this year. ---
**Author:** ![Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/3 "2009-09-03T02:18:18Z")
One of the major differences is that the Flu-mist is a live virus vaccine, while a normal flu shot isn’t. That means that there are more side effects, mainly things that you feel right before you might get sick, slight sore throat, slight sniffles, things like that. Also, since it is a live-virus vaccine, anyone with a compromised immune system, or that lives and/or has close contact with someone who does shouldn’t take it. However, if none of that bothers you, go ahead and take it, after all, it’s free! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/4 "2009-09-03T04:01:40Z")
Actually the H1N1 vaccination will also be available both as a killed injectable and as a live attenuated nasal vaccine.\* For both the seasonal influenza and the H1N1 the issues are the same: our bodies respond more broadly and larger to a live virus. That cuts two ways. The shot _does not ever_ give any one the flu. It is killed and cannot do that. Sometimes people get other bugs soon after the shot, what with it being Fall into Winter and all, and blame the shot, but they are wrong. The nasal one actually _can_ cause mild flu like symptoms. OTOH, when the flu zigs instead of zags, when it mutates or a slightly different strain takes center stage rather than the exact one in the vaccine, the nasal one usually still provides protection while the injectable does not. Personally (and both just come out of office supplies for me) I do the nasal each year for that extra level of protection. I am hoping to do the nasal for H1N1 too as that potential for this one to zig instead of zag, especially zigging into something with greater morbidity and mortality, such as hybridizing with Asian Avian (H5N1) is what nightmares are made of. It is a bit of an odd sensation up the nose and drips a bit into the throat. I’ve never gotten flu-ish from it myself. Full retail costs significantly more so you would be getting a pretty good deal at free. \*Medimmune’s nasal H1N1 vaccine is actually being produced [better than expected.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073103418.html) > [@](#): > > the company is getting more doses out of each egg used to grow the vaccine than companies using inactive vaccine. > > “We can ramp it up much more quickly than the inactive vaccine guys now,” he said. … > > … One effect of the faster-than-expected production, however, is a lack of enough sprayers used to deliver the vaccine. The company is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration on approval for the vaccine to be delivered using a nasal dropper instead, Machielse said. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/5 "2009-09-03T10:26:57Z")
An advantage of the mist is that the viruslike particles enter the body in a location (the upper respiratory tract) where the real virus often enters the body. Your immune system keeps more of the cells that identify infectious agents in the first place at the locations where infections enter, such as the nose. Since in evolutionary terms you generally don’t catch the flu from an infection in your muscle tissue, not many of those cells are in muscle tissue, and your response to a shot is therefore weaker. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/6 "2009-09-03T20:33:11Z")
I was able to take it for a couple of years before I turned fifty, which is the cutoff date. It wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t burn or anything, like nasal decongestant sometimes does. I should think if I was six, I’d prefer it to getting stuck with a needle. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/7 "2009-09-03T20:50:45Z")
Both of my kids (2 and 3 at the time) got the nasal mist last year. After sitting in the waiting room, wide-eyed as they heard scream after scream from other children getting the shot, they were quite thrilled to get the mist. Never noticed any side effects or flu symtoms. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/8 "2009-09-03T21:43:30Z")
My pharmacist will take the flu mist. He says it lasts throughout the flu season. The shot, on the other hand, wears off between 90 and 120 days. I knew the shot wore off, so I always waited to get it until just before Thanksgiving. That way it would start peaking around Christmas and New Year, when we’re exposed to more people. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-mist-vs-flu-shot/508691/9 "2009-09-04T03:40:49Z")
> [@Doug\_Bowe](#): > > My pharmacist will take the flu mist. He says it lasts throughout the flu season. > The shot, on the other hand, wears off between 90 and 120 days. > > I knew the shot wore off, so I always waited to get it until just before Thanksgiving. That way it would start peaking around Christmas and New Year, when we’re exposed to more people. This is one of the great myths. I have even heard an Infectious Disease doc repeating it. It is just plain not true. The shot does _not_ wear off between 90 to 100 days and the CDC [explicitly encourages](http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/fluvaccine.htm) people to get immunized “as soon as vaccine is available.” Getting vaccinated fresh each year mainly makes sense because there are different strains included each year but there _may_ be some significant waning by then. Then again, people over 60 are somewhat protected from H1N1 because they had experience with a close enough bug half a century ago (!) which speaks for some pretty long lasting protection.