bad flu season?

[fixxxer2012]

not trying to send anybody into a panic but i just got back from walgreens and there was a line out the door with people getting their flu shots. i talked to the guys giving them and they said it's going to be a rough flu season and advised me to get one early. he also said there is a horrid noro sv going around already. i sorta know that's true as my best friend and his entire family had it for 3 days last week. says it was the worst he ever had. i dunno about you guys but im worried about this season with the crazy cold weather were already having in mid-october. going to get my kid her flu shot this week.

better start washing your hands people. and keep your kids home from school until their better.

[twinmom73]

not trying to send anybody into a panic but i just got back from walgreens and there was a line out the door with people getting their flu shots. i talked to the guys giving them and they said it's going to be a rough flu season and advised me to get one early. he also said there is a horrid noro sv going around already. i sorta know that's true as my best friend and his entire family had it for 3 days last week. says it was the worst he ever had. i dunno about you guys but im worried about this season with the crazy cold weather were already having in mid-october. going to get my kid her flu shot this week.

better start washing your hands people. and keep your kids home from school until their better.

They say this every year... "its the worst one going around".....

[out_of_order]

Flu shots are a money-making business just like everything else that comes from big pharmaceuticals. So of course they're going to try to scare everyone into getting a flu shot. Do you remember the big deal they made over the swine flu (H1N1)? They had everybody believing that was going to be the next big pandemic, it was going to kill half the world's population or something (I'm exaggerating). Well, in the end, what happened? Nothing. It turned out to be even milder than the regular flu. Sure some people died, but people die from the flu every year. Overall it was a lot of fear-mongering.

[fixxxer2012]

They say this every year... "its the worst one going around".....

not really, some years are worse than others.

[fixxxer2012]

Flu shots are a money-making business just like everything else that comes from big pharmaceuticals.

sorry but i don't agree with you on that.

[sdfl]

Each year, I have heard people say it's the worst they've ever seen, especially emets. Honestly I think it fluctuates year to year but not on some extreme scale like we all seem to think. We should take the same preventive measures we always have and continue hoping for the best outcome.

[fixxxer2012]

^ agreed 100%.

[Jangle]

I only get a flu shot because the store where I work competes with other stores in the district so as Arlo Guthrie would say I get injected, inspected, detected, infected,
neglected and selected. All in the name of winning a contest!

[Murder-my-soul]

I don't get the shots. The year I did (4 years ago) for the first time I had picked up a violent sv* a few months later after the shot. I think I'll pass.

[Domin]

Have to agree with the sceptical sentiments expressed on this thread.
Flu, cold viruses, generally speaking, are not worse year in and year out, and stay largely at the same level.
Of course, speaking to medical people, they are the frontline of care, so their perspective of flu frequency is going to be warped slightly.
And of course, if you want a really warped view of how common viruses are amongst society, what better people to ask than emetophobes right?

[fixxxer2012]

I don't get the shots. The year I did (4 years ago) for the first time I had picked up a violent sv* a few months later after the shot. I think I'll pass.

The flu shot wouldnt cause that but surprisingly two years ago my daughter didnt get the vaccine and she had the worst sv ever. Last year we got her it and she was good all last winter.

[mdgirl1977]

the type of "flu" that the flu shot prevents is not a sv or noro type, so it is comparing apples to oranges. the flu shot prevents the respiratory viral type that tends to kill or seriously impair elderly, pregnant, young, compromised immune systems.

there is no shot for sv/noro (which we all know).

that being said, I get the damn shot every year. And I make my ex. And our son. I still get sick, but eh. I get a REALLY bad flu once every 5 years or so. I am talking 104 fever, dead for a week.

[sdfl]

Unfortunately I put off my flu shot since I've been dealing with other such matters and ended up catching it from my mother over the weekend. I have a fever of over 100, a stuffy head, and a lesson well learned today! ahahaaaa

[twinmom73]

I do not get the flu shot, nor do I get it for my children. My reasoning is this, none of us are immune compromised, so if we get the flu it is not life threatening to us. I would rather allow our bodies to develop immunities and fight it off. Yes, it could mean a week of sick children or a week of being ill for me, but it also means allowing our immune systems to do their jobs like they should.

