Get over it.
I can definitely say there’s nothing that gets you over a needle fear faster than developing diabetes…
For the over 65’s there is a high dose Fluzone now to compensate for their reduced immune response (generally):
"What is Fluzone High-Dose influenza vaccine?
Fluzone High-Dose is an influenza vaccine, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur Inc., designed specifically for people 65 years and older.
What is the difference between Fluzone, Fluzone High-Dose, Fluzone Intradmermal, and Fluzone Quadrivalent?
These products are all flu vaccines produced by one manufacturer. There are a number of other flu vaccines produced by other manufacturers.
Fluzone, Fluzone High-Dose, Fluzone Intradermal, and Fluzone Quadrivalent are all injectable influenza vaccines made to protect against the flu strains most likely to cause illness for that particular flu season. Fluzone High-Dose vaccine contains four times the amount of antigen (the part of the vaccine that prompts the body to make antibody) contained in regular flu shots. The additional antigen is intended to create a stronger immune response (more antibody) in the person getting the vaccine.
The intradermal flu vaccine is a shot that is injected into the skin instead of the muscle. The intradermal shot uses a much smaller needle than the regular flu shot, and it requires less antigen to be as effective as the regular flu shot. It may be used in adults 18-64 years of age.
Why is a higher dose vaccine available for adults 65 and older?
Human immune defenses become weaker with age, which places older people at greater risk of severe illness from influenza. Also, ageing decreases the body’s ability to have a good immune response after getting influenza vaccine. A higher dose of antigen in the vaccine is supposed to give older people a better immune response, and therefore, better protection against flu."
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/qa_fluzone.htm
Sorry if this is old news, just pointing it out. I get a flu shot every year.
They have a clinic coming in next week at work. I’ll be getting mine then.
My workplace does them for free, but my appointment’s not for another three weeks.
I used to get the flu every winter like clockwork, as I have a hereditary immune deficiency that makes me susceptible to respiratory ailments. Often this would hit at Christmas which really, really sucks, especially when it happens every year. I started getting an annual flu shot about 15 years ago and have not had the flu since. So it works for me.
Now if only they could cure the common cold…
No time to read the thread.
Got my flu shot on the weekend while I was at Rite-Aid. (Or maybe I went to Rite-Aid for one, and picked some other things up while I was there. That was days ago! I’m supposed to remember?) Insurance paid for it.
At the top of this page, someone says he doesn’t like needles. I didn’t even feel it. The pharmacist gave me the shot, instead of the nice Indian woman who usually does. This was the first time I can remember that I was asked if I wanted an adhesive bandage; which I declined. I wasn’t bleeding. No ache the next day, and no flu-like symptoms. I hope my body had a proper immune response to the vaccine.
I got my flu shot last week, and developed autism the next day.
rocking in the corner
[sup]Seriously, though, my freaking arm still hurts 8 days later![/sup]
Got mine a couple of hours ago. I tried to get it twice before, both times at pharmacies which had signs up saying that flu shots were available, but (after waiting in line!) I found out that the shots wouldn’t be available until some future date. Grr. So I went to my doctor’s office.
Got mine at work–free–last month.
If those skinflint beancounters are willing to pay, the stuff must be useful…
I got mine on Tuesday. The nurse asked me if I wanted one, I said yes, and I got jabbed after I saw the doctor. I did not get autism, flu-like symptoms, and my arm stopped hurting within an hour.
Quit being fucking babies and get the damn shot!
I got mine about a week ago, from the pharmacy in the grocery store that I always use. Kinda sucked because I had to wait a half hour between saying I wanted one and getting one, but I sort of anticipated it and came with some shopping to do.
My arm hurt for a day or so after - but it always does, and I get it in my left, non-mouse-hand arm. I got the chills and was exhausted not the next day but a day after that - but I always do.
So I put up with a bit of aggravation that is normal for me and expected every year. And it was free, even though I have the World’s Most Useless Insurance.
Good peace of mind considering now my niece is in preschool and so are all my friends’ kids, so I am exposed to germs upon germs upon germs.
I don’t think it’s being a “baby” to have no interest in this particular vaccine. I’m not worried about autism, flu-like symptoms or a sore arm. I’m just not interested. If I get the flu, I get the flu.
Reading this thread has me depressed. All these intelligent Dopers not getting the vaccine? For shame.
I’m a young guy, and I got the flu in 2010. It is, without question, the sickest I’ve ever been. My very bones hurt, I ran a dangerously high fever that wouldn’t come down, I even hallucinated. Prior to that, I rarely got a flu shot. Now, I get it every year. I seek it out.
Got mine the other day, came down with a cold. Somebody earlier said something about it being better to feel really bad every 20 years than to feel a little bad every year. Ridiculous. I’ll happily take a cold every year to avoid getting the flu again. It was that bad.
This is just like everything else with humanity. If you don’t experience the pain yourself, you’ll keep taking the risk (and putting other people at risk, no less) until one day you actually hurt.
I thought better of you folks.
That may be the single best anti-antivax argument I’ve ever seen!
Just so everyone knows, you don’t get a cold from the flu shot. It’s likely a coincidence.
There happens to be a cold going around right now. I got it, but haven’t had my flu shot yet.
Mine only hurt for a couple days, and only when pressed on. However, I think it affected my short-term memory, because I kept shouldering open doors at work like I usually do, and it hurt every time, but I kept doing it! :smack: I mean, seriously, I never would have done that without the shot…
My ten year old daughter got the flu shot and the freaking Gardasil vaccine in the same day. She whined for about a minute and then explained to us exactly where she expected to go for ice cream afterwards and what she was going to order to make it up for it.
No wimp that one!
Get the shot and then get something more pleasant to make up for it afterwards.
I refuse to have it done in a pharmacy, so when I saw that the county health department on the other side of the river was having a flu shot clinic on Tuesday, I went over there and had it done. Didn’t have to pay for it either, because they filed it on my insurance! 
I have no idea, my medical credentials number zero. I just don’t hear of people dying of the flu, and yet statistics suggest loads of people do die of it. And it seems the reason is because the flu is an additional, perhaps crucially severe, complication, but not usually what is described as the cause of the death.