Folks, if you haven't gotten a flu shot.....get one!!!!!!

I live in Oklahoma and the flu is wide spread through out OKC and Tulsa. I've heard of one school that has almost 40% absent. In normal years the flu, and flu related symtoms, kill approximately 35,000 in the US. Yesterday, some were predicting up to 75,000 this year.

Below is a link to some very good information regarding the flu.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=252025#252145

most of those people didn't have the flu and if they did, it's because they got the virus before the shot.

so you CAN NOT get the flu, from a flu shot. Thanks for mentioning that Skittles!

But it did!! Haha! Actually I know you cannot get the flu from the shot, but several years ago I got the shot and three days later came down with a fever, headache, extreme bodyaches, etc. I made the connection in my brain, and since that time I have steadfastly refused to get another flu shot.

But this year I'm a little freaked out, so this past Tuesday I went and got the shot!! And I'm not sick yet!! HOwever, if I come down with the same symptoms again, I will think of you :)

caused by the shot. But it isn’t the flu or infectious, it is a reaction to your body producing the antibodies. It happens to me and I’m sure it’s real. I have found that if I take a prednisone the day of the shot and the next day the side effect is nowhere nearly as pronounced.

It mystifies me that the public heath types don’t inform people that the reaction is possible. People know when it happens to them and that is the source of persistent belief that the shot will make you sick. It is an uncomfortable side effect, tell people about it and most will be grown-ups about it.

People are already dying here, and the number of people who have come down is already at record numbers!

and I live in Colorado -- a live virus via a nasal spray..

Hawkeye-X

and it is gonna be a bad year. Lots of people are already getting sick in my neck of the woods.

DDQM

The CDC comes up with the year's vaccine based upon what strain of flu they expect in any given year. The strain hitting now is NOT covered by the current flu shots being given.

My wife is an APRN, she's explained all this to me, and it is on lots of web sites. Get the shot if you must, it will certainly protect you against the things it is designed to protect you from...but it won't stop you from getting the flu that is going around now. That is the reason you are starting to hear "pandemic." They don't have this under control by any means.

Stay home. That is the best answer. Don't go to the malls. Bake cookies for Christmas. It will have the added bonus of not serving up any good holiday economic numbers for Bush to inflate for his press releases.

Hmm...just got me thinking about the boobs in the Bush admin; his CIA couldn't know a plane attack was coming, even though they all knew it was coming. Now his CDC got it wrong on the flu. Is there ANYONE in the Bush administration who is competent?

The flu this year is a slight variant of one that's in the vaccine. As such, it may sort of "cushion the blow" of the flu, in that your body has some antibodies at the ready that might also work on proteins in this flu virus.

I'm sure hoping for that, as I last had the flu in late 1999 and I never want to go through that again. It was hell.

...maintain that for 80-85% of patients, the vaccine will still protect from the drift strain.

I'll take those odds. Of course, I'm already sick, didn't have a flu shot, grumble grumble grumble.

Kids! Don't be like Robb! His freakin' beard hurts! Get a flu shot now!

I thought the point of the vaccine was to stimulate the bodies natural defenses, not to specifically target one strain of virus.

So, if the immune system is activated toward viral invasion, wouldn't a flu vaccine offer at least nominal protection against any strain of flu?
The Professor

The strain that we're most concerned about, that is a drift version of H3N2 is called the Fujian strain. It's very similar, it's just drifted a little bit from the Panama strain, and our animal studies suggest that the vaccine will provide cross-protection against this strain. In the past this has happened. It's a very common thing. As flu strains gradually evolve in people, we don't always have exactly have the same strain as a vaccine that is circulating in the community and our experience so far, historically, has been that whatever the drift is, that the vaccine will still provide some cross-protection.

So we're optimistic that would be the case this year but of course we'll be watching that very carefully and we'll know more as the flu season evolves.

The point is that people need to get their flu shot. This is the time for Americans to really step up to the plate and get vaccinated against influenza, especially because this could be a worse-than-usual flu season and especially because we have this particular strain circulating and in some previous situations H3N2 strains have been associated with perhaps more severe disease. "

It protects against those flu viruses covered by the flu shot. Those viruses are still making people sick. Yes, there are some new mutations not covered by the flu shot, but the old mutations are still around, and are likely the most prevalent mutations at this time.

Even if it just manages to shorten the duration of the nasty flu it will be worth it. I can't afford to get sick while in school and exams coming up.

I get a flu shot I'm sick for well over a month. I haven't had one in years. I'm getting married at the end of the month and I really don't want to be sick for that. So I'm at an "I dunno what to do" crossroads.

I stay at home a lot, so maybe I'll be ok.

:tinfoilhat: It's a sham either from the drug companies who make the shots or.... perhaps more devious sources.... :tinfoilhat:

.

Get a flu shot!

I don't know why. I know that the shot itself doesn't give you the flu, but I inevitably manage to get a really horrible "cold" that morphs its way into bronchitis.

My parents got the flu shot this year and my dad has already managed to get the flu. So, who knows...

had it right after Tday...
you're feeling fine then chills suddenly
come on with a raging fever (take Tylenol
as soon as the chills come on) you cack
your innards out, hate food for two days
and then you are better.