[twinmom73]

not trying to send anybody into a panic but i just got back from walgreens and there was a line out the door with people getting their flu shots. i talked to the guys giving them and they said it's going to be a rough flu season and advised me to get one early. he also said there is a horrid noro sv going around already. i sorta know that's true as my best friend and his entire family had it for 3 days last week. says it was the worst he ever had. i dunno about you guys but im worried about this season with the crazy cold weather were already having in mid-october. going to get my kid her flu shot this week.

better start washing your hands people. and keep your kids home from school until their better.

Statements like this do nothing except to elicit fear, especially with emets.

[out_of_order]

I never get the flu shot because like twinmom said, if you're not in a high risk group, you don't need it. But more than that, as with every medication, there are always negative side-effects whether we see/feel them or not and those adverse side-effects may come down the road. For example:

" Early in the fall of 2009, during the second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic, Canadian researchers found that people who received the 2008-09 seasonal flu vaccine seemed more likely to be sickened by the new virus. The finding puzzled many, had an impact on pandemic response in some parts of Canada, and was accompanied by reports from other groups suggesting contrary findings. The Canadian group who reported the initial findings shed new light on the topic yesterday at an infectious disease conference in San Francisco. They found the same vulnerability to the 2009 H1N1 virus in ferrets that received the seasonal flu vaccine. The group, from British Columbia and Quebec, detailed its findings at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC). Researchers gave 16 ferrets the 2008-09 seasonal flu vaccine and 16 a placebo using blinded techniques, then infected the animals intranasally with 2009 H1N1. Illness symptoms were significantly greater in the animals that received seasonal flu vaccine. Lead author Danuta Skowronski, MD, an epidemiologist with the British Columbia Center for Disease Control, said the findings were consistent with human studies, but the reason is unclear and warrants further study, the Canadian Press (CP) reported. She said in the meantime people shouldn't avoid seasonal flu shots, because the findings might be unique to the pandemic setting."

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/con...12fluscan.html

[JellyBn83]

I have to get the flu shot to work here in the hospital even though I don't work with the public per say. I work second shift, but if I want my job....but then I have had the flu shot now for....8 years and only once got the flu. Not perfect, but not horrible.

[hairyfairy]

I get a flu shot every year, I have to pay for it as I`m not in an at risk group. I get mine at my local supermarket pharmacy & I`m booked on Thursday at my local ASDA. It`s annoying having to pay, but I don`t want to risk geeting flu, not just because it`s an unpleasant illness, but I live on my own, & I`d have no-one to take care of me if I was too sick to go shopping or cook etc. I only wish they`d hurry up with a noro vaccine, then I`d be first in the queue for that as well.

[summerdazies]

About flu shots: What JellyBn said. I have to get it because I volunteer in a healthcare situation. (And I have asthma, so I am also apparently at risk.)

I don't think that the flu vaccine is made up to support "big pharma." I am aware that there is a popular perception that drug companies are all out to steal your money and get you hooked on drugs. I do not agree with this.

[twinmom73]

About flu shots: What JellyBn said. I have to get it because I volunteer in a healthcare situation. (And I have asthma, so I am also apparently at risk.)

I don't think that the flu vaccine is made up to support "big pharma." I am aware that there is a popular perception that drug companies are all out to steal your money and get you hooked on drugs. I do not agree with this.

A lot of places offer free flu shots, so I don't go without the shots because I think they are in it for the money. I prefer not to get the shots because unless it is to prevent a deadly or debilitating disease, I would rather not put foreign substances into my body or my childrens. I also feel that the more vaccines we give ourselves, the less our immune systems learn to do their jobs. I did not get my children the chick pox vaccine because chick pox is not deadly or debilitating, and if my children get it, so be it. Their bodies will fight it off and then they will have developed immunity.

[JadeNight]

I'm also a risk because I have asthema.
But the flu shot is not related to noro or gasto virus'. So is this thread being afraid of the flu that the flu shot prevents? or somehow connecting it to the norovirus. It's not effective against norovirus.

