# Man up, people: flu shots are here. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876 "2013-09-15T00:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/41 "2013-09-15T19:30:38Z")
Calm down. The risks of a severe reaction to the vaccine are quite low whereas the flu sucks and has greater risks. You also can’t get the flu from the flu shot. That’s all **WhyNot** and I are trying to point out. My desire to get the shot was enhanced after listening to a friend suffer through it last year. She was miserable. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/42 "2013-09-15T21:25:10Z")
I get the flu shot every year. When I worked at the hospital it was free and they started in early September. This year I have to go get it at a Kaiser medical center, but it’ll still be free. They only start up in October, though, so I’ll have to wait a couple more weeks. I can never convince my husband to get one, because he never seems to catch anything that’s going around. He’s pretty sure he’s invincible. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/43 "2013-09-15T21:36:47Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Flu shots make people sicker than if they got the flu and fought it off naturally. You need a cite for that, Pardner. And don’t give me one from Jenny McCarthy or Andrew Wakefield. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/44 "2013-09-15T21:39:35Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I’m 58 and I don’t think I’ve ever had the flu. I’m not going to bother with the shot. I see this rationale a lot and find it somewhat mystifying. I never had chicken pox before I had it either, but that didn’t make me somehow magically immune to it. Other things that never happened to me before they happened: the common cold, stepping on a bee, and all other human experiences. I don’t always get the flu shot, out of what I freely admit is total laziness, but I always get it for all of the kids. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/45 "2013-09-15T22:22:27Z")
I usually wait until October or November to get the flu shot. Am I wrong that it only lasts a few months? Often flu season doesn’t really get going around here until March, so if I got the shot now, it would be 6 months until I might be exposed to the virus. Would it still be effective? The last year I didn’t get the shot, my whole family was so sick on Christmas Day that even the young kids agreed to postpone opening presents. You have to be totally miserable to be 6 years old and not want to open presents! ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/46 "2013-09-15T22:30:03Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Flu shots make people sicker than if they got the flu and fought it off naturally. No. The flu shot is a killed virus, incapable of causing the flu. Quite spreading lies. > [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > He probably gets a nice cut of each shot. It’s a racket! No. Many healthcare providers offer free flu shot clinics (my HMO starts them October 1). Quite spreading lies. > [@Cheez\_Whia](#): > > Don’t forget that the flu killed **Khadaji** last year. ☹ I lost a friend to H1N1 in 2009. > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I never had chicken pox before I had it either, but that didn’t make me somehow magically immune to it. Other things that never happened to me before they happened: the common cold, stepping on a bee, and all other human experiences. Precisely. I haven’t been in a car accident in years, so I don’t need my seatbelt? Wrong. The flu shot isn’t perfect by any stretch - manufacturers do have to gamble on which strains are going to be prevalent any given year. But “I haven’t gotten the flu, so I’m not getting the flu shot” people miss the point. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/47 "2013-09-16T00:15:20Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I had a big fat fucking inflamed ulcer at the injection site, nausea, neurological dysfunction, general inflammation, and diarrhea starting less than a day from the injection to over twelve days afterward. You think that was a non-causal fucking coincidence? What the is it recently with people passing holy fucking judgment over that which they have zero actual information about, or getting their arse all twisted up when their uninformed opinion is contracted by actual bare assed facts? > > For what it is worth, the annual influenza vaccine is intended to inoculate against the three or four strains which epidemiologists at the US Centers for Disease Control have estimated as being the most likely strains for outbreak. These guesses are not always correct (although they have gotten much better in about the last fifteen years) and the value of inoculation of healthy adults in occupations which do not place them in frequent proximity to likely carriers (e.g. medical professionals, primary school teachers) in preventing the spread of disease among the general public is significantly overstated. Children, the elderly, and others with compromised or undeveloped immune systems should strongly consider getting an influenza vaccination, as should healthy adults who may routinely come into contact with carriers of the virus. Healthy adults who are not in routine exposure and who can take reasonable measures to avoid contact during flu season (hand washing, not sharing food and drink with likely carriers, et cetera) and who have a previously demonstrated reaction (even a minor reaction which can be indicative of a greater sensitivity to the vaccine medium or inactivated virus) should weigh benefits of protection versus the reaction to the virus. > > So, no, I am not a reflexive “anti-vaxer”, nor some asshole who just walked off the street with a cursory knowledge of the physiological response of the human immune system. So please take your judgmental fucking attitude and your presumption of my utter ignorance of medicine and statistics and keep them to yourself. > > Did you even read my fucking post? I didn’t say I got the flu from the influenza vaccination. I had a systematic immune response to the vaccination itself which was more intense and aggravating than an actual influenza infection was likely to be. > > Stranger Just a note to ask you to dial the outrage notch back some. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/48 "2013-09-16T00:40:14Z")
Got mine-and a pneumonia shot- Friday. I should be good to go. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/49 "2013-09-16T00:45:24Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Just a note to ask you to dial the outrage notch back some. But not the presumption that I’m a complete fucking idiot and have no notion of the concepts of correlation and causation? I made a statement–a simple factual statement about a condition that occurred coincident with inoculation–and instead of being queried about how I was confident that the vaccine was the causative agent of my ills I was subject to what the poster no doubt believed was very clever ridicule of my reasoning abilities and a baseless accusation that I do not understand the function and result of the application of inactivated virus. Fuck them and fuck you for engaging in this kind of absurd horseshit defamation. If this is the level of asinine discourse that you wish to bring this forum down to, I have little interest in continued participation. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/50 "2013-09-16T00:45:24Z")
