A population needs something like 75% vaccination rate to control the spread of the flu (it’s over 90% for measles). Even if you’ve never had it, it doesn’t mean you can’t get it, or couldn’t pass it to others. The idea is that people who can get the vaccine help control the spread to people who cannot get the vaccine for medical reasons or people with compromised immune systems.
This is yet another point where most of the world says, “I should do what is best for everyone” vs. we in the U.S. say, “I’m free to do whatever I want.”
I get the flu shot every year as I’ve got asthma. In spite of this, I’ve had influenza a number of times. The last time was about a decade ago where I ended up with secondary bacterial pneumonia and had to go through two courses of antibiotics to clear it.
While not as contagious or severe as Covid, the cost of mass vaccination for seasonal influenza is dwarfed by the potential cost of treatment.
The flu shot does not always prevent the flu. This seems to be the predominant complaint of nurses who should know better. Just as N95 masks don’t block 100% of transmissions. The shot is made annually of the projected most dangerous and prominent strains, out of many. What the shot does do is keep people out of hospital, the ICU and the funeral home.
I have a debilitating phobia of needles, which is why I freakin love Flu Mist. The first time I got it was awful: I saw the syringe-like dispenser, panicked, stood up, fainted, cracked my head on the hard floor, and got a ride in the ambulance. But ever since then, it’s been so great. The main problem I have is finding a supplier: it runs out really early some years. I’m trying to get it early, so I snag some of the supply.
I’m getting mine this week. $25 out of pocket at my local pharmacy, but my insurance should take care of that.
I got one in March, right before Covid-19 became an everyday topic of conversation, and I have absolutely no desire to get the flu under any circumstances, but doubly when the risk of contracting Covid-19 simultaneously is so extant. For many years I did not get one, mostly out of laziness, but that bad habit has came to a screeching halt.
Yep - and even when the preventative aspect that year turns out to be lower than other years, in what other circumstances would you turn down being 60% less likely to get ill?
In the UK I always get one for free. My daughter now gets one for free because she lives with me and I’m officially vulnerable. Otherwise she could get one at the local chemist for maximum £15, depending on where we go. I haven’t always been great about making sure she gets the shot, but this year I am. We’re going to the GP this week, after a bit of a backlog.
There really isn’t a reason not to have it unless you have a known reaction to immunisations.
True. The fear of needles is why my daughter hasn’t had one every year. Her fear isn’t extreme, though, so this year she’s willing to do it.
She was fine with her childhood vaccinations, and she’s seen me be jabbed and drawn from without any problems many times - I was a regular blood donor until I couldn’t be, and she was here because of the location; don’t know how this fear came about.
I for one am fully vaccinated and believe in vaccines. I don’t love going to the clinic and get injected, but I do it when necessary. And yet I am reluctant to get the flu shot. I’ve never done it and I don’t know why I have developed this feeling it isn’t really necessary. My wife is the same. We’re in the process of turning each other aware of its necessity. It’s a slow process. We’re more serious about getting tested so that we can see whether or not we have been infected with COVID 19 despite the obvious lack of symptoms.
Please tell her about Flu Mist: even if she doesn’t have an extreme fear, it may be a much pleasanter experience. (You get a gross chemical sweet flavor in the back of your throat for about five minutes from the medicine dripping down, but it’s minor, and that’s it).
Near as I can tell, if more people ask for Flu Mist, more places will carry it, and more people with needle phobias will get vaccinated, and everyone will end up healthier. I really wish it got pushed more aggressively.
I had flu mist one year, when the dead vaccine couldn’t be found. It gave me a nose-infection. I dripped flu-laden snot for a couple of days. Also, it tastes like the flu. I had flu a lot as a child, and when they squirted that stuff up my nose, I realized I recognized that nasty flavor. It may also taste like chemicals and medicine, but it was the taste of flu that stood out to me.
I think I’m now too old to get it, since it’s a live vaccine. I’d do it again, but I found it mildly unpleasant.
It’s not quite as effective though, is it? Not even sure if it’s easily available in the UK for adults at the moment. Her fear isn’t extreme enough that it would warrant it, really.
This year I’m hoping that after agreeing to the flu shot she’ll agree to other shots, if and when she needs them - the more tangible effects of a pandemic might get her over her fear, and once you’ve done it once, you can do it again.
It really is such an easy shot. Last year mine was at the chemist because I happened to be collecting a prescription and they asked if I’d had mine yet, and it was literally take me into a cupboard (for privacy), roll up sleeve, and done within about three minutes.
I’ve been getting one for over 20 years. When we were traveling internationally a lot, it didn’t always work. We were in the UK during a epidemic., don’t remember what year that was, and we caught mild cases. SHOULD everyone get one? Might still be a personal choice.
There were a few years where it was not recommended, but there’s no preference this year. (I found several other cites with similar information). My big concern is that I’ll age out of it in a few years. The county health department advised that I ask my physician to administer it off-label, but that they wouldn’t do so, so I have a few years to persuade my doctor that that’s worth doing.
Just like the primary reason for masks, you don’t get the flu vaccine for yourself, you get it for everyone else.
There are plenty of vulnerable people in our society that the seasonal flu kills every year. The more people that get the vaccine, we reduce the spread of the flu and reduce the risks of the vulnerable catching it and dying.
Medical experts are predicting that the spread of the flu this year will be lessened because of all the mask wearing, hand washing that is occurring because of COVID. But the more people that get the vaccine the better.