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Flu vaccine - yay or nay

Baboontyme

By Baboontyme
in Can You Help Me With This?

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Baboontyme

Baboontyme 2810

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From what I am reading, the common strain in my area is the A/H1N1. On the CDC site it says they have updated the vaccine to cover A(H3N2). So what the hell does this mean? Please no conspiracy theory crap. Just is it worth your time to get the shot and get your kids the shot if it doesn't seem to be the same strain. Does it cover multiple strains or help prevent other strains even if it's catered to a different virus?

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horn4life

horn4life 3760

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Flu Vaccine is an inexact science, trying to determine which strain is going to be the biggest threat.  Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they are not as effective.

I got the flu last Summer and my wife thought I was full of shit. Until she got it and said, yep that's the flu... So it's actually around year round BUT now is the flu season.  I get one every year now, because even if they don't hit 100% some protection is better than none.  There is a reason the shots are free for most healthcare plans.

 

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EE2B

EE2B 1565

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My two year old had the flu back before Christmas. It took her three weeks to get back to somewhat normal.

Last week there was a four year old near here who tested negative for the flu and ended up dying due to complications from H1N1. Apparently his fever spiked and he was having trouble breathing so they airlifted him to Arkansas Children’s. Things like this scare the shit out of me since I have small kids. I can’t imagine what his family is going through.

In short, get the shot.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45903

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What viruses will the 2018-2019 flu vaccines protect against?

There are many different flu viruses and they are constantly changing. The composition of U.S. flu vaccines is reviewed annually and updated as needed to match circulating flu viruses. Flu vaccines protect against the three or four viruses (depending on vaccine) that research suggests will be most common. For 2018-2019, trivalent (three-component) vaccines are recommended to contain:

  • A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
  • A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A(H3N2)-like virus (updated)
  • B/Colorado/06/2017-like (Victoria lineage) virus (updated)

Quadrivalent (four-component) vaccines, which protect against a second lineage of B viruses, are recommended to contain:

  • the three recommended viruses above, plus B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (Yamagata lineage) virus

CDC

 

Get the vaccine, unless you think you have a shot at Jenny McCarthy.  It covers A/H1N1.

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Viper

Viper 12109

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I was late getting it one year. That was the year we went to a party at our friends' house who are the "all natural" types. About 3 days later everyone at the party got the flu, including my son and the 4 other kids there. We later found out the "all natural" people were sick the week before, didn't go to the doctor, and I guess didn't clean the house very well. They told us to just drink some broth, take some vitamins and we'd be fine.

Luckily my son had his flu shot a month or so before, and he barely had a fever at all when we all went to the doctor to get tamiflu. I was feeling almost delusional when they took my temperature at 103 or something. That tamiflu is one of the greatest things ever invented, along with Zenfel.

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Kyle

Kyle 207

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13 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Why not get the shot?    

Based on your story, getting the flu shot is the only way to get the flu.  Is that your opinion?

May I suggest: https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/index.php?/forum/17-politics/

In all seriousness, my old company used to give free shots to everyone, so I assume virtually everyone I come in contact with got the shot, so why bother given the low probability of them getting the right one ... plus, not a big fan of needles and shots. :) If Jenny McCarthy were the nurse, I'd get it every year.

Edited by Kyle
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Bevo

Bevo 13576

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Yeah, right before break my son had a school project with a kid who had the flu. So the day we left for a long drive to Santa Fe, I started him on Tamiflu and then when we got to Santa Fe I had to get Tamiflu for my other son, myself and my wife. My youngest son was sick for the whole trip. My wife got sick the third day of the trip although it was mild and she was able to ski with difficulty the last day. My other son got sick the fourth day so he was only able to ski the two days before he got sick. His case too was mild. And I stayed healthy. Still, if we all had flu shots our trip would not have been fucked up.

Edited by Bevo
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Baboontyme

Baboontyme 2810

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9 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

There is zero downside to getting the shot.

Honestly the "downside" for me is finding time to do it. Not necessarily for me personally, I could go during the work day. But I'm not really concerned about me, more so the kids. Mondays we have Scouts and catechism, Tuesday is basketball, Wednesday is Dance and the after school art class, Thursday cheerleading, blah blah blah. 

The reason I asked the original question was just because I have often heard/read (from dubious sources) that the strain they vaccinate for is rarely the prevalent strain. And with all of the craziness that encompasses our daily lives these days I would not want to waste our time trying to figure out a way to get it done. The info jimmyjazz provided above though does seem to indicate it's worth the effort of trying to get them in to get it done. I guess I just needed to read a little further into the fine print on the CDC's website. 

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Lou

Lou 264

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I get the shot every year.  I had the flu a long time ago and don’t want to go through that agaIn.  Even if I get the flu hopefully the vaccine will make it not as bad.  I was at the dr last week for a physical and we were talking about the flu shot.  He said even if the shot is not exact to the current strain, the antibodies from previous shots are still present and helpful.  Interesting fact, per the cdc, there were 80,000 deaths in the US last year due to the flu.

 

 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13511

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1 hour ago, Baboontyme said:

Honestly the "downside" for me is finding time to do it. Not necessarily for me personally, I could go during the work day. But I'm not really concerned about me, more so the kids. Mondays we have Scouts and catechism, Tuesday is basketball, Wednesday is Dance and the after school art class, Thursday cheerleading, blah blah blah. 

