We’re having flu shots at work tomorrow. I can’t decide if I should go for it. Are they really effective, or will it actually cause me to get the flu? Is it worth $17 and a needle in my arm?
Do you have a healthy immune system? Do you have any respiratory issues? If yes to the first, no to the second (which is where I put myself) I say “no”. Or, do you work in the health care field - which I don’t think you do, right?
Although, when are you headed back to Vietnam? Possibly that might rule in favor of it if you’re going soon.
Of course, I’m one of those fools who never gets a flu shot, and isn’t fricking crazy over killing off germs, so YMMV.
A flu shot will not cause you to get the flu.
I’ve only had influenza twice–as a kid & as a very young adult. Found it far more unpleasant than That Cold That Goes Around every winter. My employer offers the shot free, so it must be fairly effective. (Nothing is 100% perfect.) And shots stopped making me cry many years ago.
Keep collecting data & decide for yourself. I’ll get mine tomorrow!
I’ve never gotten a flu shot (except for the swine flu vaccination, remember swine flu?) and see little need for one. I’m in reasonably good health and not old. I save the shot for an old person who needs it.
Yes, if you’re in any of the high-risk categories.
Also, how bad would it be if you were incapacitated for two weeks? Hopelessly behind at work? Are you self-employed, in which case you could be in dire straights if you were bed-ridden for two weeks?
Do you have vulnerable family members?
I have asthma, and getting the flu could be deadly for me, so I get the shot every fall.
A small needle stick doesn’t bother me (the pain is gone within a 1/2 day), and as a previous poster said, you **cannot ** get the flu from the shot (they use a dead virus).
Hey there Steph … uh, Scout! Good to hear from you! I won’t be going back to Viet Nam until the end of January, and I’m not sure they even have the same kinds of flu there anyway. I’m generally healthy and don’t have respiratory issues, but I’m getting older, so I thought it might be worth it.
I suppose it’s mostly academic. If there were a shortage, I’d hunt you down and keep you from getting one. But it seems like this year it won’t be an issue. My employer is offering them too (for $22) but I’m not going to bother.
[sub]Which means this is the year I get the flu.[/sub]
Well, two weeks off wouldn’t hurt me much. I’m a contractor, so I’d lose two weeks pay, less whatever hours I could do from home in the haze of fever. If it’s impossible to get the flu from the shot, what’s the downside? … other than the shot itself of course.
You won’t really get the flu - the shots use killed viruses these days.
You may get sore around the injection site. You may feel achy/feverish for a couple of days afterward if you haven’t had them before; the first year I had the flu shot as an adult, I felt wretched for a few days (then again, that year it was double-barreled; I got shots in each arm). Since then nothing more than soreness around the injection site.
Since I’ve been taking the flu shots yearly I’ve only once gotten the flu anyway. One doc swore up and down it was a flu-like illness, not the real flu, since I had a shot, but I know they’re not 100% successful even if they do guess correctly which variant will be hitting us that year.
That year, both my kids had what looked and talked and quacked like the flu, and I caught it from them. As I recall, I felt crummy for several days and wiped out for several more. One evening in particular, when my fever spiked, death was looking like a really attractive alternative. I do not want to get the flu again so I hedge my bets by taking the shot every year. Oh - I’m high-risk (asthma) so I’ve got an extra incentive to do so. A bad cold or flu can push me toward a secondary infection, so it’s best avoided if possible.
Long story short: You’re risking 17 bucks and a sore arm and maybe a day or so of feeling achy (which is easily managed using Tylenol or Advil). I’d do it if I were you.
Most people who think they have the flu, don’t. They just have colds. When you get the flu, you know it. In most cases it’s like getting run over by a truck hauling anvils; which then backs up, parks on your chest; and the driver gets out and starts hitting you on the head and all your joints with a ball peen hammer while singing Chinese opera.
With a cold, you hope to get better. With the flu, you hope to die.
Let me emphasize this- The flu shot contains DEAD flu virus and therefore cannot possibly give you the flu. The amount of people who give this excuse is mind-numbing.
Yes, you might get a little sore at the site, but it’s just enough to remind you you got a shot, not enough to actually affect your day. It’s nowhere near a tetanus hot (though if you go see your doc for the flu shot, ask about the T-Dap as well.)
