# Should I get the flu shot?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 21, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738 "2003-10-21T17:31:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/1 "2003-10-21T17:31:03Z")
It’s that time of year again, when flu shots are offered everywhere for free, to stave off the epidemic. And, of course, there are the naysayers who refuse to get it on some grounds or other that I’ve never been clear on.
I am cynical when the government tells me what’s best for me.
But I also hate getting the flu !
So, what’s up? What do people have against it?
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/2 "2003-10-21T17:55:43Z")
Is the government really saying that getting a flu shot is what’s best for you? I know that they recommend getting a flu shot, but I’d hardly call that the same thing.
Besides, what’s wrong with that anyway? They also say that it’s best not to drink and drive. Granted, that’s a more extreme case, but I think it goes to show that there’s nothing inherently abhorrent about the government stating what it thinks is best.
I say get the shot. It doesn’t cost much, and it could save you from losing days of productive work.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/3 "2003-10-21T18:01:09Z")
Just personal experience . . . But the one year I didn’t get the shot, I caught the flu and was sicker than three pups.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/4 "2003-10-21T18:09:03Z")
Here’s my question: I’ve never had the flu shot and I’ve never had the flu. I rarely get colds and never use up my sick time unless I’ve had surgery or a physical injury of some sort.
I guess I have a strong immune system. Probably from playing in the dirt as a child.
So, does a 28 year old, very healthy woman who almost never gets sick _need_ a flu shot? If the answer is “yes” please elaborate.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/5 "2003-10-21T18:21:27Z")
If you never get a flu or colds, then, no, you probably don’t need one.
(Unless you have just given yourself a huge kina hora.)
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### Author:  [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/6 "2003-10-21T18:25:44Z")
Yes.
The minimal chances of a few minor downsides is far outweighed by the benefits.
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### Author:  [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/7 "2003-10-21T18:26:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hello Again \*
> \*\*Here’s my question: I’ve never had the flu shot and I’ve never had the flu. I rarely get colds and never use up my sick time unless I’ve had surgery or a physical injury of some sort.
>
> I guess I have a strong immune system. Probably from playing in the dirt as a child.
>
> So, does a 28 year old, very healthy woman who almost never gets sick _need_ a flu shot? If the answer is “yes” please elaborate. \*\*
IANAD, but here is what I’ve heard and read.
In past years, availability of the flu shot was tight…so only the high risk folks were highly encouraged to get the shot.
This year, supplies of the flu shot are more plentiful. Predictions are that this will be a nasty flu season, so more folks are being encouraged to get the shot. (There is also the FluMist spray…which is more expensive $40-50 than the shot which is about $17 See [here](http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/09/23/flu.vaccine.ap/index.html) ).
There are other consideration…do you have kids that you could spread the flu to…etc…
Check out the [CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/flu/who.htm) …they have a good overview.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/8 "2003-10-21T18:31:53Z")
For additional considerations: As a matter of fact I have no kids, ailing grandmothers, or immune-suppressed friends. Footloose and fancy-free, me.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/9 "2003-10-21T18:41:38Z")
I didn’t get one last year and was healthy all winter. Told my doctor this and she said that was probably because of a healthy immune system, but that it’s a craps shoot. While it’s generally recommended for older folks and other at-risks, she said that she had a lot of 20-somethings in her office last year that were begging for cyanide tablets to put them out of misery. I got one this year.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/10 "2003-10-21T18:44:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chefguy \*
> \*\* . . . she said that she had a lot of 20-somethings in her office last year that were begging for cyanide tablets to put them out of misery. I got one this year. \*\*
Your doctor gives out _cyanide tablets?_
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### Author:  [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/11 "2003-10-21T18:51:41Z")
Must go to Dr. Mengele, who attended medical school in Buenos Aires, IIRC. Competent physicain, but not much bed-side manner.
“You vill take zees pills mit out qvestion!”
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### Author:  [@Fox\_Paws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fox_Paws)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/12 "2003-10-21T20:23:29Z")
Last fall my mother and wife told me to get a flu shot. They told me and told me and told me. I didn’t get one. I got the flu. Big time. This year I’m getting a flu shot, not because I fear the flu, but because I fear the incessant “I told you so” chants I had to put up with for weeks on end.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/13 "2003-10-21T22:15:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eve \*
> \*\*Your doctor gives out _cyanide tablets?_ \*\*
Dang, I keep forgetting those pesky smilies, don’t I? And my sentence structure sucks, too.
