# Flu Shots **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 26, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363 "2010-10-26T00:44:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/81 "2010-10-27T22:47:23Z")
Today my Doc also decided I should have a pneumonia shot. She said that the journals are recommending them for people over 65 or people who have had health issues. IMO my issues are behind me - but I asked an expert for a reason, so I accepted the shot. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/82 "2010-10-27T23:00:06Z")
Yes. I’m at risk and one of my employers paid for it. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/83 "2010-10-27T23:15:23Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > How do they stretch that to 8 hours? Well, it was more then just learning to give a shot. The class also went over the physiology of the immune system (Why vaccines work), all the different types of vaccines (not just live vs. attenuated, but DTaP vs. Tdap, and all the others), the vaccination schedules for children and adults, the law itself, and also some of the economics of giving vaccinations in pharmacies. We basically had to learn not just how to give a vaccination, but why, and be able to answer any conceivable question a patient might ask the pharmacist about it. > [@Khadaji](#): > > Today my Doc also decided I should have a pneumonia shot. She said that the journals are recommending them for people over 65 or people who have had health issues.. It wasn’t an actual pneumonia vaccination, but a vaccine against pneumococcal infections, caused by a bacteria, [Streptococcus pneumoniae](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumococcal). While a majority of pneumonia is caused by S. pneumoniae, that bacteria is also responsible for cases of Meningitis, otitis media, sinusitis, brain abscess, septic arthritis, or osteomyelitis, among others. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/84 "2010-10-27T23:40:24Z")
> [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](#): > > \ > > It wasn’t an actual pneumonia vaccination, but a vaccine against pneumococcal infections, caused by a bacteria, [Streptococcus pneumoniae](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumococcal). While a majority of pneumonia is caused by S. pneumoniae, that bacteria is also responsible for cases of Meningitis, otitis media, sinusitis, brain abscess, septic arthritis, or osteomyelitis, among others. Yeah, \*you \*know that and _I_ know that, but when I tried to explain that to \*her \*she rolled her eyes and said: We just call it a pneumonia shot because its shorter. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/85 "2010-10-28T00:51:53Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Flu season! Cold Season! Got mine last time I was in to see the doctor. He talked me into it. 52 and not high risk, but helping the herd immunity! ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/86 "2010-10-28T01:03:24Z")
Got one as they were offering them to everyone at my workplace. I’ve skipped it in other years but having been through two bouts of pneumonia and two colds in the last eight months, I didn’t want to set myself up for being sick again. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/87 "2010-10-28T02:28:37Z")
Got mine at Kroger last week and bought groceries. Walgreens, Kroger and other similar places don’t even require appointments. One of the pharmacy techs will give it anytime you stop by (if they have the flu vaccine on hand). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/88 "2010-10-28T02:37:28Z")
You bet I got mine. As a physician involved in direct patient care, it would be irresponsible of me not to. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/89 "2010-10-28T02:52:52Z")
We don’t have a “Winter 10/11” here, but I had one in Winter 10 and will in Winter 11, so I voted Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/90 "2010-10-28T03:13:38Z")
Already got it. I’m also finally getting the shingles vaccine this year. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/91 "2010-10-28T04:18:09Z")
Got the flu every year till I started getting the shot in 1990–have had it only had once since that date. Payoff: one year four months of not being sick. Not get a flu-shot? Might as well quit my job for three weeks out of the year. . . ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/92 "2010-10-28T04:20:44Z")
I’ve never gotten one in the past, and I don’t plan to start now. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/93 "2010-10-28T13:35:00Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Here are some informative links: > > [Does the Vaccine Matter? - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/11/does-the-vaccine-matter/7723) > > [PLOS Medicine](http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124) Your first link, as it has to do with vaccines, relates mainly to a minority view that is skeptical that flu vaccine reduces deaths\* in the elderly. Apparently the article was published before it became widely known that H1N1 was disproportionately causing serious illness and death in previously healthy young people with strong immune systems. The article also contains the following: _"Nancy Cox, the CDC’s influenza division chief, says flatly, “The flu vaccine is the best way to protect against flu.” Anthony Fauci, a physician and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, where much of the basic science of flu vaccine has been worked out, says, “I have no doubt that it is effective in conferring some degree of protection. To say otherwise is a minority view.”_ If you buy into the minority view, there remain other issues, such as that of herd immunity through vaccination protecting typically vulnerable people (children, the elderly and immunosuppressed). And even among vaccine skeptics there appear to be very few who’d want to do large scale double-blind placebo-controlled trials of flu vaccine, leaving half of participants unprotected against influenza, Other parts of the linked article just seem silly - like the implication that getting vaccinated means people think they’re invulnerable and don’t take other precautions against getting sick. These measures (like handwashing, getting adequate rest and nutrition) are continually emphasized by physicians, so it’s not as if people are told to just get their shots and not worry. And the author is really stretching by including a reference to the Sinclair Lewis novel “Arrowsmith” as evidence of harm caused by premature reliance on a vaccine. (As a fan of this novel, I note that the article’s author is confused about a major plot line in the book - the anti-plague measure that the hero is researching is not a vaccine at all, but a bacteriophage (a viral “predator” on bacilli) that people were supposed to be injected with as a plague stopper. The other linked article is a general blast at the fallibility of research studies, particularly single studies that proclaim statistical significance but don’t get replicated and confirmed in subsequent work. The problem with extending these conclusions to influenza vaccine is that there’s a _lot_ of published research demonstrating vaccine efficacy, not just a random study here and there. (I’m also amused by the occasional research article that says we shouldn’t trust research. Presumably that includes _all_ research, including that of the skeptic(s)). :dubious: Here’s [another study](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa070844) relating to vaccine effectiveness in the elderly. _“Conclusions During 10 seasons, influenza vaccination was associated with significant reductions in the risk of hospitalization for pneumonia or influenza and in the risk of death among community-dwelling elderly persons. Vaccine delivery to this high-priority group should be improved.”