-Troy McClure SF, Employee Health worker & flu shot recipient
Well, that clears things up - I didn’t really have the flu…
… he was singing Klingon opera 
I must say, the whole “my skin hurts” thing got old fairly fast though the fever/chills/shoot-me-now bit was a pretty effective distraction.
I’ve posted about this before, but basically: What Spiff said.
Influenza is a very debilitating illness which kills an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 americans a year, possibly more. Mortality due to Influenza in the United States—An Annualized Regression Approach Using Multiple-Cause Mortality Data | American Journal of Epidemiology | Oxford Academic
Just got mine and my arm hurts like a bitch. But then again, I’m really whiny about shots.
The flu shot that you would get on this continent probably won’t be effective elsewhere.
There are plenty to go around this year. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time with people who shouldn’t get the flu like the elderly or someone with a compromised immune system (such as someone who is HIV positive or is on organ anti-rejection drugs), you should also get one.
Yes, get one.
It might not protect you against everything, but then, what does? At least you can reduce your risk factor.
I got some bruising and soreness on my injection site but am still glad to get it every year.
A little soreness around the injection site is not rare. It would be extremely unusual to feel “wretched for a few days” afterwards.
The greatest risks with getting influenza are to the elderly and young children. Of course, if you’re going to be around old people and kids, getting immunized can lower their risk (in addition to what Qadgop said about flu deaths, influenza also puts 200,000 people a year in the hospital).
Flu shots are something of a crapshoot because it’s hard to predict exactly what strains(s) of flu will be active in a given year. There’s also limited evidence that flu shots do more than provide modest protection for the elderly (a new report in the Lancet recommends further, placebo-controlled studies while urging continued use of the vaccine).
As a side note, while the flu bug will surely be around this season, antivaccine looniness is already spreading again and targeting flu shots. All the more reason to get information from reliable sources (like the CDC).
From here:
which would seem to suggest that feeling not-so-great is certainly reasonable. The year I referenced was 20+ years ago, it was my first flu shot, and as noted I had two - one in each arm. My experience was most likely at the outside of average and I wouldn’t expect anyone to feel that bad (and even as bad as I felt, it was a hell of a lot better than a real case of the flu). It’s certainly conceivable it was coincidental and I had another bug. Hasn’t stopped me from getting flu shots every year since then, and I’ve never had anything more than local soreness.
On the anti-vax front: We have good reason to be cautious in our household given the history of autism though we don’t believe vaccines were a factor in Dweezil’s autism. However we have noticed a definite, significant downturn in Moon Unit’s behavior for a week or more after any immunization (including flu shots the last couple of years) so we’re likely opting out of it this year. Whether it’s mercury, an autoimmune thing affecting the brain chemistry, or sheer coincidence… does us no good to have her avoid the flu if we’ve gotten fed up and mailed her to Mongolia, does it? 
Which is frustrating as she is in the same high-risk group as I (asthma) so we’re weighing our options this year.
I just got my first flu shot two days ago.
I had a worse reaction from the adhesive on the bandage than I did from the actual shot. It didn’t hurt, and five minutes later I couldn’t tell I’d had a shot in that area. I took off the band-aid that night, threw it away, and I still have a red imprint on my arm that’s shaped exactly like a band-aid. It doesn’t itch or hurt. Other than that, I’m fine.
I work with kids and in crowds, so I figured it was best that I get it this year. I’ll keep getting it now.
See, I know intellectually that the flu vaccine cannot give me the flu, but empirically speaking, all three of the years in which I have gotten a flu shot, I have also gotten the flu. Actual influenza, so diagnosed by my doctor. Twice even followed up with a rousing case of influenza’s bestest friend pneumonia. I’ve never actually had the flu in a year when I did not get the vaccine.
I *know * it’s a coincidence. It’s still very, very difficult to make myself get the damn shot - and this year I’m seriously contemplating skipping it. I probably will get it - but only because I have a compromised respiratory system (not quite asthma, but every bedamned time I get even a minor head cold, I have a racking cough and audible-to-the-naked-ear crackling in my lungs for at least two weeks) and I could totally do without a third bout of pnemonia in five years.