Did you get a flu shot?

Bullsh!t in my eyes, it is only good for baby's and older people...

You really can't "shot" yourself for everything, that will make you as weak as a sea-sponge !

Flu is nice : stay warm and comfy in house, watch some video's and read a nice book.

Beside the above, all those shots prevent your body to "strengthen" itself for foreign bacteria and so...
 
I get one every year. I am waiting for them to get rid of the "High Risk" folks here at work first. I should get my shot on Monday :)
 
Wally said:
Bullsh!t in my eyes, it is only good for baby's and older people...

You really can't "shot" yourself for everything, that will make you as weak as a sea-sponge !

Flu is nice : stay warm and comfy in house, watch some video's and read a nice book.

Beside the above, all those shots prevent your body to "strengthen" itself for foreign bacteria and so...
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Actually, flu shots and other vaccinations are typically made from dead or weakened strains of the virus that the vaccine is intended to prevent, which triggers your own immune system into creating a defense for the real thing. In other words, vaccinations don't prevent your body from creating immunities, they do exactly the opposite. Unfortunately, the current flu shot isn't effective against avian flu.



Although the current bird flu frenzy in the media is probably (hopefully) going to go the way of the SARS scare, if that virus mutates into something that can be caught through airborne transmission between humans, it could be a fairly scary thing. I'm assuming you're around my age or younger (40); in our lifetimes, there hasn't been a serious flu epidemic. In 1918, the Spanish flu killed lots of healthy, young people with sound immune systems, not just the very young and old. From what I've read, it could have been worse . . . the virus killed so quickly that it didn't spread as far as it might have otherwise. :eek:



Tort

(pulling head and flippers into shell)
 
Totally agree, the media will make a hype out of it.

For now, all hospitals and medical centers in my area are sold out for flu-vaccins.

The media let the people think that the vaccin will prevent them to get bird flu, but you can't get a vaccin for something that still not exist (a degree of bird flu, transferrable from human to human), pardon my English here...
 
Curiously, the young health group suffered the greatest mortality during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Perhaps, this is because the very first group to catch the pandemic were soldiers during WW I when the virus was at its most virulent stage.
 
Never had one, hardly ever sick.



My wife has never had one, she is hardly ever sick.



Lots of people i know get them, and it seems like they are always the ones hacking and sniffling and sick.



I dunno....
 
I got mine for free yesterday through my wife's company. A nurse came to the break room at her company and injected everyone that signed up.



A lot of companies are giving shots for free as part of their "wellness' program.



Every year that I didn't get the shot I got the flu. Every year, thousands of Americans die from the flu.
 
I remember when I was a kid and we got the flu we would wrap ourselves in a blankey and slept for a few days, then emerged like a butterfly (well, you get the idea). Frankly all this "flu-deathwatch-scare-tactic-media-hype" is just making me weary.
 
Bird flu is something we should think about, but it may just never happen (as far as human to human) at this point we can't protect ourselves against it; so don't worry about it too much.

On other hand it would solve our social security funding problem - sorry - it's just crazy talk.
 
I'm a 65 year old retired physician (Internal Medicine) and because of my exposure to both ill and well, and elderly people have always gotten one. This year I took mine and felt really lousy for several days with chills and a temp of 101 for a day. My wife and Brother-in-law also took it and did not have quite as severe a reaction as I did. But, yes, I'll take it again next year. Influenza can be a killer!! Check out the figures for the pandemic of 1918. And once again we have a very susceptible younger population. We are overdue for another pandemic. And no, it will not protect you from the bird flu, but right now, there just ain't that much around. But there is and will be our old standard flu (A & B) But you should take it because many people with the flu (and other illnesses) are not courteous or thoughtful enough to stay indoors and away from the rest of us. How many folks have you heard say, "I haven't missed attending church and Sunday school in 35 years. I've made it when I had a temp of 103 and pneumonia", or similar remarks. Take the *&^%$%^^&* shot.
 