_ \*it is very common among vaccine doubters and outright antivaxers to place emphasis only on _deaths_ caused by vaccine-preventable infectious disease (statistics about which they’re typically wrong), and to ignore suffering, disability and permanent injury caused by these diseases. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/94 "2010-10-28T13:54:20Z")
We get them for free at work, and since I work in the Benefits department, I kind of have to set a good example and get one. I probably would anyway, though - my kids are germ factories and are always bringing the latest bugs home from school. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/95 "2010-10-28T15:13:11Z")
I always get my flu shot. Diabetes & all that. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/96 "2010-10-28T15:47:52Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If you buy into the minority view, there remain other issues, such as that of herd immunity through vaccination protecting typically vulnerable people (children, the elderly and immunosuppressed). I really wish they’d add “vaccine allergic” to that list - I can’t count the number of times some drippy-nose selfish idjit has sneezed on me while declaring that, since he/she is not around kids, old folks, or sick people it’s OK for them to skip the vaccine and spew virus on me. No, it’s not. I can NOT have a flu vaccine, the shot could potentially kill me in minutes (I didn’t get that sick the last time I got one - but I have no desire to tempt fate with another try). I am not visibly vulnerable, nonetheless, I am. Not to mention I suspect a lot of those “I don’t hang out with the vulnerable” have a LOT more contact with kids and old folks and immune suppressed folks than they realize. One of our local businessmen is a multi-organ transplant survivor (going on something like 15 years) and _dreads_ people coming into his shop when they’re sick. He shouldn’t have to explain his medical history to everyone coming in the door, and because he doesn’t “looks sick” (he’s actually one of those wiry runner guys who does marathons and epic bike rides) they assume it’s OK to bring their colds and Og knows what else around them. That’s why even healthy people should get flu shots assuming they can tolerate them. Because you can’t spot the vulnerable in a crowd, and there are many who _can’t_ get flu shots for valid medical reasons, and you don’t know when, out in public, you’re going to run into small children, old folks, the immune-suppressed, and the allergic. Herd immunity protects _everyone_. (Of course, when flu vaccine is limited those at highest risk should get first dibs, but that’s a different scenario) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/97 "2010-10-28T15:57:22Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > So one can be “naturally” immune to influenza? I suppose this is theoretically possible, but I’ve never heard of anyone lacking the receptors that permit infection by all types of influenza virus, or having a SuperZowieOomph-Packed immune system that just shrugs off infection. Leroy Jethro Gibbs has never had the flu, or even a cold. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/98 "2010-10-28T15:57:45Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > No, because I am allergic to the vaccine. > > I really wish everyone I come in contact with would get one though, as herd immunity is my only chance to escape it. As I also have asthma this puts me in a bad position, though fortunately the times I have had flu I have weathered it alright. \*\*But I’m getting younger \*\*and real flu is absolutely miserable. That’s a neat trick. Mind donating some of your super-duper blood to science? 😛 Out of sheer nosy curiosity: are you allergic to eggs/feathers/chickens, or is it something else about the vaccine? Is it all vaccines, or just the flu shot, that can cause a reaction for you? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/99 "2010-10-28T16:43:11Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > That’s a neat trick. Mind donating some of your super-duper blood to science? 😛 Obviously, that was _supposed_ to read “I’m NOT getting any younger” but you know how us old folks are sometimes! > [@](#): > > Out of sheer nosy curiosity: are you allergic to eggs/feathers/chickens, or is it something else about the vaccine? Is it all vaccines, or just the flu shot, that can cause a reaction for you? Apparently I’m OK to eat eggs and keep pet chickens, but _injecting_ egg proteins (as opposed to eating them) makes my system go nuts. On RAST allergy test I do show up as “egg allergic” but on food challenges I’ve never had a reaction. I’m told this does happen to other people, which is why a competent allergist will use multiple testing modes as well as a medical history in diagnosing allergies. Egg based vaccines and me are a no-no. Last time around it was all over the body hives, wheezing, various sorts of swelling - horribly uncomfortable, requiring medication for several days to keep it under control. Not life threatening, but repeated exposures to something that causes such a reaction _can_ be. Non-egg based vaccines are OK. I was looking into the nasal spray vaccine last year, but with my history of asthma they don’t want to give it to me - despite the fact I can’t have a regular flu shot. Personally, I think it’s more likely I’d have a horrific reaction from the shot than the nasal spray, but I’m not a doctor so I guess it’s not my decision. Fortunately, when I have had the flu (several times now) although utterly miserable I recovered rapidly and uneventfully, never had serious side effects, or wound up in the hospital from it. If I ever require a rabies shot this will present quite the dilemma - either non-egg derived vaccine will need to be located, or they’ll have to administer it in a hospital with supplies necessary to treat anaphyllaxis on hand. Personally, I’m trying to just avoid rabid animals. ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363/100 "2010-10-28T18:37:51Z")
I got a flu shot for the first time this year, even though I have never gotten the flu before, that I can remember. I guess I just succumbed to the media hype. Anyway, it was easy - I got it at Walgreens at the same time I was getting my passport photos taken. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flu-shots/558363.md?page=6)