Flu shot?
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| Well with the flu shot they just guess which strains of flu are going to go around, so if it was a different strain you would get sick. Also it takes 2 weeks for you to build up an immunity, so if you caught it right before or in that 2 week time frame, you would get sick. No I didn't get my flu shot. |
| Yep, I've gotten a flu shot every year for at least 7 years (memory fades as you get older! ) Also, with being diabetic, the doctor insists on the shot, whether or not you want it! I've never had the flu, but a few years back I had a wicked case of bronchitis that was borderline pnuemonia. I didn't move from the bed for 3 days straight. In fact, I SLEPT for 3 days straight. Didn't even get up to eat, and barely got up to go to the bathroom. If that is anything even remotely like the flu - I'm not taking any chances!! |
Ashley wrote: Just wondering how many people got a flu shot? The news is out of control about this flu "epidemic". I never had the flu and got the shot two years in a row and two years in a row I got the flu. I haven't gotten one since. I probably just jinxed myself I've never gotten a flu shot and I rarely catch anything (I said this just a few days ago at work when everyone was treating one of my co-workers like a biohazard - and I mean their reaction was extreme - for coming back in while he still wasn't 100%, and I also added "I probably jinxed myself  ) For a few years I'd sporadically catch things - worked with a bunch of women with kids and based on that experience I've decided young children are nothing but walking perculators for every bug that comes down the pike. All of my co-workers were sick all the time. Figure I was exposed to so much my body finally figured out how to fight this crap off on its own. This year's flu shot is thought to be about 64% effective. Now we supposedly have an epidemic and should all run out and get a flu shot? (don't get me wrong - I think there's a place for these shots depending on your situation) Well, if it worked so well (a lot of Americans have already gotten vaccinated, I was pretty amazed at the coverage) why would there be an epidemic?  Not quite sure what to make of that. Kristine |
| DH and I have enough health issues, yes, we get the flu shots. Shingles shot too.......that's something I don't want!! Friend got one and a month later got shingles, but the doc said it would have been worse had she not gotten the vax. |
| I always get the flu shot...last time I had the flu I was bed ridden for 10 days! I've already had shingles...yuk...and I was only in my late 30's when I had it. Not had the flu once since I've been getting the flu shot. But I'm also anal about hand sanitizer at work, using the wipes at the store, using clorox wipes at my work station regularly, not gonna happen to me again! |
| I have had the flu, it wasn't great but as long as I kept up the paracetamol and rested I was ok. DH and I had a flu shot once many years ago we were sick all the winter. We would just get over one bug and then we'd catch another. We've never had it since and we've both been healthy. I'm basing this on being relatively fit and healthy but I would consider it though if I had underlying health issues. |
| Joan and I both get the shot each year and neither of us have contracted the flu in many years. Although I do get a scratchy throat and other mild symptoms (sniffling, tiny fever) for a day or so after the shot almost every year. That's how I know the shot triggered my immune system! LOL I try to avoid all people during flu season. I don't know how well I'd survive a major flu. |
| The News was saying the flu shot they are giving this year is not the one that is the epidemic. There are 3 states who don't have the flu yet, which are California, Mississippi and Hawaii, at least as of Friday. The percent for how good the shot is 80% for childre, 60% healthy adult and 30% people with illnesses. I don't get a flu shot, my husband does, however. Since I've lived in Florida, 10 yrs in March '13 I've had the flu once...I did however have a very bad case of the Shingles of which I still suffer from. You can't get a shingle shot until the age of 60, so I have to wait it. |
| Ive had some pretty bad flu's. Beginning of last year I had pertussis (whopping cough) when it was going around. Seriously give me the flu any day over that ####. It felt like the worst cold, coupled with the worst flu, inability to move, lighting your lungs on fire and someone beating your whole body with a baseball bat and after a week of that you get to cough up your lungs for 3 weeks. The flu isn't going around here its strep and has been in Washington for awhile. |
| I got the flu shot in Oct., since early November I've had one thing after another. Right now I have a sore throat, ear aches and to make it better I coughed last night and bit my tongue hard enough that It bled and the tip is very sore and red. |
Being a diabetic, they want me to have a flu shot... having Multiple Sclerosis, they would prefer I don't get it. Taking a live culture of anything is risky with an auto-immune disease. With my job, I travel, and am in front of different groups of people every day. From schools to attorneys offices... I just pray I don't catch it. LOL!  |
| I got the flu shot, as I do every year. I work in a hospital although in a non-clinical setting. The movement is that soon a flu shot will be a condition for employment at all hospitals. The flu shot protects against whatever strain of flu the CDC feels will be most virulant. It does NOT protect against ALL strains of flu. A person may get the flu shot, but contract a different strain of flu. So there can be a flu epidemic because there are different strains of flu. Arthur may get sick from one strain, Ann from another and me from a third. And you CANNOT get the flu from the shot. A killed virus is used. |
| If you are youngish healthy, no underlying conditions, don't work around ill people, have little direct contact with people, no contact with children, are anal about washing hands and protecting yourself--then you can probably skip the flu shot. Realize you can still catch a different version of the flu in years when several strains are going around, or a norovirus which is different from the flu and probably what people get after a flu shot and blame the vax. |
I get the flu shot every single year, and have never gotten sick from it nor gotten the flu.  Also, the "flu" this refers to is influenza, not the gastric, stomach version that most of us call "getting the flu". |
