Will You Be Getting A Flu Shot?

My asthma seems to be getting worse each year, especially after getting sick in the winter. I'm planning on getting one. Plus, if I plan on spending time around my parents (if I can actually get up there) I pretty much have to.

 

Yes, yes and yes for my wife, kid and me.

And yes, yes, yes for the H1N1. My wife and I will be required to I think.

 

Flu shots are for sissies!

 

I rememeber about 10 years ago Bruce Smith missed a big playoff game with the flu. I think it was reported that he skipped the team flu shot.

Bills lost that day.

 

No.

 

Yes. First, it's mandatory for Peace Corps volunteers.

Second, maybe it's coincidence, but I've had one for 18 years straight and the last time I had the flu was 19 years ago.

 

Got mine yesterday.

Do I worry about the government using flu shots as a way to keep track of my personal health habits which will then be stored into a database for later use by death panels?

Sure.

But it beats getting the flu.

 

Um, ok, andyouare? It isn't like they don't already have access to all your child-age vaccinations -- as those have to go on a health department form.

Should the death squads come, it will be more for Interwebs postings.

And yeah, Birdscribe, it barely hurts at all. My kid, who screams at the mere sight of a lab coat (despite her mom being an RN) barely made a peep.

RB

 

Whoops.<blockquote>A “perplexing” Canadian study linking H1N1 to seasonal flu shots is throwing national influenza plans into disarray and testing public faith in the government agencies responsible for protecting the nation's health.

Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectious-disease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to catch swine flu.

The paper is under peer review, and lead researchers Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Gaston De Serres of Laval University must stay mum until it's published.

Met with intense early skepticism both in Canada and abroad, the paper has since convinced several provincial health agencies to announce hasty suspensions of seasonal flu vaccinations, long-held fixtures of public-health planning.

“It has confused things very badly,” said Dr. Ethan Rubinstein, head of adult infectious diseases at the University of Manitoba. “And it has certainly cost us credibility from the public because of conflicting recommendations. Until last week, there had always been much encouragement to get the seasonal flu vaccine.” . . .

“There are a large number of authors, all of them excellent and credible researchers,” he said. “And the sample size is very large – 12 or 13 million people taken from the central reporting systems in three provinces. The research is solid.” . . .

Even if the statistical link is proven, the medical link between seasonal flu shots and H1N1 remains mysterious. One hypothesis suggests seasonal flu vaccine preoccupies the cells that would otherwise produce antibodies against H1N1.

But, according to Dr. Rubinstein, the research shows that people who received the seasonal shot during the 2007-08 flu season remained vulnerable to swine flu well into 2009 – an interval that should provide most immune systems ample restoration time.

“We don't understand the mechanism,” Dr. Rubinstein said. “At the present time it is quite perplexing.”</blockquote>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/study-prompts-provinces-to-rethink-flu-p%3E%20lan/article1303330/

 

depends on what form of the vaccine. i think (too lazy to look it up) shots use dead virus and nasal sprays use the live virus.

 

Back in 2000, I ended up on an airplane from NY to ATL seated next to a person who appeared to be dying. He could barely breathe. I wanted to change seats, but the flight was full.

3 days after that, I took a little trip to the ER.

15 lost pounds, 10 missed days of work and one more trip to the ER later, I became a flu shot convert.

BUT-- this year, I think I'm getting H1N1 first, due to the Canadian study posted above. H1N1 is supposedly wicked contagious.

 

Relative of mine refuses to get any type of flu shot or allow his school-age kids to get one "because it's a government plot to sterilize us."