:-)

Look at all the people selling (yes SELLING) you a flu shot. vaccines are just plain unhealthy in my opinion. what i don't get is that it's the goddamn flu, not an antrhax outbreak, wipe your nose and deal with it.


worried about flu? wash your hands, don't use public toilets, drink orange juice.

vaccines? no thanks, my body came with an immune system and i wont participate in propagating resistant strains of anything on the planet. Mother nature did a good job.




http://www.sumeria.net/health/myth2.html

http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/vaccine.htm


edit: broken links

I'm sorry, but there are some questions that are not subject to popular vote; there are right and wrong answers, and "vaccines are just plain unhealthy" is the most absurd nonsense to come out of the past ten years.

There is nothing in your immune system that can combat these kinds of infections. If you are exposed, and you have not been vaccinated, you will become infected. Period.

Now, how healthy you are when you become infected will be reflected in whether and to what degree you show symptoms. But I'll say it again: nothing in your immune system can prevent infection.

Also, you've got the right idea with your "propagating resistant strains" concept, but the wrong animal. Overuse of antibacterial agents has led to more resistant strains of bacteria. There has never been a case of a virus mutating as a result of exposure to antivirals. A virus will mutate for two reasons: reassortment or recombination (as through another animal), and minor point mutation changes (causing "antigenic drift").

Get your vaccinations.

The more people get vaccinated the more the virus mutates in the body to survive. This eventually is what causes the "super strains". I still wish I had my family vaccinated by now because the genie is out of the bottle, but we were already endowed with all the antibodies we need to fight off illness.

Please, please read my post above concerning the difference between a virus and a bacteria...your immune system will not know how to make the specific antibodies that can bind with the specific antigens unless you have been vaccinated, or have already been infected and have recovered.

remember that rash of church burnings?
or that rash of shark attacks?
need I go on?

Please explain, oh flu expert.

Unless it ends up being Captain Trips or something.

isn't THAT ironic????

*cough* I think I may have it.

or are elderly or a child or work in health care is it really necesary? I mean really. Most healthy adults get the flu and get over it. I don't know if there's a shortage of vaccine this year like there has been in years past, but I personally don't get a shot because I think the supply of vaccine should be reserved for people who are much more at risk of actually dying from the flu than I am.

Just my 2 cents.

An advantage of the vaccine is that it will prevent you from being infected; if you're generally healthy, and you're infected, it won't be as hard on you, true. But if you're never infected, you won't have the opportunity to spread the disease to someone who'll have a harder time of it.

It's not just for you, but the next forty people. :)

are really at risk from the flu then I hope they get the shots. But I'm not.

Frankly, part of me always wonders if it's all a big drug company conspiracy. I can remember a time when they only gave flu shots to the elderly and small children (sometimes) and people with poor immune systems. Why do we ALL need to get them now?

I'm 31, in great shape. I spent three days and nights this week at high fever, sweating in bed so much my t-shirt was drenched as if I had been fully submerged in water. No hyperbole. I became symptomatic on Sunday, and today I still have to sit down after a trip from the computer to the kitchen.

for getting the flu. Just that I'm not at a high risk for dying from the flu.

...to spread the virus, even if you are completely asymptomatic!

which is why I encourage people in high-risk groups to get the shot. However, they do not make enough flu vaccine to innoculate every single person. It should go to people who really need it - not me.

You do realize we're not gonna change each other's minds on this, right? :-)

typically will purchase enough to vaccinate 1 in 6 residents (barring epidemic, when they'll buy more). This is because CDC has shown that's statistically enough to stem the spread... but only if truly 1 in 6 residents get the shot.

I suspect that it's a discretion for about that many people. And I still think if you can, you should. It's like engineering road curves for 45 mph, if people speed, then the road's no longer safe.

But yeah, I can sense you've got that "first child" thing. :) I married one of you people!

"First child" thing?

"Stubborn". But ya know, in a good way. :)

my boss has told me I'm mule-headed on more than one occasion...today. :-)

If you were implying it's a trait of oldest children...then you're dead on. I'm the oldest kid in my family.

With my income in the high four figures, I don't need to get shots just for entertainment value. I already saw my doctor, and she said frankly that if I wanted it, I could get it, but she didn't see much value in getting a flu shot at my age and in my condition.

Hmm. Then she told my rich friend to by all means get a flu shot. So go figure.

I have to think there is an element of, he can afford it, and even though it won't do any good, it won't do any harm in the current "hard sell" of the flu shot to middle-aged people who would not normally be buying.

I'll be honest with you. I think they are trying to get this product moved before the strain drifts too far away and the vaccine is entirely worthless -- hence, the sudden push to get middle-aged people to buy. Kids and old people die of flu all the die; why is it news this year when it's normally just life?

died yesterday 1 day after being diagnosed with Type A flu. His death has been ruled to have been caused by the flu. Type A is a very dangerous strain.

have covered him for that strain? Just curious.

have indicated that the vaccine available offers "some cross protection against Type A." So even though he likely still would have gotten the flu, and it would be a bad case of the flu, in theory at least, it would not have been as bad as it was.

it says he died "1 day after being diagnosed". I don't know the details but that sounds like someone who waited until way too late to go to the hospital - either from not wanting to admit he was sick (which sounds a lot like me) or from not having any insurance. One has to wonder if he died because he didn't get the vaccine or if he died because he didn't get timely medical care onc ehe was sick.

simply report that he died of the flu. That he'd been to the hospital one day earlier and had tested positive on a swab test for flu.