I would advocate the flu shot for all. After reading some of the posts here, I got the impression that many people think they had the "flu", when all they had was a mild case at best. A full blown case of the flu will knock an otherwise healthy adult out for 2-3 weeks, all of which time, the victim will wish he had never been born. It will take another 3-4 weeks to stop feeling extremely tired. The vaccine is compounded for the most likely strains each year. It will prevent the flu or allow a mild case...ie...the 3-4 day stuff. Influenza kills thousands of Americans every year, even with the full range of supportive care available in this country. The assumption that you are hardly evry sick and have never had a flu shot means that you are somehow impervious to the flu is not true...it is more good luck than anything else. Those who do not get flu shots probably benefit from their coworkers who do as they are around people less likely to spread the virus. As for Avian flu, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) postulates that human to human spread of this strain has possibly already happened....the disease has shown up in family groups and it is impossible to tell whether that occured because the affected family members were exposed to the same bird source or the virus spread to other family members as the first person became ill. Avian flu has a 50% mortality at this moment. It is spread by migratory birds. Viruses are very clever little creatures...they mutate rapidly to adapt to new enviornments and hosts. It is a great concern to those of us in Critical Care that Avian flu coming in contact with human to human transmission flu strains could pick up this adaptation and rapidly mutate to acquire human to human transmission capability itself. It is not yet known if the Avian strain will weaken as multiple generations reproduce in humans and thus lose its ability to cause death in the same manner as Ebola virus, which does weaken with sucessive generations. As for the media "hype", it is not an inappropriate response to a potentially catastrophic pandemic. SARS was in great part contained by people getting the wind up about it and doing their utmost to deal with it. The United States is not immune to the deadly effects of an Avian Flu simply because of our superb health care system. In the area of public health response to a pandemic, it has a long way to go as well as not having nearly enough critical care beds and ventilators, not to mention critical care professionals to deal with such an occurance. I cannot work 24 hours a day and neither can any of my colleagues, yet if the Avian flu were to hit this country in a widespread manner most of you would be screaming at me, my colleagues and the government to do something to save you or your family members and decry the fact that the country was not prepared. We can not prevent death from common strains of flu in susceptible patients groups as it is now so it is entirely unrealistic to expect us to avert massive loss of life with a flu strain that currently has a 50% mortality rate. If massive vaccination with the current flu vaccine as widely as possible will do even a little to bit to mitigate the evolution of Avian flu to human to human transmission, it probably worth pursuing as no Avian flu vaccine is available and the virus is already demonstrating resistance to Tamiflu. As for those of you who think a flu shot is not advantageous, be thankful that you live with many other people in America who do think it useful and have their shots.....these people certainly reduce widespread dissemination of the common flu strains and thus migate the likelihood that you will get it and lose 2-3 weeks of pay while you are at home with a full blown case of the flu, wishing you had never been born.
 
Total bs! First of all i really dont get why people are acting like the flu is such a big deal...I remember as a kid getting the flu about once a year...no big deal it sucked but so what, healthy people should have no worries about getting the flu...this "bird flu" i believe is just a huge over hype by the media and the next new topic they can all obsess over...I mean there are a million other sickness' that are just as likely for people to get and there is no mention of them in the media at all...just like the hurricane season, everyone is all up in arms about how bad it has been, but nobody will look back 10 years and see that climatologists have been warning about global warming for years! It just pisses me off about how people are so ignorant about things until it starts to effect them...flue shots should be reserved for babies and the elderly, if you get the bird flu ok we are all aware of our chances and will seek the proper medical attention if we suspect to have it...Both my parents being pharmacists (one working for some of the largest Pharmaceutical companies in the world) and step parents as doctors I have spoken to them about this topic and they have told me the risks in full… They all trust our medical system aswell as do I modern medicines are leaps and bonds better then they were a mere 5 years ago... if you are that scared of such a minor sickness what aren’t you going to worry about? i just needed to get that out...sorry for my rant you can flame me if you please...



-Justin
 
I've gotten the flu shot for the past 15 years. Last year I couldn't get it due to the shortage. This year I was proactive and got it at my local grocery store. Its a $20.00 Peace Of Mind.......
 
