I’m afraid of needles, so no flu shots for me, unless the flu is likely to be deadly (for example, I would probably get one if there were a bird-flu pandemic).
The one year I did get FluMist (2003), the nasal flu vaccine, I got a nasty case of the flu anyway 
I know, I know, it was probably bad luck, and I probably will get FluMist again this year.
I’m diabetic, so I get one every year around this time. My local hospital has no clue when they’re coming in, so I hope we’re not in for another shortage.
My daughter and I got ours yesterday. Maybe it’s a false sense of security, but I’m glad we did it. We also take our vitamins in hopes that we won’t get sick.
I am a healthy person but will get the usual flu shot because most of the students I teach, along with some of my colleagues, are not so good about looking after themselves.
And there’s always Airborne if you need a supplemental immune shield.
Just children and old people, and who gives a crap about them? Okay, I’m being facetious. But really, the odds of a healthy person in their twenties dying of the flu are slim to nil.
True, but trust me, last February, when my fever was so high I swore my toes were setting the bed sheets on fire and I was out of sick days, knowing that I almost definitely wouldn’t die wasn’t entirely a good thing! :eek:
CJ
Yes, and treating each and every bacterial infection with anti-biotics also helps you get better - in the short term.
Having seen where previous threads on this subject have gone before, I think it would be a good idea.
In the 1917 influenza epidemic, the young adults were hit the hardest. Adults over 60 weren’t hit nearly as hard. That would be consistent if a similar type of flu had come around 40 to 60 years before, and they had built up a related immunity at that time. (Cite: IIR something I read)
I’ll go with the medical professionals on something like this, except when laziness prevails. I just got the shot for this year (and I’ve heard it is actually a mix of several most likely flu antigens).
But…they work in utterly different ways. Flu shots work by stimulating your immune system (through that “learning” you’re such a fan of) to protect against the infection.
And of course their long-term effect is minimal. That’s why they offer a new one each year.
I see a big difference between disease prevention and antibiotic abuse. I’m completely on board with you about the latter; it concerns me greatly. But lowering my risk from even getting a flu that could kill me, or making it less dangerous if I do get it, is a different ball of wax. One might as well say that children should not be vaccinated because the ones that do live will be stronger.
The flu shot only does a little. It reduces your chance of the catching it some, and reduces the severity if you do catch it more. For the typical healthy individual this is not a huge benefit, but the downside is also small … so if there is ample supply you might as well. Or not. Not a big deal either way. For higher risk individuals that reduction in seveerity is a big deal. The vaccine will potentially make a life or death difference. Too few high riskers avail themselves of it. For kids under two the benefit is NOT reduction in mortality, but it does decrease hospitializations significantly. And of course those who expose high riskers (healthcare workers, household members, etc.) should get immunized to protect them as well.
Now at some point it may be recommended that all school aged kids get it every year. This makes sense, not because they are at risk of getting excessively ill themselves, but because the flu spreads in a community through that population. Cut it off there and the high riskers won’t be exposed in the first place. But such is not the current plan.
BTW in 2003 FluMist (the nasal vaccine) worked much better than the shot. When the bug zigs instead of zags, it will likely do a better job. But it costs more.
Also, please remember, neither vaccine is designed for avian flu. For that our protection is the current well designed action plan by the WHO, and our own country improving the vaccine production infrastructure so it can produce large amounts of a new vaccine in a short time. A work in progress.
I will not be taking the flu shot.
Tell that to my grandmother, who lost her father when she was an infant in the 1918 pandemic and then grew up poor, as one of five daughters of a single mother during the Depression.
I’m asthmatic, but never bothered with flu shots (or got the flu). Until this year - last year’s vaccine shortages kind of freaked me out, and my lungs seem to be getting crummier every year, and they were giving shots free at work, so why not? No side effects, either, not even soreness at the injection site. I barely felt the thing.
Well, that WAS 1918, before the advent of better, cheaper drugs and cleaner sickroom condition, and also during an epidemic you’re not going to get very good care because there’s a lot of other patients. And that was a particularly nasty strain, not like the strains that are most popular in other years. I think statistics have fortunately changed a lot since then.
I’m not anti-flu shot in general, really. As long as there isn’t a shortage (like there was last year… or was that the year before?), and you want one, get one. I just don’t.
I’m just thinking that there are a lot of undiagnosed asthmatics out there, and given how poor my grandmother’s family was (first-generation immigrants; my grandmother was the first to be born in the US), and that asthma runs on both sides of the family, it’s possible my great-grandfather was an undiagnosed asthmatic. Given how freaking common asthma is, there are probably a lot of people running around who are high-risk and have no idea that they are.
Just a word to the OP,
Secondary bacterial respiratory tract infections after flu are not uncommon. So not getting the flu means that you won’t get these, and therefore decrease your risk for these. Then again, most tracheobronchitis is viral as well.
I’ll be getting one. I work in hospitals as a med student. In the past 10 years, I’ve had flu twice, and each time it kept me in bed for a week. The flu picks on me at the most opportune times – 5 years ago, I got it 9 days before my wedding (so I was in bed until 2 days before…). Last year, I got it 2 weeks before my thesis was due. I turned in a rushed copy of my thesis and my committee found lots of careless errors in it (from the last section I had to polish off in those 2 weeks) and ended up making me turn in another copy before they gave me a PhD. The good news was that I lost 10 pounds each time…
As DSeid mentioned, the reason we give flu shots in medicine is because we have fairly good evidence that they work. They reduce mortality and hospitalization in at-risk groups. If you are at-risk or can get at-risk people sick, the evidence says that it does more good than harm. You can believe what you want and choose not to get it, but the best evidence says that you should.
Actually the 1918 strain disproportionately hit people aged 20-39. They had a much higher death rate than other age groups from that strain. So you needn’t assume asthma.