[Citation Needed]
What? The flu isn’t a disease? What is it then, a summery heirloom tomato, basil, and sherry vinegar dressing side salad?
It doesn’t stop the flu. It stops a few strains of the disease. Hence, when I got the flu shot every year, I still got the flu. Hell, a couple of years ago I was at my doctors during flu shot season. He asked if I wanted one, I said no, and he said ok. You guys seem to care more about it than my own doctor.
[Citation still needed] I mean, there’s a mountain of medical evidence to the contrary so I’m sure you’ve got a really good reason for saying this…
That’s called an anecdote. Even if you had more than one, the plural of anecdote is not “data.”
Here you go from the CDC:
“A third reason why some people may experience flu like symptoms despite getting vaccinated is that they may have been exposed to a flu virus that is very different from the viruses the vaccine is designed to protect against. The ability of a flu vaccine to protect a person depends largely on the similarity or “match” between the viruses selected to make the vaccine and those spreading and causing illness. There are many different flu viruses that spread and cause illness among people. For more information, see Influenza (Flu) Viruses.”
Also from the CDC: “The seasonal flu vaccine protects against the influenza viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season.”
From your own link:
Flu vaccination can keep you from getting sick with flu.
- Flu vaccine prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctor’s visits each year. For example, during 2017-2018, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 6.2 million influenza illnesses, 3.2 million influenza-associated medical visits, 91,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations, and 5,700 influenza-associated deaths.
- During seasons when the flu vaccine viruses are similar to circulating flu viruses, flu vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of having to go to the doctor with flu by 40 percent to 60 percent.
Yep. Never seems to worked in the places I have worked where we all got the shot. Also haven’t gotten the flu in the 5 years I haven’t got the shot.
Even in cases where the flu vaccine does not exactly match the most common strains of influenza in a given season, the flu shot will almost always give you an increased resistance to it, because even different strains share elements that make the vaccines partially effective.
So, this year for instance, it’s not a great year for the flu shot, but it’s still 30% effective. That’s still good. You want that.
And even in cases where you get a flu shot, and still get the flu, the severity of the flu will likely be reduced, compared to of you did not get the vaccination.
Flu shots are covered by every insurance plan. They will cost you nothing to get. The needle is trivially thin, and doesn’t hurt at all.
There is literally zero reason for anyone who is not allergic to components of the vaccine, to not get a flu shot.
To borrow a current meme, that’s not how any of this works. You can’t overrule accumulated data with a personal anecdote.
Look, I’m obviously not going to convince you here, but it really is a public service to get vaccinated.
This is not a considered opinion. Disappointing. But, do what you want.
When my own doctor tells me this, I would probably get it. He didn’t seem concerned about it.
A big thing that some folks confuse, is that they think the flu is the same thing as a cold.
They get a cold, and they mistakenly think they have the flu. And then they think that the flu isn’t that big a deal.
The flu is not a cold.
When you have influenza, you feel like you are dying. The last time i got the flu (which was the same year that i last didn’t get a flu shot, which is why i always get flu shots now), I remember on the third or fourth day, thinking, “i think i may actually die. I don’t know what’s wrong.” Went to the doctor and find out that i had the flu. That’s what the flu is. And i didn’t even have it that bad. I recovered fine on my own.
But you can get a shot, and improve your odds of not getting that.
So you are a fucking imbecile if you have the chance to improve your odds, at no cost to yourself, and you chose not to.
I feel like this is similar to saying “I haven’t gotten in a car accident the past 5 times I didn’t wear my seat belt, so why bother wearing a seat belt?”
As long as you are confident that the flu shot won’t actually give you the flu then why not get it? It’s available at every drug store these days and most often you can just walk up and get one without waiting.
Because I am not worried about it. If I get it, I get it. I’ll be sick for a week.
Lee, I’d like to say this as nicely as possible. It’s not just about you. There are times the flu shot will actually stop you from getting the flu. In turn, that means you will not give it to someone else. Someone like me if I get a double lung transplant and can no longer get flu shots. Like children with leukemia who cannot get flu shots. You’re shedding billions of flu particles before you even know you have any symptoms. You can save us.
I didn’t make this thread to talk about flu vaccination rates, it was because I don’t want to lose any of you to influenza. But since were talking about it, if there is even a .01% you could save a life by getting the flu shot by not becoming a vector or by being a less virulent vector, I would hope you’d feel it’s worth the trouble to get the flu vaccine.
Point taken.
Pretty much this. You know when you have influenza when a medical provider tells you you do not because someone feels really sick and thinks the flu shot doesn’t work because they get sick every year.
If you can get the flu shot at no cost, and there’s no pain involved, and it’s as simple as going to your local CVS or Walgreen’s, is there a reason not to get it?
“Oh, it’s only 10% effective. Or 30. Or whatever.” Why not gamble 30 minutes of your time to have a small chance of avoiding a few days of feeling like shit with the flu?
I am just now getting over a respitarory illness that lasted a month. Most of that month I felt ok but tired because my lungs had fluid in them and I was coughing a lot. That illness robbed me of a month of better health and energy. I will happily get any yearly shot that helps me avoid this kind of thing.
Though I agree with the sentiments supporting vaccines in this discussion and although the article isn’t quite clear what caused his pneumonia (RIP) I think another takeaway is that we are reaching the end of the “glory days” of antibiotics.
I know this is not the best time to write stuff like this here but the reality is that once you are infected by bacteria (e.g. causing pneumonia) there is probably smaller chance of recovery today than 50-60 years ago due to evolution of multi-resistant “superbugs”.
This might tip over into P&R so I will just quote the following from Wikipedia:
By 2011, a total of 13.6 million kg (30 million lb) of antimicrobials were sold for use in food-producing animals in the United States,[62] which represented 80% of all antibiotics sold or distributed in the United States.
Much like global warming this has been an “invisible” problem for the public (and largely ignored by politicians) but has been warned about by professionals for a loooong time.
Washing your hands with soap regularly and general hygiene especially around fresh wounds is still the first resort and we should probably abolish handshakes as a custom.
In my case, my doctor required me to get the flu shot. I am on chemical infusion therapy which suppresses my immune system. That puts me at an extreme risk for the flu virus. So yeah, if it increases my odds of not getting the flu, even by a small percentage, I’ll take it. I also have hand washing procedures that border on obsessive, I am not comfortable in large crowds and I am offended when I see people coughing in public without making any attempt to cover their mouths.
But even if I wasn’t under the conditions I am, I would still get it. They target the most dangerous and virulent strains with the vaccine. Scientific evidence shows, in spite of anyone’s anecdotal evidence, that the flu vaccine does not increase your odds of getting a non covered strain. In fact it lessens even those as the vaccine jumpstarts your immune system. So even if you do catch a non covered strain, chances are you will experience a less virulent reaction to it, due to the vaccine. People really need to embrace the truth that correlation is not always causation.