A gentle reminder to those who, like me, are within sight of their “golden years” (and no, 60 is not the new 40): the older you are, the more likely you are to have grave complications or even die from the flu. I work in a middle school, with snotty kids who are old enough to wash their own hands but young enough to forget most of the time. School has been in session for five weeks now, and we’ve already had rounds of what seems to be a run-of-the mill cold virus, a nasty gastrointestinal bug and a fair amount of strep. I’ll be getting my flu shot before the end of the month. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/51 "2013-09-16T00:50:36Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > But not the presumption that I’m a complete fucking idiot and have no notion of the concepts of correlation and causation? I made a statement–a simple factual statement about a condition that occurred coincident with inoculation–and instead of being queried about how I was confident that the vaccine was the causative agent of my ills I was subject to what the poster no doubt believed was very clever ridicule of my reasoning abilities and a baseless accusation that I do not understand the function and result of the application of inactivated virus. > > Fuck them and fuck you for engaging in this kind of absurd horseshit defamation. If this is the level of asinine discourse that you wish to bring this forum down to, I have little interest in continued participation. > > Stranger Are you ok? Asking in seriousness. I’ve seen you posting around here for years and don’t remember you flying off the handle in rage like this before. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/52 "2013-09-16T00:56:52Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > But not the presumption that I’m a complete fucking idiot and have no notion of the concepts of correlation and causation? I made a statement–a simple factual statement about a condition that occurred coincident with inoculation–and instead of being queried about how I was confident that the vaccine was the causative agent of my ills I was subject to what the poster no doubt believed was very clever ridicule of my reasoning abilities and a baseless accusation that I do not understand the function and result of the application of inactivated virus. > > Fuck them and fuck you for engaging in this kind of absurd horseshit defamation. If this is the level of asinine discourse that you wish to bring this forum down to, I have little interest in continued participation. > > Stranger The rules have always been very clear: If you don’t like what someone has said about you (insinuations count), take it to the Pit. Now I strongly suggest you step away from the keyboard for now and cool yourself down. It was just a note to dial it back some, not worth getting suspended or banned over. Now this is a warning for you for your post here, but I again, I would urge you to take a step back and calm down a little. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/53 "2013-09-16T01:08:09Z")
I finally got the regular flu shot\* for the first time last year. It made me feel a little sick for a day, but I figured it was better to feel a little sick for a day than to get the full-blown flu and miss important dates/activities. So I’ll probably get the flu shot again this year. \*I’d had the H1N1 flu shot before, but not the one for regular flu. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/54 "2013-09-16T01:39:03Z")
I’ll get one as soon as I get over this bronchitis mess. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/55 "2013-09-16T01:41:54Z")
All of these symptoms are relevant reasons to discuss with your doctor if you should skip a flu vaccination, sure: > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I had a big fat fucking inflamed ulcer at the injection site, nausea, neurological dysfunction, general inflammation, and diarrhea starting less than a day from the injection to over twelve days afterward. None of these are: > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Last time I got a flu shot I became so ill that I couldn’t go to school for two weeks, lost ten pounds, and had to drop two classes after the refund date. and to present them in isolation, in a thread which will sway some people to vaccinate or not vaccinate, is irresponsible. Many people do believe that the flu vaccine can give them the flu, and they post things exactly like your first post. So even if you didn’t need a lesson in correlations, someone else reading your post and nodding to themselves in agreement did. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/56 "2013-09-16T02:03:28Z")
I’ve never had a flu shot and I’ll never get one. I don’t get sick. But several people I work with have got quite ill shortly after getting them. And not just a few of them either. Flu shots are a predictive batch based upon a guess of which strains of flu will be prevalent each year. It isn’t science and it isn’t health. It is a health care industry propaganda money machine. If it makes you feel good to follow the herd, go ahead. It is a false sense of protection that cannot be demonstrated to actually work. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/57 "2013-09-16T02:07:33Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > I’ve never had a flu shot and I’ll never get one. > > I don’t get sick. But several people I work with have got quite ill shortly after getting them. And not just a few of them either. > > Flu shots are a predictive batch based upon a guess of which strains of flu will be prevalent each year. It isn’t science and it isn’t health. It is a health care industry propaganda money machine. > > If it makes you feel good to follow the herd, go ahead. It is a false sense of protection that cannot be demonstrated to actually work. Cite please? ---
**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:** [September 16, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/58 "2013-09-16T02:40:04Z")
My current work project is with a health care company. They require all employees and contractors to get a flu shot. It’s part of the employment agreement. I’m happy that they provide me with a flu shot on site so that I don’t have think about arranging my schedule to go get one. The last time I had the flu, it had a profound effect on my energy level and I’ve got a ways to go before I’m officially a senior. I don’t want to get a major flu again. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/59 "2013-09-16T02:49:47Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Cite please? Man, it really is taking us longer than we thought, isn’t it? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876/60 "2013-09-16T03:01:24Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > I don’t get sick. But several people I work with have got quite ill shortly after getting them. And not just a few of them either. The hospital where I work vaccinates a few thousand employees within a week’s time span, starting with the most vital inpatient wards and then doing an all-hands general vaccination day. Many health care facilities use similar methods. If there was any kind of causality, don’t you think that hospitals of all places would notice that as their employees all got sick at the same time? We sure as fuck noticed when H1N1 killed or severely harmed people outside the usual categories, including middle-aged people and pregnant women. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-up-people-flu-shots-are-here/668876.md?page=4)