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Everybody & their brother is telling me to get a flu shot. I've never had the flu, and am in my late 50's. There is some documented risk in getting a flu shot, and IMO virtually no risk for me in not getting one. I figure if it's not broke, don't fix it. Am I wrong?
The last time I got the flu was when I had a flu shot many years ago. I'm 62. People in medical industry say flu shot prevented 50% of people from getting flu, but why couldn't it be flu shot caused 50% to get flu? Greed based info isn't usually unbiased, but some people get things & some don't. I try to rely on "dietary supplements". I take 10,000 IUs vitamin D3 to mostly prevent colds, maybe it helps me avoid flu, too? Best wishes.
The last time I got the flu was when I had a flu shot many years ago. I'm 62. People in medical industry say flu shot prevented 50% of people from getting flu, but why couldn't it be flu shot caused 50% to get flu? Greed based info isn't usually unbiased, but some people get things & some don't. I try to rely on "dietary supplements". I take 10,000 IUs vitamin D3 to mostly prevent colds, maybe it helps me avoid flu, too? Best wishes.
Because flu shots given to adults contained killed virus, which cannot make you sick. Reported (not confirmed, just reported) influenza vaccine serious adverse reactions are less than 1%. Normal reactions to vaccines are redness, warmth, mild swelling, and itching of the injection site. Also tiredness, feeling like you're coming down with something - this is your body's immune response, and is much milder than a case of influenza would be. I've had the flu twice, and once I hallucinated from the fever.
People in medical industry say flu shot prevented 50% of people from getting flu, but why couldn't it be flu shot caused 50% to get flu?
The virus in the injectable vaccine is dead, as someone else pointed out. That is why it cannot give you influemza. The virus in the nasal vaccine is alive but weakened and has been adapted to living in a colder environment than the human body. It dies after it gets past the nose, so it cannot give you influenza either.
The effectiveness rate is determined by comparing groups of people who take the vaccine to groups of people who do not take it. Half as many people who take the vaccine will get sick as those who do not take it.
Also, the shot does not contain vaccines against all possible flu viruses. It is designed to prevent the three (and this year some shots, four) of the viruses predicted to be most common. Those choices are made based on which viruses are circulating in the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season starts ahead of the US.
If you do come down with influenza right after you take the vaccine, you were already exposed before you took it. The vaccine needs about two weeks to work. The vaccine will not give you flu, but it cannot prevent something you have already caught and it will not protect against strains not in the vaccine
Everybody & their brother is telling me to get a flu shot. I've never had the flu, and am in my late 50's. There is some documented risk in getting a flu shot, and IMO virtually no risk for me in not getting one. I figure if it's not broke, don't fix it. Am I wrong?
The risk of the vaccine is much smaller than the risk of needing hospitalization if you catch flu.
Everybody & their brother is telling me to get a flu shot. I've never had the flu, and am in my late 50's. There is some documented risk in getting a flu shot, and IMO virtually no risk for me in not getting one. I figure if it's not broke, don't fix it. Am I wrong?
As others pointed out, risk of the shot is minimal.
Everybody & their brother is telling me to get a flu shot. I've never had the flu, and am in my late 50's. There is some documented risk in getting a flu shot, and IMO virtually no risk for me in not getting one. I figure if it's not broke, don't fix it. Am I wrong?
Your immune system becomes less efficient as you age, and the largest mortality group due to the flu (and its resulting pneumonia) is those over 64 yo. The strains of flu change annually. Some years have more deadly strains than others. The flu shot will protect you from a given season's predicted strains, and its composition changes annually. You are *FAR* more likely to die from the flu than the flu shot. But get your info from the CDC website, not a discussion forum:
I have never gotten a flu shot. I am 65 and haven't gotten the flu in about 15 years. That was with working with young children in schools; sneezing and coughing in my face. I quit working 2 years ago and don't go out much. If I didn't catch the flu from those kids, who am I going to catch it from sitting in my house?
Everybody & their brother is telling me to get a flu shot. I've never had the flu, and am in my late 50's. There is some documented risk in getting a flu shot, and IMO virtually no risk for me in not getting one. I figure if it's not broke, don't fix it. Am I wrong?
I agree with you. I never get the flu shot. I know they say it's not a live virus and you cannot get the flu from getting the flu shot. I'm not sure I believe that, because my mom got a flu shot one year just before Thanksgiving. I went to her house for Thanksgiving and she was sick. She had flu symptoms. When I got home, I was sick too.
Everyone says that cannot happen from the flu shot so I thought okay, maybe it was a coincidence. But I wasn't totally convinced.
Then my husband's doctor talked him into getting a pneumonia shot. A day later he wasn't feeling too well. Two days later he was VERY sick and he missed work the rest of the week. He doesn't get sick. He doesn't miss work.
I just find it too coincidental that my mom got really sick after a flu shot, and I got it from her, and then my husband also got really sick after a pneumonia shot.
My husband and I both say now that we will never get a flu or a pneumonia shot. Neither of us normally gets sick. I had strep about a month ago, but before that I can't remember the last time I was really sick. We are in our 50s. I know we won't always be as healthy as we are now. But it will take me actually getting a horrible case of the flu or pneumonia to make me consider getting a flu or pneumonia shot the next season, and even then - probably not.
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