Flu shot or not, that is the question

I have never gotten a flu shot in my 46 years of existence. Don't plan to either.

Last year my wife and I got sick in January and we were both down for a week. It didn't seem like any flu we have heard of but we were weak as kittens.
That is the worse illness I have even experienced.
Yet I wouldn't call it a flu.

Apparently this is shaping up to be a nasty flu season too.

www.statnews.com...

What do you folks plan to do?
Shot or no shot?

No needle for me!
I think it's a guess anyway.

a reply to: Bluntone22

No flushots, don't plan to either.

a reply to: Bluntone22
I don't like needles either, so I'm counting on a home-bound lifestyle to protect me.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I don't mind the needle, but I don't think the shots work as advertised so I stay away.

a reply to: Bluntone22
Skip it. Your body can get over it. Me and the wife caught what was easily the worst case of whatever the # we were sick with at the end of the year. It only immobilized us for a day. We were still sick, but were mostly functional after only two days.

Let your body do its thing, big Pharma just wants to make you weaker. Consume high vitamin fruits and veggies and drink lots of water and citrus juices and your body will recover quickly. Its like extortion. First they produce these bugs and spread them through urban centers, then they threaten us with fear of debilitating sickness unless we compromise ourselves with more of their poison in a weakened state.

They get the money from insurance and the government, thats why the shots are usually cheap or free. Marketing strategy to make us feel great about catching a deal, yea right!

I'm the only one here who did not get the shot, and I think I had one of the flu strains this past week. Came on fast Monday, felt like crap Tuesday enough that I still was death warmed over with Day-Quil, managed to make it in to work on Wednesday with Day-Quil but wasn't enjoying life, and every day after that was a bit better.

Mostly back up to snuff by today.

If I had the flu, it's either not as bad as the articles make it out to be or I had one of the lesser strains that aren't as severe as the H3N2 strain.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Our illness was mostly a respiratory thing will a little fever off and on. Shortness of breath.
But we both felt like we were carrying a 100lbs on our backs.
Worse thing either has ever been through.

Take some probiotics
Drink kombucha
I wouldnt go a shot inless your immune systsems comprimises

I would rather take the chance it will work than just assume it won’t. I got mine back in October and just got back from a 3.5 mile outing at the park with my dogs...$12 well spent far as I’m concerned.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Mine was sort of like a head cold with a bit of a cough. Ran what is for me a high fever (body temp naturally trends about a degree lower than normal, so 100 to 101 is high for me). And I was very, very tired with the usual aches. Fever was mostly gone by Thursday or very low grade.

a reply to: Lab4Us

I know people that get the shot every year and they still get sick.
The shot only covers the strains they guessed on months earlier.
Roll of the dice really.

a reply to: Bluntone22

The problem is that there are so many strains of the flu virus, they can't possibly cover them all, but only a few at a time. I've seen plenty of people get flu shots and end up coming down with a different strain of flu anyway.

Flu shots protect against three or four strains of flu virus. Trivalent flu vaccines protect against two influenza A strains -- H1N1 and H3N2 -- and one influenza B strain. Quadrivalent flu vaccines — offered for the first time in the 2013-2014 flu season — protect against the same strains as the trivalent vaccine, as well as an extra influenza B strain.

The composition of the 2017-2018 flu shot will be slightly different from last season's flu shot. Specifically, there will be a different strain of the H1N1 virus in this season's flu shot, compared with last season's shot. According to the CDC, the 2017-2018 trivalent flu shot will contain the following strains of the flu virus:...

www.livescience.com...

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: worldstarcountry

Our illness was mostly a respiratory thing will a little fever off and on. Shortness of breath.
But we both felt like we were carrying a 100lbs on our backs.
Worse thing either has ever been through.

Sounds like the virus I had the week before Christmas. It wasn't the flu. I felt much better in a very short period of time after the doctor gave me Prednisone and an inhaler.

I only had 1 flu shot about 12 years ago - before I knew better. Most have mercury in them and there is a much higher chance of getting alzheimer's if you take it regularly.
I am on the at risk list as I have asthma but will never get another shot of the vaccination.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Nope, never.

When you look into how they "guess" what virus to use and how effective it is I roll the dice.