4830Deuce said:
Total bs! First of all i really dont get why people are acting like the flu is such a big deal...I remember as a kid getting the flu about once a year...no big deal it sucked but so what, healthy people should have no worries about getting the flu...this "bird flu" i believe is just a huge over hype by the media and the next new topic they can all obsess over...I mean there are a million other sickness' that are just as likely for people to get and there is no mention of them in the media at all...just like the hurricane season, everyone is all up in arms about how bad it has been, but nobody will look back 10 years and see that climatologists have been warning about global warming for years! It just pisses me off about how people are so ignorant about things until it starts to effect them...flue shots should be reserved for babies and the elderly, if you get the bird flu ok we are all aware of our chances and will seek the proper medical attention if we suspect to have it...Both my parents being pharmacists (one working for some of the largest Pharmaceutical companies in the world) and step parents as doctors I have spoken to them about this topic and they have told me the risks in full… They all trust our medical system aswell as do I modern medicines are leaps and bonds better then they were a mere 5 years ago... if you are that scared of such a minor sickness what aren’t you going to worry about? i just needed to get that out...sorry for my rant you can flame me if you please...
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Justin, the big deal about flu is that over 100,000 Americans die of it every year...yes, the ones that do die are generally elderly, chronically ill or infants, but they most certainly die. As I said before, a full blown case of flu can knock a healthy adult down for 2-3 weeks, which can certainly have a big impact on many people economically. I had severe flu inchildhood and one full blown case as an adult and after that one, I certainly got a flu shot yearly. Health care workers need them anyway. As for avian flu as a possible pandemic, I have great faith in the medical system of the US.....I am an active part of that system as a critical care nurse for the past 25 years, practicing in open heart surgery. Even this country's health care system would come under huge strain should such a pandemic arrive. All critical care resources would be directed to responding to that pandemic, leaving other critical care needs by the wayside. Things such as cardiac surgery would have to stop or be strictly rationed because a pandemic would consume all critical care resources. The treatment for Avian flu at this point is largely supportive and one just hopes the patient survives. Survival in this disease at this point seems to occur mostly in children, adults die. If your parents and step parents are doctors and pharmacists, they should be able to tell you something of the things out there now that we really can't treat well and disabuse you of the notion that one simply has to go to a good hospital with a good health care team and everything will be hunky-dory. We now have methicillin resistant Staph (MRSA) out in the community instead of being limited to hospitals. In the only reasonable treatment modality for MRSA, we have generated Vancomycin resistent Enterococcus (VRE). Sepsis still has a 30-50% mortality even with Xigris, which costs 9400.00 bucks for a 96 hour course of treatment. Bugs are becoming resistant to the Fluroquinalones, which is the latest class of antibiotics....there are no new classes yet on the market but you can bet your parents working in the largest pharmaceutical company in the world is busting their little fannies to try and develop one. The only reasonable courses of treatment for some of the critical illnesses are nearly as bad as the diseases themselves. If we are lucky, we can save your life but possibly lose you kidney function for the rest of your life and things of that nature. The American health care system is probably the most advanced in the world but there are many, many things that we cannot sucessfully treat and that comes as a real shock to many of my patients' families.



As for the flu shot itself, I think perfectly appropriate to get one after the essential populations (infants, chronically ill, elderly, health care workers etc...) have been vaccinated. It facilitates limiting the spread among people who will not die from flu but will significantly impacted if they do get it. As for avian flu, that is not media hype, that is the World Health Organizaton and the Centers for Disease Control doing thier jobs and alerting the world public of a significant threat and trying to implement world wide procedures for limiting the impact and spread of this disease. People world wide have the right to be kept informed about the progress and response to such a health threat and to insist that their governments and health care systems evaluate, anticipate, plan and respond appropriately. A key component of limiting the avian flu spread is a fully informed public that can actively participate in responding appropriately to it should it arrive in the US. The message here is that the best informed can be the best prepared and the least scared.



It is my fervent hope that your faith in the US health care system will not be put to the test by the avian flu. You have, at this moment, only a 50/50 chance of surviving such a test.
 
mtwedt said:
I would advocate the flu shot for all. After reading some of the posts here, I got the impression that many people think they had the "flu", when all they had was a mild case at best. A full blown case of the flu will knock an otherwise healthy adult out for 2-3 weeks, all of which time, the victim will wish he had never been born. It will take another 3-4 weeks to stop feeling extremely tired.
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Talk about flashbacks. I recall having a case of the flu as described above in early 2000. The first time it hit me, I was down for the count for a day (New Year's Eve, to be specific). But two weeks later, I was knocked out for around 3 weeks and literally felt drained for another 3. When I looked it up, I found that I had the Sydney Flu based on symptoms I had at the time.



IIRC, The last time I had a flu shot made me sick two weeks after getting it.
 
I agree too ! I think what they are saying is the more of us that get immunized have a better chance to avoiding any kind of flu/bug whatever. Those that say" tucker home, read a book, cuddle" are in real trouble and up the odds of getting everyone sick around you !

GET THE FLU SHOT !
 
I understand what you are all saying...yes a flu shot is a great thing to get for piece of mind, Im just more concerned about healthy people creating a strain in the availability of the shot to the people that need it most (last year case in point)... It maybe that Im just not smart enough to care if I do get the flu, but this all comes from someone who is deathly afraid of needles...when I give blood I need to lay down the rest of the day because of my small size and weight (borderline turn down weight)…it has seem to just fuel my hate for shots...when I happens to me I will get the treatment that I need, for those who prevent it from ever happening, more power to you...



-Justin
 
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