[kyphie]

I work in the medical field and wouldn't get the flu shot if you paid me. Mostly because I know it's a crap shoot and it's really not protecting you against anything at all.

[twinmom73]

I'm also a risk because I have asthema.
But the flu shot is not related to noro or gasto virus'. So is this thread being afraid of the flu that the flu shot prevents? or somehow connecting it to the norovirus. It's not effective against norovirus.

Not really sure what this thread was about...

[asianeko]

i talked to the guys giving them and they said it's going to be a rough flu season and advised me to get one early. he also said there is a horrid noro sv going around already.

It's sad that the guy giving them doesn't even recognize that the vaccine does nothing for any gastrointestinal bug. Noro has nothing to do with the flu at all. Yes, there are some bad years with flus and viruses, but around here every year they say it's the worst, even if it isn't.

As far as the actual influenza, I've had it once and it sucked. That being said, I've had the flu shot a few times and it's also sucked. I'd rather have the actual influenza than the reaction I get with the vaccine. For me personally, I don't get the shot anymore at all. It's definitely great for some people though!

[mdgirl1977]

I have the flu right now and I want to die. Was getting the flu shot this week but have to wait a few weeks now. I'm. A. Delirious. Mess.

[mdgirl1977]

I get the shot because I work in high risk areas (jail). I also have asthma, active brain bleeds from a car accident and I can't risk being out of work as a single mom with one income.

[JadeNight]

Not really sure what this thread was about...

Me either. It sounds like more of a panicked advisory? I live in RI, so it's always cold mid october. So this is nothing new, this doesnt scream "doomsday winter" to me. I don't know

Acutally, I'm excited for winter. Whether I get sick or not!

[ashley26]

I got a flu shot four years ago and that year I've gotten sick more then ever. I had the flu then I had strep throat then I had a sv, and I know the flu shot didn't cause that I'm just still scared to get one

[summerdazies]

A lot of places offer free flu shots, so I don't go without the shots because I think they are in it for the money. I prefer not to get the shots because unless it is to prevent a deadly or debilitating disease, I would rather not put foreign substances into my body or my childrens. I also feel that the more vaccines we give ourselves, the less our immune systems learn to do their jobs. I did not get my children the chick pox vaccine because chick pox is not deadly or debilitating, and if my children get it, so be it. Their bodies will fight it off and then they will have developed immunity.

I totally respect your decision. If your kids aren't immunosuppressed, they'll most likely be just fine in the event they get the flu or chicken pox (heck, I had chicken pox when I was 2, it's new to me that kids don't get it anymore).

The only thing is that I'm pretty sure that in general, vaccines work by stimulating your immune system to create antibodies that will protect you from the pathogen if you are exposed in the future, so I'm not sure if vaccinating vs. not vaccinating affects the strength of one's immune system (I'd be very interested to see if anyone has done studies on that!) All this from a friendly scientific point of view. Totally respect your decision, and always interested to hear different opinions

[twinmom73]

I totally respect your decision. If your kids aren't immunosuppressed, they'll most likely be just fine in the event they get the flu or chicken pox (heck, I had chicken pox when I was 2, it's new to me that kids don't get it anymore).

The only thing is that I'm pretty sure that in general, vaccines work by stimulating your immune system to create antibodies that will protect you from the pathogen if you are exposed in the future, so I'm not sure if vaccinating vs. not vaccinating affects the strength of one's immune system (I'd be very interested to see if anyone has done studies on that!) All this from a friendly scientific point of view. Totally respect your decision, and always interested to hear different opinions

You could be totally right about the immune system. I guess I would rather develop immunity natually, if that makes sense. I fear all the preservative they put in vaccines, so I feel like if it isnt against a deadly or debilitating disease well just suffer through it if we get it. I am not anti vaccine, my children have their immunizations. I am just against using them for EVERYTHING because it might be inconvenient to get it. I totally agree with getting one if you have asthma or underlying conditions because the flu could really cause problems. But, since we don't fal into that group, I don't feel the need to get one...

Watch.. next week Ill come down with the flu and will be crying because I didn't get the shot... LOL