Are flu shots really necessary?

[nativesunshine]

I know people who get one every year.

i've never gotten one in my entire life. I am perfectly healthy and fine.

is it really necessary to get one? I'm thinking if I do get the flu..I'll just be sick for a week. That's pretty much it, right? I'm not young enough or old enough to die from it. Dunno... ::shrugs::

 

[TommyVercetti]

Not really. I had a flu shot last year, and I got sick. Might have been the flu, I had fever for 2 days, then constant headache, runny nose, cough (that bad dry one) and bad throat.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

I get one every year and haven't gotten sick (aside from the occasional common cold). Even if it's just a placebo effect, I'm not complaining.

 

[royaldank]

You've never gotten a flu shot and are perfectly healthy and fine. However, for some reason, you think it might be necessary? Obviously doesn't sound like they are.

 

[StageLeft]

If you're a puss with a bad immune system maybe

 

[djNickb]

For me the only year I remember getting the flu was the year I got a flu shot

 

[Fausto]

The vaccine can only protect you against the strains in it, so if you bump into a new strain, you'll get the flu. Same reason you never seem to develop an immunity to the common cold; you keep running into new strains. Your body can only mount an effective immune response to things its seen before (either via a vaccine or actually getting sick).

 

[FFactory0x]

Flu shots are BS. From what i learned in Bio, since the flu is a virus, you cant protect against it

 

[IGBT]

Nope...never had one..did get a Hep.B series though..

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: Fausto
The vaccine can only protect you against the strains in it, so if you bump into a new strain, you'll get the flu.

Do you know how good historically the vaccine manufacturers have been at predicting the year's major strains?

 

[nativesunshine]

that's so dumb then...why would people pay MONEY to get sick with no guarantee that it'll protect you 100%??

The one person I know who gets a shot every year has gotten sick from it every year except this year. It's such a dumb concept....how he's all "i need to get my shot so I don't get sick for a week with the flu..and I'm willing to pay for it"...but he won't spend money on something that he might actually need...like....food. Weirdos indeed.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: FFactory0x
Flu shots are BS. From what i learned in Bio, since the flu is a virus, you cant protect against it

You didn't learn much in Bio.

 

[CraigRT]

i wouldn't bother.
and i don't..

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: BDawg

Originally posted by: FFactory0x
Flu shots are BS. From what i learned in Bio, since the flu is a virus, you cant protect against it

You didn't learn much in Bio.

I don't think the OP was awake in bio class either.

 

[SinnerWolf]

Last 2 years i got the flu shot and i was sick within 3 days. The medical community swears up and down it's not the "live virus", but how can it not be a live virus if all flu shots are an attenuation? Then people argue with me that the flu incubates for 1-2 weeks before displaying symptoms, so i MUST have had the bug before the shot, and the shot just pushed my immune system over the edge. I'm all for better health and preparedness, but why bother paying for prevention if it's the cause?

 

[maziwanka]

this year i heard it was kind of pointless. but then again, i got the shot and havent gotten the flu yet (crosses fingers).

 

[Dedpuhl]

I've never had a flu shot. I've gotten the flu once. When I did get, it was one of the worst experiences of my life (4 days in bed)...

 

[LordJezo]

A 10% chance of being protected against the flu is better then a 0% chance.

 

[Instan00dles]

I have gotten my flu shot for the past 5 years and have never gotten sick during the winter. A few weeks before I left my residence for christmas break the flu was spreading through my rez and I never got sick.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: LordJezo
A 10% chance of being protected against the flu is better then a 0% chance.

Not necessarily. You will not get even a 10% chance of protection if you encounter the "wrong" virus. . . . AND the flu shot may precipitate the flu.



You pays your money and you takes your chances. I (already) got the flu early this year and won't bother with any stinkin' flu shot.

 

[cricky]

The media has really blasted us this year with Flu Shot fever, haven't they. Talk up the (normal) number of deaths, bring out the experts to tell us the next global pandemic of Flu is coming, etc. etc. I think it's all BS. We've had the flu going through mankind since the dawn of time, constantly mutating to stay one step ahead of our immune systems. It's part of life, plain and simple.

I think with the increase in vaccinating of trivial things we are just cheating our immune systems. I can understand vaccinations against Polio, Mumps, Rubella, etc. We have effectively controlled and irradicated these diseases thru vaccination. I don't think we will do so with the flu, it just too readily mutates to defy vaccinations. I think the only thing we are doing with flu shots is making people that are going to be even less tolerant and more susceptible to serious infection in the future.

I, for one, am not bothering with a flu shot.

--Chris

 

[Lynx516]

Cricky your attitude and may other people's in thsi thread is that Flu is not a big thing. However look at the 1918 pandemic that origonated in the US. Millions died. It infact killed more people than WW1. The Flu vaccine protects as many people have said against only a few variants. However the variants are predicted very accuratly and are 90% of the time correct.

The is also a difference bettween flu like symptoms and the Flu. If you get teh flu you will be in bed for the best part of a week feeling absolutly crap and 2 weeks feeling pretty grotty. . While with flu like sympotms it will only be a day or two in bed and a week ill.

To conclude the flu is not a trivial thing. It is a very dangerous virus.

 

[cricky]

During the 1918 pandemic, under a million people (something like 700k) died in the US. 30-40 million died worldwide. The US was the least harmed by the previous pandemic, as was much of the developed world. The under-developed countries, as is often the case (AIDS, SARS, Flu, Ebola, etc.) were the most harmed by the 1918 pandemic.

Will we see another pandemic like this sometime in the future? Oh yeah, without a doubt. Do we need the media constantly telling us that "This is the year. Or next year. Go get those flu shots now! Oops, they're all gone. Too bad for all you poor saps who didn't get them. Hope you enjoy your dirt bath?" No. I can't stand scare tactics and pandering to the lowest common denominator. The common tactics of today's nightly news.

I've had the flu. Not flu like symptoms, but full blown flu. Yeah, it sucked for the better part of a week not being able to do anything but get up to throw up again. But I'm just not all about the flu shot thing. It seems like tinkering with a part of our immune system that, on the whole, works pretty damned well as it is.

--Chris

 

[Ynog]

Depends on whom you think they are necessary for.

For most of us on this board, probably not. It doesn't hurt, but most of us aren't going to die if we get the flu, are immune systems are
strong enough to fight it off. But there are some out there, young children and the elderly that could use the extra protection. Their
immune systems aren't as strong. And as pointed out many times above, its only certain strains of the virus that you are vaccinated for.
So you can still get the flu, but its not going to hurt to get one.


Oh and its antibotics that cannot fight viruses. Not vaccination shots.

 

[cricky]

BTW- A flu vaccine would be useless in a pandemic situation, wouldn't it? The last pandemic occured because of a mostly unseen form of the flu. A flu that went through a few genetic shifts on its way to becoming a killer. Were the same thing to happen today, our flu vaccines would be worthless against the shifted form of influenza. We could only sit and watch the thing play out its course and have a new vaccine containing that especially virulent form ready for the next flu season.

--Chris