I'm doubtful that insurance is the issue, Snohomish and King Counties have several excellent public health hospitals which cater to the uninsured and the underinsured.

The symptoms and warnings for Type A flu indicate it has a rapid onset and that people seem to be going to bed with a headache and waking up with a full-blown case of the flu complete with body-temperatures between 102-106 F., muscle fatigue, vomiting, nasal congestion and a croup-like cough.

Because he was a strong healthy young man with no health issues, he did not realize he should see a doctor for the flu -- after all, it is a viral disease and there is little they can do except waste your time sitting in a waiting room -- so he didn't seek treatment until he had a crisis of not being able to breathe. And, yes, he did die the next day after being admitted.

Apparently when you hear of a young healthy person dying of flu or pneumonia, this is often the way it happens.

...and you know what? It didn't even make the local news. But that year I guess a young person dying of the flu wasn't news for whatever reason.

People die of flu all the time. It is a part of life. Unfortunately, there many kinds of flu, and there seems to be some disagreement about whether this year's vaccine is of much value. My doctor said no. Shrug.

I think a lot of people are wondering why the hype? Hence the poster who said that the flu is this year's shark attacks.

Aging population for whom it's more often fatal, and lack of patient compliance (not trusting the flu shot). :shrug:

Typically 10-20% of the population is infected every year; CDC predicts much higher this year, mostly for the second reason.

ever getting the flu, I'm not going to bother. I have heard that it won't stop you from getting the flu...just will make it not as bad or last as long. What is the point of that? You still get sick.

and while I haven't gotten the flu shot, and won't, I do practise immense amounts of personal hygiene in the winter, including washing my hands more than five or six times a day. works so far.

I had the chance to get myself and my family a flu shot for free at my work but passed on it. Didn't know how serious this strain was. Now I'm regretting it, and that shipped has sailed. We will have to get it out of pocket now.
:spank:

I've been exposed 4 times and I'm hacking this morning. (Oops. Too graphic?)

And here I have to get 26 more signatures to qualify for the ballot and this is the last day before the deadline. Arrghhh!

Everyone I know who has gotten this year's shot has come down ill within 2 days of recieving it, including two who had to go to the ER.

I'll take a couple days of feeling like shit as a possiblity thanks

if you live in the Southwest. Especially New Mexico. The state has confirmed a number of new cases for the first time since June of 1991.

Hantavirus symptoms mimic those of a very severe flu, so if you live in that region, it might be a good idea to visit a doctor just in case. The virus is fatal in about 40% of cases, however the earlier you receive treatment, the more likely you are to survive.

Most people don't go to the doctor because they assume its the flu and will pass. Sorry to bear such grim news, but just wanted to alert all DUer's in that area who are having flu symptoms to get checked out!

I will take my chances and use lots of sanitizing hand cream.

and I have two questions.

Will they give a flu shot to someone who's already sick with a cold? My older son's had a stuffed head for about a week. Will that matter?

Second question: I heard it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to become fully effective. True?

Usually only my husband gets a flu shot, but this year I'm a little worried, so we're all doing it. The deaths of children in Colorado and Canada really concerns me. Also, last year there was a big outbreak here that hit the middle schools very hard. Several had to close because so many kids were missing over a week of school. My son's in middle school this year and he really can't afford to miss a week.

Oh, I just thought of another question. Echinacea? My mother swears one capsule a day helps build up the immune system. Anyone else tried it? What do you think?

raw, though. It is a potent anti-viral compound (and anti-bacterial)and has been shown in various studies to be more effective than other medications and herbal treatments in preventing, treating and killing flu viruses.

I eat it pickled when I am sick - it is much milder that way. Also, take cholorphyll or parsley to combat the odor. You can find chlorophyll in most health food stores.

I went 15 years w/out health insurance so I've tried them all, it seems.

Many people do swear by echinacea, I swear at it except as a pretty garden plant. Just doesn't seem to have any effect for me.

Raw garlic is the best for me. However, if I have to be around others and stinking of raw garlic is not an option, goldenseal powder also works fairly well. It needs to be snuffed which is not too pleasant. I don't take these at random but rather only when I already have symptoms.

There's nothing I hate like the flu. I always get pneumonia after having the flu, and then spend months catching everything else that wanders down the pike. The years I remember to get my flu shot (BEFORE I'm exposed!) are the years I don't catch so much as a cold.

Even if it's not specific to the strain that's actually going around, it'll still spur your immune system to fight the pandemic strain better than it would unprotected.

And a killed virus vaccine can't give you the virus in question.

and I haven't gotten any reaction at all from it (yet) except sore arm for about ten minutes afterward.

I've never had them because of extreme sensitivity to anything like that. But somehow, this hasn't bothered me. (so far)