Plus is it a good idea to inject the virus and God only knows what else annually?




,

Trust the establishmentor not....caveat emptor.Nothing good is free.

a reply to: Bluntone22
No flu shots for me. Been around 64 years without one and don't intend to go that route.
Had the flu back in the 70s when it was called Hong Kong or Swine flu or something along those lines. Every muscle and bone in my body ached. Fever so high I was delirious for most of one day. Chest congestion, nasal congestion along with upset stomach. By far that episode was the worst I've ever felt in my entire life and it lasted for 7 full days.

Apparently flu strains today aren't as bad as back then. I hear people talking about going to get tested, being told they have the flu and yet they are back at work in two or three days. That's not the flu I had or any of the other members of my family back in the '70s. Back then the docs just told us that we should keep hydrated and let it run its course.

Our local hospital is overflowing with people who have flu-like symptoms I'm told. A relative had an emergency visit to the ER on Friday night and was told that if he needed to be admitted, he would be sent to a hospital an hour away. Then, about 30 minutes later he was told that neither of the hospitals an hour away had any beds available. He was kept in the ER until some poor soul passed on and then put into a room.

I try to eat properly, take some supplements and avoid crowds at this time of year. There is no way that I'm going anywhere near a hospital or medical facility of any kind where these bugs are hanging out. At the first sign of any issues, I go for my Granny's cure-all for respiratory ailments---chicken soup and cayenne.

As far as I am concerned, the flu shot is at best a way to hedge your bets.

It's not going to provide you with absolute protection like you might expect. At best, it's going to add to the percentage chance that you won't get sick by maybe 30 to 50% or so if you do encounter the virus.

So you have to factor in your native odds of exposure to begin with, then you have to factor in how contagious the virus is (meaning how likely you are to get sick from an exposure), then you have to figure the vaccine itself hedges that bet by whatever it's percentage is (30 to 50% or whatever). So it makes it less likely you will get sick from an exposure by anywhere from a little bit to significant amount depending on the strain and year.

For some people who are likely to get exposed to the flu in its various guises a lot, it makes sense to get the flu shot. Health care workers are one class I can think of who might be wise to think about it every year because they'll almost certainly see the worse strains more than once and be exposed more than once.

People who are going to be particularly vulnerable to the flu for one reason or another are also wise to think about getting the shot even if they may not be exposed to it very often just because it is risky for them get it to begin with.

For regular, healthy people, it's less of a must have every year.

I had two flue shots in my life. I got sicker than a dog with both, I thought from the first it was coincidence, from the second about eight years later I figured it was no coincidence. About four years ago I found out what caused it, a cytokine storm. My immune system went wild to fight it because it was in my body. Two doctors told me that I already have immunity and that the shot is not advisable.

How many other people have a similar situation? One of my daughters can take the shot, from my second wife, but the other one has a bad reaction to it as do her kids who have had them in the past. My brother can get them too, but he says they do not seem to make any difference, he and his wife don't get the flu either way. He does not have the cytokine storm.

I have not found out why my body acts that way towards the flu shot. It also happens that the last Tetnus shot I got made me sick, I was told to get the DT by my doctor next time instead of the DTAP because the symptoms I had were what you would expect from the immune response of Pertusis. So I guess I had wooping cough and got immunity from it, my body knew what to do to fight it. The body's reaction is what gives the symptoms of the disease sometimes.

So, I will not get a DTaP anymore, I am good for many years, I don't want to get sick again. I am sure I can just get the tetnus shot if needed. or the DT.

If you have a severe reaction to a vaccination, make sure to tell your doctor about it when you see him. Explain the symptoms to him/her/it. I have good immunity, I won't be passing it on to others, if I get the flu my illness only lasts a day to two at most. I am no threat because I am not vaccinated, some people need the shot, others do not.

Took the shot the last 12 years,hadn`t got sick till this year.It was pretty bad,but the Doc said the shot lessened it some and Tamiflu helped knock it down some too.Friend of mine who didn`t get a shot said he was afraid he was gonna die when he had it.I`ll take the shot-11 years without catching it convinced me,1 year is not changing my mind.The flu is rough,but getting Hepititus A from a Chinese buffet was 50 times worse.