I believe that once you actually get the flu, it’s too late.
Look, get the shot or not, but don’t kid yourself – you are taking a risk. It’s your choice to do so, but it’s not one I’d reccomend. A lot of people seem to think it’s like a bad cold. What’s the saying, “a bad cold makes you feel like you’re dying; the flu makes you wish you were dead?”
BigT’s claim – it’s possible his family is exaggerating the exact details. What happened to him though is so rare that it doesn’t do away with the need for such a law. The flu isn’t something to fuck around with.
Then they should inoculate for every known disease and maybe a couple that aren’t known.
The question that should be asked is: does this stop the transmission of flu? The followup question is pretty straight forward. Can you transmit the flu prior to symptoms?
Additional question, can you compel someone to get a shot when they have had it in the past and it causes problems? I’ve had 2 flu shots in 35 years of adult life and both times it knocked me on my ass.
I had the flu about 4 months ago and it was 12 days of misery. I laid in bed until my hip bones hurt, coughed until my ribs and abdomen hurt, and also coughed so much that my stomach contents would become ‘foamy’, which caused nausea and vomiting, which triggered urinary incontinence, too.
I read the label on the current flu ax this season and the three listed were all named after places close to me: Texas, Wisconsin and Alberta (I think).
Having an off season illness and the fluvacs regionally close make me worry that it could be a bad flu season this year. I’ve already had patients hospitalized with flu this year as well.
'Tis possible I misremembered the details, as it was something like 25+ years ago - which is just an illustration of how the details of such stories can be distorted with time and distance.
Regardless, 20 minutes under ice-cold water is a pretty long time without fresh oxygen.
I plan to get my whopping cough shot in Feb when I have my annual physical in Feb. We’ve already had several outbreaks in high schools in my state. One is only 20 miles away. My mom can’t recall if I had that shot as an infant. But they recommend a booster anyhow.
I suppose they could try to order every citizen to go around with a face mask on to prevent TB transmission since we don’t even vaccinate for that, but something tells me that isn’t a cost effective idea.
As long as you’re not my nurse, doctor, etc., I don’t think I should have a say in whether you get the flu shot, Mika. No, scratch that; if my baby were still less than six months old, and it were flu season, then I wouldn’t let a person I knew to be unvaccinated around her and would require any prospective babysitter to have gotten the shot.) When I write that you should get the flu shot, I mean it mostly as I would mean you should buckle up while riding in a car. (Except that not getting the shot risks the health of others in a way that not wearing one’s seat belt does not.)
If there were a strain of the flu around that was lethal to, say, 25% of the persons who contract it, and a vaccine were available for it, I’d argue that as a public health issue everyone should be required to get it.
Typhoid Mary argued that she was perfectly healthy, and saw no reason to give up cooking as a profession. She also didn’t want to even take minimum precautions to avoid spreading typhoid, like washing her hands.
I think that the state in general, and employers in particular, can and should limit the ability of infectious people to contact others. I don’t believe that individuals have the right to spread disease when it’s easily preventable.
Since there’s many different strands of the flu, and flu strands are always mutating as well, there’s a small chance that the vaccine for the year will work in the first place, and actually, after a simple Google search, increases your chances of getting the flu by many accounts.
Pharmaceutical companies are pushing this, and this is the very definition of medical tyranny when you are forced to put something in your body that you don’t want.
I should hope it’s legal. If I were an employer (or an employee) I wouldn’t want to work in an environment where every effort isn’t taken to keep me safe from catching things from other people.
Plus, an elderly employee catching flu from someone and dying from complications is a lawsuit waiting to happen, so employers should have the right to do their best to cover their ass.*
*EDIT: I know the flu shot isn’t magical 100% protection, but it’s better than nothing.
Religiously not taking the flu vaccine because I’ve only called out of work four or five times in 22 years and “don’t believe in flu shots” . . . cool church! Now get the fuck out of the CCU!
Yes, I agree that firing someone for not getting a flu shot is appropriate. You can have a religious exemption to it all you want, you don’t have a right to work in the healthcare field. If your religion prevents you from getting vaccines, then don’t work in fields where you might be a disease vector.
By the time the vaccine is available to the public, the CDC already has a good idea how well it will match the predominant strains for the season. This year, for example, they think they got it right.
I don’t think there is any legitimate explanation for how the vaccine could increase chances of getting the flu unless you’re referring to reasons not directly related to the vaccine, like people changing their behavior to be less cautious during flu season because they’ve been vaccinated. The vaccine itself can’t give you the flu.
Don’t have a dog in this fight, but I’d like to note that the Spanish flu *was *the most deadly pandemic we’ve had yet. It killed more people than the Black Plague. In fact, it killed more people than *any *other natural disaster in human history.
Just sayin’.
Simply not true. Getting the flu vaccine does not increase our ink of getting the flu. You might feel achy or a bit unwell after, as a result of the immune response, but that’s not a case of the flu.
Generally, the predictions about which flu strain to create the vaccine against are very good, hardly the small chance you are suggesting.
Any healthcare claim that has a big pharma conspiracy theory underpinning it should be met with skepticism.