I got mine. It’s the only thing my crap health insurance covers. BigT, message me if you want to get a flu vaccine and I’ll PayPal/mail you the cost. Maybe you can buy me a beer if I ever find myself near you.
Flumist is back on the market this year. I had to call around to a lot of places to find it, but eventually tracked it down at our county health department. 100% covered by my insurance, and I think my health department covers it for folks without insurance.
Be aware: while it’s just a nasal spray, it’s packaged in a needle-less syringe. I learned that the first time I showed up for the spray, and I assume I had a panic attack, because I woke up in a pool of my own blood from where I’d cracked my head on the floor. Good times.
But I’ve had it several times since then, and when I know what’s going on, it’s totally painless and mostly stress-free. Just make sure that your health care provider knows about your phobia and is watching you like a hawk for phobic reactions (ever since that awful incident I’ve been a broken record toward anyone that might come at me with anything looking like a needle).
It’s only recommended for folks up to age 49, which means I only have a few years left within the recommended range; but my nurse at the health department told me that my physician might be able to provide it to me anyway once I’m too old, given the phobic reaction.
I know the CDC essentially stopped production of Flu Mist for a couple of years because it’s less effective. I really, really wish they’d keep in mind folks with phobias, and the reality that a lot of phobic folks are not going to get the shot but might get the mist.
Actually, there is at least one widely available completely egg-free injectable flu vaccine available in the U.S.: Flublok. It is a recombinant flu vaccine.
Flublok does not use the influenza virus or eggs in its production. Flublok does not contain any preservatives (e.g., thimerosal), antibiotics, egg proteins or latex.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/qa_flublok-vaccine.htm
This is the vaccine I got this year at the free clinic at my work.
Flu vaccine is the only one still containing small amounts of egg protein*, and there are forms of flu vaccine without it. Most of the time it’s safe to get flu vaccine made using avian cells even if you have an egg allergy.
*MMR once was made using eggs, but that process reportedly hasn’t been around for decades.
I got the FluMist one year and ended up with a pounding headache that took hours to subside, and a lot of Advil. Obviously it’s a different kind of pain than a needle and if you have needle phobia then it doesn’t matter anyway, but I did it thinking it would hurt less than the shot and it actually hurt more. I’d rather deal with a 2-second stab than a 6-hour headache.
I’ve never gotten one.
Needles make me very nervous, like ghost-white pale and nauseous.
The flu shot is offered for free at my work, but every year at least a few people get sick immediately after getting the shot.
No thanks.
Are you sure about this? I went to UHC’s website and it says members can go to local retail pharmacies.
My company has nurses in to give flu shots to all associates and their partners who sign up. Or you can go to the drug store and get them for free when it’s convenient.
StG
Pepper Mill gets a flu shot every year because she’s a Substitute Teacher, and middle-school kids are basically Walking Petri Dishes.
I get one because I sleep with Pepper Mill. And, unlike some people, I can’t claim to “never being sick a day in my life.”
One would definitely have to ask around - as most places don’t put signs up saying what variety they have.
Me: I get it every year, and have since my mid-20s when my asthma flared (it had largely been dormant for a number of years). About 20 years back, there was a year where a lot of people were getting flu or something flu-like despite the shot, and I was one of the lucky ones. I was only praying for death for a day or so - but being asthmatic, any respiratory infection stands a fair chance of turning into a secondary infection and/or an asthma flare. That happened - and it was worse than the active fever/chills portion of the illness. I wound up on steroids and antibiotics.
I also got a pneumonia vaccination a couple years back, for the same reason.
If you did the survey, I think you’d find that at least a few people also got sick immediately after not getting the shot. But it doesn’t make a good story so nobody talks about it.
It varies from year to year, and I don’t know if we know how effective it is this year.
FWIW I did not get the shot, and I did get the flu. No good reason I didn’t get the shot - I just didn’t.
Regards,
Shodan
It’s most likely you being outside so much and away from the carriers that prevents you from being exposed to and catching horrible diseases rather than healthy living and eating. You’ve been lucky.
I got a shot because I hate getting sick. I don’t believe I’ve ever had actual flu, but that doesn’t mean I never will.
They have needle free variant.
And yes, you can get the flu right after you get the shot, since the vaccine hadnt taken hold yet, generally as you actually had the flu when you got the shot but just werent showing symptoms yet.
I had never gotten flu shots annually growing up nor into most of my early adulthood. I’m 49 years old. About 4 years ago with my wife’s pregnancy, I began getting them every year and have had no issues. We also insisted immediate family also get their flu shots each year. Really having children is what prompted me to get them every year. That said, we got a stark reminder last year when a friend of my wife passed away from the flu. Married woman, 2 kids, healthy and no significant medical issues - she just got the flu and died.
I must say, I’m kind of dismayed at all the non-vaccinators popping up in this thread. Well, dismayed by those with bogus, erroneous and selfish reasons for skipping the shot.
When my baby is born in January, she’ll have very limited immune responses. I had my flu shot at 24wks, of course, and she gets some antibodies from that. More, too, if I’m able to breastfeed.
But she’ll be living in a society full of people making choices. And if their choice means they’re shedding viruses as they walk through the supermarket, my daughter is much more likely to become infected, and dangerously ill, and potentially die, than most humans.
Please, if you can, get vaccinated.
Yes, 40% say no, which means about 39% of Americans are selfish idiots.
[quote=“EscAlaMike, post:86, topic:826208”]
I’ve never gotten one.
Needles make me very nervous, like ghost-white pale and nauseous.[\quote]
That’s reasonable.
This, on the other hand, is fucking idiotic. Do you seriously not know that correlation does not equal causation?
But your chance of getting it is reduced by about 60%. And as pointed out above, even if you do get flu after vaccination, being vaccinated tends to reduce the severity of the attack.
A significant reduction in the chance of getting flu in the first place, plus a significant reduction in its impact if I get it anyway, easily adds up for me to a convincing argument for spending ten minutes once a year getting a free shot.
We’re talking a disease that, in the absence of vaccination, has a 1-in-5 to 1-in-20 chance of infecting you, with a very high risk of prolonged serious misery and/or medical complications, and about a 1-in-10K chance of literally killing you. The risk of serious complications from the flu vaccine itself, for people with no vaccine contraindications, is less than one in a million.
Statistically speaking, getting an annual flu shot for people who have no contraindications or personal incapacities with vaccination is an absolute no-brainer, even if you just consider the cost/benefit for yourself alone and ignore the contribution to herd immunity.
Yes. I tried Walgreens, CVS (Just this afternoon!), Kroger (Just this afternoon, as well!), and Walmart. It won’t come up as being covered at the pharmacies, when they run my insurance card. I have to go to the doctor, for the shot, for it to be ‘covered’. I called them (UHC), and asked. After a run-around with more than one CSR, I finally spoke with someone who told me this.
So, with the cost of the co-pay at the doctor’s office, it’ll be cheaper, and easier, to pay for the fuckin’ thing, myself. I’ll wander back to one of our local pharmacies (Either CVS, or Walmart), tomorrow, and just pay for the thing, and be done with it. I’ve never waited this long to get my flu shot. I just hope that it will effective at this point. Better to have one, even being so late in the year, than not get one at all.