| Actually the stomach/gastric IS the same flu - I read on the cdc's and another flu info website that those are symptoms of this same flu everyone is talking about. I do not and never have gotten a flu shot. Of course, having said that I will now get sick. I just don't trust so many official people telling me I really must get this shot. Makes me wonder what's really in it... Shellie |
| I agree that you probably can't get the flu from the killed virus vaccine, but your immune system certainly gears up to fight the vaccine and you develop some mild symptoms related to fighting off a virus. |
| No Ron, you can still get the flu even if you've been vaccinated. Vaxs are only about 60-70% effective in a vaccinated population. But having the vax helps prevent the very serious complications like pneumonia and death. Reaction to the vaccination will vary, often with age. The healthier your immune system the more likely you might experience flu-like reactions. The older you get, the less effective your immune system and the less likely you'll have reactions......and unfortunately the less the vaccine will "take" in the more mature.....ahem. This is why if you are around elderly, ill or very young with compromised immune systems, the more reason to have a vaccination....to protect others. Add to that this year's vaccine is not protecting against "rogue" strain that is also circulating. The main flu is a strain of influenza B but this secondary strain is accounting for 10% of the illnesses this year. Influenza or the “real flu” is a respiratory illness. Indeed some may have a severe cold and are calling it the flu. Many people confuse influenza with“stomach flu” which is a norovirus not influenza. Since noroviruses are so common, people might have both??? Lovely. As nasty as this outbreak is, it is ranked as a mild to moderate.......meaning things could get really nasty in some future year. Maybe the hype seems overblown, but we have a lot more people now, people who are susceptible: aged; those with illneses....diabetes, COPD, etc ; and a society that daily jets around the world spreading disease with ease. It's nearly impossible to isolate yourself these days. |
| I wasn't saying you can't get the flu AFTER vaccine, I was saying you can't get full blown flu FROM the killed vaccine. But the vaccine can give you a little reaction for a day or two. I think I read that this year's vaccine is well matched to the virus that is going around, but that the virus going around is a potent A strain so that's a reason there's been so much hospital activity compared to recent years. Last year's vaccine was a duplicate of the vaccine from the previous year as the expected strains (and the ones that showed up) were the same in consecutive years. That probably also helped to keep the infection rate down. |
| I work in a germ factory, AKA the elementary school clinic. I have given, and gotten flu shots, since 1994. Zero flu, knock on wood. Influenza A tends to be more severe than influenza B. Kids may have vomiting/diarrhea with the flu, but it is rarely found in adults. There is a stomach virus making the rounds in our area that tests negative for the flu. Last year, an incredible number of people listened to the CDC and got their flu vaccination. So fewer people got the flu or had milder cases. This year, far fewer people got the flu vaccine and flu is more prevalent. There have been over 20 children die from the flu so far. Very sad. |
| Right now vaccine is very low for our area. If you want a vax, SOL at least until a new shipment arrives hopefully sometime soon. |
 Got the flu shot. Had the flu several years ago, I never forgot it, I was sick in bed for 2 weeks. I just had the shingles vac on Sunday. I'm hoping that keeps shingles at bay. |
| I've never had a flu shot, neither have my parents, and none of us have had the flu yet. I've also never had a chickenpox vaccine or chickenpox, I wonder how that would affect my chances of getting shingles someday. |
snazzierella wrote: I've never had a flu shot, neither have my parents, and none of us have had the flu yet. I've also never had a chickenpox vaccine or chickenpox, I wonder how that would affect my chances of getting shingles someday. I think that shingles is the chickenpox virus that lies dormant after you have had the chickenpox. It rears its ugly head as shingles later in life. So, if you've never had chickenpox, I don't believe that you will have shingles. I have never had chickenpox, nor do I want to at my age. However, I do avoid people with shingles since it is the same virus. |
| Yes - shingles are from the latent virus. You have to have had chicken pox to later on get shingles. But, some people who get shingles swear they never had chicken pox...the thing is they probably had it so mild, that their parents never noticed it...and they grew up thinking they never had it. And now there is the vaccine, so estimates are that about 95% of the population has immunity from chicken pox in one form or another. Before there was a correlation between the 2, many parents purposely exposed their kids to chicken pox - when it was a handy time, etc, so they could "get it over with". There was actually some logic here - as chicken pox tended to be much more severe if you got exposed and caught it when you were older. So parents were trying to help and get it over with when the kids were younger. There is also the pregnancy risk too, girls especially were tried to be exposed to it in childhood. Getting chicken pox while pregnant (1st and 2nd trimesters) has a risk of a birth defect/miscarriage from something called CVS. Not a high risk, but still something to avoid. |
| No flu shot for me, ever. I've been lucky so far, but if it turns out I get it I would rather my immune system build antibodies naturally to the current strain. I work in retail, and have been exposed to it at work, and also via friends and family and so far so good. I wash my hands frequently, try not to touch my face, but I don't go out of my way to avoid sick people. I've always refused to allow my kids to get the flu shot too and they've never had it their entire lives. Two of my kids have been on antibiotics once in their lives, and the other one has never had to, he's never been sick. I'm very grateful they seem to have strong immune systems, if it isn't broke why mess with it you know? They don't even get minor colds often, maybe twice each they've gotten a day or two of sniffles and sneezing, that's it. |
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