# Well, balls. No flu shot for me this year. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 9, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306 "2004-10-09T01:16:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/1 "2004-10-09T01:16:21Z")
I had the flu last December and was so fucking sick I thought I was going to die - no kidding. Mr. Pug caught it from me and and was so miserably ill that he said, “Now I know why they want us to get flu shots - this is the kind of stuff that _kills_ people.” So we both vowed to get vaccinated this season. Oops! Chiron arsed up a giant batch of flu vaccine. No shots for us! Not unless we want to don grey wigs or feign asthma, since the vaccine is to be saved for seniors and babies. This is great. I was out from work four days from that last flu, and it was a month and a half before I felt fully well. And I’ve heard we can expect this year’s bug to be a doozy. Piss. ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/2 "2004-10-09T01:35:09Z")
I was just about to start a Pit thread about this myself. My employer has informed us that our “flu shot fair” has been indefitely postponed this year due to the shortage. _I work for a freaking hospital!_ Apparently the powers that be have decided that front line health care workers don’t fall into a “high risk” category. I wonder who they think will take care of all those other people who couldn’t get a flu shot. I am a pregnant ER nurse with respiratory compromise related to a recent case of pneumonia. . . I’m getting a damn flu shot from somewhere! ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/3 "2004-10-09T01:48:36Z")
> [@Nightingale](#): > > II am a pregnant ER nurse with respiratory compromise related to a recent case of pneumonia. . . I’m getting a damn flu shot from somewhere! I hope you find one! This is odd, since my firefighter husband in Dallas can get a flu shot - he obviously handles very ill people (as you do) on a daily basis. I completely agree that healthy folks need to step aside for those at high risk (like you), but I’m sort of dumfounded as to the shortage this year. We had one last year too, right? 😕 That old supply-demand concept hasn’t been explained to the flu-shot producers, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/4 "2004-10-09T02:10:13Z")
That’s weird. I signed up for mine at work today and they don’t foresee any problems with getting them. Then again, I do work for an emergency medicine and hospitalist medicine group, so maybe we have ‘connections’ 😉 . Could someone explain to me why they can’t just make a new batch? I’m not familiar with how flu vaccines are manufactured, so is it that it takes a long time to make them? Ava ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/5 "2004-10-09T02:21:59Z")
With the manufacturing process they use now it takes several months to make a batch. By then flu season will be over. No shot for me either since I don’t have direct patient contact. But I sure hope we have enough for our at-risk patients, which is a fair percentage at this place, or it’s going to be a hell of a season. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/6 "2004-10-09T02:24:34Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > With the manufacturing process they use now it takes several months to make a batch. By then flu season will be over. > > No shot for me either since I don’t have direct patient contact. But I sure hope we have enough for our at-risk patients, which is a fair percentage at this place, or it’s going to be a hell of a season. Thanks, **dwyr**. I wasn’t sure of the length of time for the manufacturing of the vaccine. Ava ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/7 "2004-10-09T03:09:59Z")
I’ll be getting a flu shot in a couple of weeks. It’s my first time, and I’m a little worried because every vaccine I’ve ever gotten has made me pretty sick. the Hepatitis B one had me out of commission with weakness and headache for 3 days. But if I’m going to be working at the clinic, they want all my shots up to date. And that includes flu. **Nightingale** - I don’t understand why you wouldn’t get a shot. If you’re not high-risk, with all you listed, then I don’t know who is! Find the people in charge. Complain. Write angry letters. Have a pregnant hormonal hissy fit. And _cough_ on them! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/8 "2004-10-09T03:14:52Z")
The only time in the past six years I contracted influenza was the year I got a flu shot. I’m told the batch was old, and the virus that was circulating was new. Funny thing is, the shot made me feel kinda crappy for a day or two, so lucky me, I got to be sick twice. I’m sure they work for people, most of the time, but given my track record, I’m not too worried about missing yet another, since they’ve done bugger all for me up to now. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/9 "2004-10-09T04:48:13Z")
The company that manages my office building offered flu shots on Monday, and no mention was made of the shortage – I didn’t even know about the shortage until I saw the news Monday night. But I didn’t get a shot. I’ve never gotten a flu shot, and I don’t remember the last time I had the flu. Watch me get it this year, now… ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/10 "2004-10-09T14:05:01Z")
I’ve already put in calls to both my OB and my PMD trying to find out where I can get a flu shot. Under other circumstances, I’d just cough up the money for the FluMist vaccine instead, but I can’t take it because I’m pregnant. The main reason I’m so paranoid about it this year is because I spent a week in the hospital back in February fighting a bad case of double pneumonia. Thanks to that little adventure I have a small area of scar tissue in my right lung which makes me more vulnerable to further respiratory infections. Being that there are very few antibiotics I can take while pregnant, _I simply cannot afford to get sick again._ So I’m being a little more determined than usual in my search for a vaccine. Good luck to all my fellow Dopers in your own search for a flu shot this year – it’s gonna be a tough one! ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/11 "2004-10-09T14:28:53Z")