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### Author:  [@suezeekay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suezeekay)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/14 "2003-10-22T04:51:03Z")
In my town the clinic identifies specific groups that they recommend get the shot. They don’t recommend it for everyone. I’ve been getting one for the last four years because five years ago I got the flu and suffered the after-effects for weeks. I had never had it before and didn’t realize how sick you get.
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### Author:  [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/15 "2003-10-22T13:33:03Z")
Get it. I’ve gotten a flu shot for three years and haven’t had the flu or a cold in three years. I’ve heard that this winter is supposed to be worse than last years so, get the shot!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/16 "2003-10-22T13:58:37Z")
If I don’t voluntarily get my flu shot, the Student Health Care Center will send out their bounty hunters and take me down with dart guns.
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### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/17 "2003-10-22T15:39:08Z")
Hm. I started this thread because I know there are people who say “DON’T GET THE FLU SHOT!!!” and I wanted to know why they said that - it seems that none of them are here ! So asked around IRL (strange concept, I know) and discovered that some people say getting the shot will make your immune system less able to fight the flu in the future. After a bit of googling I found this:
from [here](http://www.rice.edu/projects/reno/rn/20030417/flu.html):
> [@](#):
>
> The precise reasons why people need regular vaccinations against some viruses, like the flu, and not against others, like polio, are related to two different factors — how fast the viruses mutate and the way the immune system recognizes and targets the invading organisms, known as antigens … That’s why vaccination works: It prepares the immune system to attack specific antigens by activating this recognition system, allowing the body to maintain a high level of antibodies against a specific disease it’s never actually contracted. Original antigenic sin occurs when it would be more advantageous for the body to rely on its randomly created antibodies than on the more numerous “remembered” varieties, Deem said. Take a fast-mutating virus like the flu, for example. It has several distinct areas where antibodies can bind, and each year, those may change.
Now, I don’t pretend to understand that. The article isn’t clear to me.
From [here](http://www.health-n-energy.com/flualt.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> [Flu shots] seriously weaken the body’s natural defenses just when they are needed most by injecting “dead” flu viruses into the system in the hope the the body will reinforce itself with antibodies matching these strains of viruses.
From [here](http://www.theherbspecialist.com/drweed/newsletters/flu.html)
> [@](#):
>
> According to a study published in the medical journal Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology, vaccination “produces immune suppression which contributes to an increased susceptibility to other infections.” (May 1996; 79(2): 163-170)
From [here](http://www.consciouschoice.com/holisticmd/hmd1302.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Some people want the vaccine just to avoid the inconvenience of getting the flu, but I think they are misguided. Having the flu or some other viral infection may actually serve as part of the natural regulation of the immune system. Having a healthy immune system doesn’t mean that you never get sick with a virus. When you get a viral infection your body mounts a healthy, normal, immune response, and you get a fever, which adjusts the metabolism and literally burns up toxins. You could think of it as a kind of “boot camp” or training session for the immune system, which will increase your natural resistance … It’s worth remembering that optimal immunity does not mean never getting sick. It means getting sick and responding in a supple fashion, without long, lingering consequences. I think of the immune response as being like an oriental martial art. In judo or tae kwon do or aikido, the object is not to form an impregnable wall against the invader but to respond in a flexible, fluid way to the attack and use the attacker’s own force to subdue him. That’s really a good way to think about immunity – in terms of suppleness of response, rather than a rigid barrier against diseases.
So what does this mean? I dunno. Any comments?
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### Author:  [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/18 "2003-10-22T16:00:56Z")
Hello Again, remember that I’ve got a little germ vector in my house, and he goes to not just one but TWO different school environments with other little snot-nosed anklebiters. Three, if you count karate. It’s gonna be a long winter.
We’ll get you yet. Just keeeeeeeep on coming overrrrrrr… P.S. I have 8 cups of frozen raspberries awaiting our mad canning skillz.
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### Author:  [@Becky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/19 "2003-10-22T16:45:33Z")
I got the flu shot last fall, and haven’t had a sniffle since. No flu, no colds, and I usually get two little head colds every year.
I decided to get the shot because I couldn’t afford to get knocked out of my studies for two weeks plus recuperation time, and because I go to school at a medical university where I’m in constant contact with clinicians, who are in constant contact with (imagine this!) sick people. I’ll get it again this year … I can afford the down time even less this fall.
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### Author:  [@John\_Harrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Harrison)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-get-the-flu-shot/208738/20 "2003-10-22T23:08:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cowgirl \*
> \*\*
> So what does this mean? I dunno. Any comments? \*\*
The naysayers are usually 1) selling some sort of herbal product, and 2) generally a bunch of quacks.
Take 1 dose of [Quackwatch](http://www.quackwatch.org/) and call me in the morning.
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