> [@pugluvr](#): > > This is great. I was out from work four days from that last flu, and it was a month and a half before I felt fully well. And I’ve heard we can expect this year’s bug to be a doozy. > > Piss. The flu shot won’t necessarily protect you from the flu if a different strain than you were vaccinated for happens to make it’s way around. I get the flu shot every year, and have for over 10 years, and mostly I’ve been lucky except last year when I got the flu on New Year’s Eve, I know how you felt last year because I too thought I was going to die (or maybe I only wished I would). By the time my fever finally broke (4 or 5 days) I had pneumonia. I missed over a week of work and that was after the flu shot. I still got mine this year (my work pays for a doctor to come and give them to every one that wants one each year) - thankfully ours were scheduled almost a week before they announced the shortage. ---
**Author:** ![misstee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@misstee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misstee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/12 "2004-10-09T16:02:29Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > Watch me get it this year, now… I said the exact same thing to my husband after we heard the news of the shortage. I haven’t had the flu since 1995, knowing my luck, this year the whole family will get it. ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/13 "2004-10-09T16:17:27Z")
My company is going ahead with our flu shot fair. I’m not sure how we got on the list. I work for a financial services firm not a hospital or anything. I’m torn on whether or not to get it. I really don’t want to get flu. However, I haven’t caught it in years and never had the shot. And I really don’t want to take a shot that would have otherwise gone to someone high risk who needed it more. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/14 "2004-10-09T23:50:59Z")
My lab’s flu clinic got canceled too. I’m not necessarily a high-risk patient, but working in a microbiology laboratory makes me want to run out and get all the vaccines I could possibly get. 🙂 The reason it takes so long to manufacture flu vaccine is that the seed viruses need to be injected into fertilized eggs in order to multiply and make a high enough titer to make an effective vaccine. Unfortunately, it’s the only known method of incubating the stuff, and it takes several months. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/15 "2004-10-10T04:41:09Z")
Aren’t flu shots _always_ reserved for seniors, babies and other at-risk groups? They always were back home, and no one I knew actually got one except for one friend who has extremely bad asthma and was therefore apparently judged to fit into “other at-risk.” (By “extremely bad” I mean she’s had lungs collapse, forming a vacuum in her chest cavity resulting in her heart flopping around to the wrong side and her major arteries getting twisted up.) ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/16 "2004-10-10T13:03:21Z")
This page from the [CDC website](http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/0405shortage.htm) lists the people who should be getting priority for the flu vaccine. **Nightingale** , pregnant women are on this list, and so are health care workers. I would print it out to show your employer, and maybe if they see that even the all-powerful CDC thinks you should get a shot, well, maybe they should get you one… It also says to contact your local health department if you can’t get a vaccine through work. Sounds to me like you fall into the high risk group in _several_ categories, and I’m sure you’ll end up getting one as long as you call up and explain. ---
**Author:** ![Nightingale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@Nightingale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightingale)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/17 "2004-10-10T13:34:07Z")
The latest word at work is that we _will_ be getting our flu shots – sometime in mid November. I think I’m still going to call my PMD and see if I can get one before then. Apparently the hospital isn’t withholding the shots, they just haven’t received them yet. It’s a screwy world when the grocery store can get their shipment of vaccine and the hospitals (and, from what I’ve heard, several of the free clinics in town) can’t. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/18 "2004-10-10T22:45:11Z")
**Nightingale** , It depends on who they’ve contracted with. If your hospital contracted with Chiron then they’re screwed. Our medical group contracted with Adventis-Pasteur so we’ve got our Fluzone. What with the restrictions (we follow to the letter) we may have more than we need and will redistribute if so, but then again we may have a run of folks who are high-risk and normally do not come to the docs to get the shot coming in this year … all of you who usually just go to the drug store or your workplace flu fair. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/19 "2004-10-11T05:15:14Z")
I usually get the flu shot every year, because if I don’t get the shot then it’s 100% certain that I _will_ get the flu. And I could probably make a good case for needing one, as an asthmatic student at a very large university, but I figure there’s a lot of people who need it a hell of a lot more than I do. Odds are, I’ll just be sick for a month or so (can’t take time off if I get sick during a busy part of the semester). However, is it just me, or is there a problem with the flu vaccine supply _every single freakin’ year_? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![The\_27th\_Evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@The\_27th\_Evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_27th_Evil)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-balls-no-flu-shot-for-me-this-year/268306/20 "2004-10-11T12:07:06Z")
Just found one place that will do non-high risk people for 25 dollars. Our student health clinic isn’t even getting any in because they contracted with Chiron. It’s more than I can comfortably afford, but I can hopefully get one when I visit my family over the weekend and swallow the expenses. If I don’t and get sick, I figure I can take a lot of medicine and drag myself to classes anyway. I’m not allowed to let illness slow me down.