The reason I asked the original question was just because I have often heard/read (from dubious sources) that the strain they vaccinate for is rarely the prevalent strain. And with all of the craziness that encompasses our daily lives these days I would not want to waste our time trying to figure out a way to get it done. The info jimmyjazz provided above though does seem to indicate it's worth the effort of trying to get them in to get it done. I guess I just needed to read a little further into the fine print on the CDC's website. 

There is no time for a 5 minute trip to CVS?    But you have time to post here?

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Mole

Mole 4330

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Here's my downside: I've gotten the flu shot maybe five times in my life and each time, I've had a reaction (I guess it was working) and been pretty sick for about a week or more. I may have had the flu once when I was a kid but never in my adult life. So weighing the guarantee of being sick (again, just a reaction, not the flu, but still pretty sick and shut down for a week) vs. the low likelihood of actually getting the flu (if past performance is predictive), I haven't had a flu shot in probably a decade. Now when they make a sinus infection shot, sign me up.

Whenever I mention that the shot makes me sick every time, I'm blessed with a lecture on how the shot can't give you the flu, even though my claim isn't that it gives me the flu - it just makes me sick every time. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth being sick from the shot every winter just to avoid the condescending strawman arguments. 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13511

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The shot can give people some symptoms of the flu as I assume your body is fighting what it thinks is the flu.   I’ve felt run-down for a day or two after the flu shot.    As it takes two weeks for the shot to be effective, maybe the symptoms can also last that long.  I don’t know.

Getting flu symptoms for a week after the shot is a good reason to avoid the vaccine.   But then again if someone is that sensitive to the flu shot, I wouldn’t want to imagine how they are with the actual flu.

at the end of the day, the more people that get the flu vaccine, the less that can be spread.  It’s not perfect, and some years the vaccine is more accurate than others.  

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Wally Fairway

Wally Fairway 5543

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I didn't get a flu shot for years & I never had the flu; but as I've gotten older I decided that I should get the shot (free via work).
I've had a couple of friends, only a few years older than me, who never got the vaccine and they got the flu. One of them had other ailments, but that combined with the flu was too much for him & he passed away.
I decided that it wasn't worth the risk to only get the vaccine when I needed it, so I get it every year...this is my 4th year & I still haven't got the flu.

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Wally Fairway

Wally Fairway 5543

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13 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

The biggest part of avoiding the flu is to have good hygiene habits and try to be around others that do as well.  Wash you hands before eating or touching your eyes, nose or mouth.    

Hard to only be around others that do, when you have kids in a school system with 3-4,000 kids. So you are only a few siblings away from whatever any and all of them have been in contact with.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13511

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2 minutes ago, Wally Fairway said:

Hard to only be around others that do, when you have kids in a school system with 3-4,000 kids. So you are only a few siblings away from whatever any and all of them have been in contact with.

I understand especially with kids that attend the virus incubators known as school.  And while not 100% proven, there seems to be evidence that getting plenty of sleep can also keep your immune system strong. 

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tokamak

tokamak 6422

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18 hours ago, Baboontyme said:

Honestly the "downside" for me is finding time to do it. Not necessarily for me personally, I could go during the work day. But I'm not really concerned about me, more so the kids. Mondays we have Scouts and catechism, Tuesday is basketball, Wednesday is Dance and the after school art class, Thursday cheerleading, blah blah blah. 

The reason I asked the original question was just because I have often heard/read (from dubious sources) that the strain they vaccinate for is rarely the prevalent strain. And with all of the craziness that encompasses our daily lives these days I would not want to waste our time trying to figure out a way to get it done. The info jimmyjazz provided above though does seem to indicate it's worth the effort of trying to get them in to get it done. I guess I just needed to read a little further into the fine print on the CDC's website. 

“Rarely” is an overstatement. Like others have said, every year it’s a guessing game as to which strains to include in the seasonal vaccine. Even in “bad” years, the vaccine covers like >50% of what’s out there in the wild, IIRC. This year happens to be a “good” year, as others have said.

My employer requires me to get vaccinated (and provides free vaccine clinics during work hours), but even if they didn’t, I’d get the vaccine every year. I last got the flu in ‘08 or ‘09 (before working for this employer and without a flu shot) and it was fucking awful. I’d let Jenny McCarthy inject me with a syringe full of used motor oil if it was proven to prevent the flu more often than not.

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Deej

Deej 76759

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Get your flu shot. If you really want to avoid the flu, stay away from children and people with children.

I love the annual "I have never had a flu shot and have never had the flu" parade of idiots.  Yep, not getting the shot protected you from the flu. 

"I never wear my seatbelt, and have never died in a car accident. Seat belts are worthless."

Edited by Deej
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MNLonghornFUKM

MNLonghornFUKM 8817

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Get your flu shot. If you really want to avoid the flu. Stay away from children and people with children.
I love the annual "I have never had a flu shot and have never had the flu" parade of idiots.  Yep, not getting the shot protected you from the flu. 
"I never wear my seatbelt, and have never died in a car accident. Seat belts are worthless."
Seatbelts drive the cars?
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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7774

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On 12/29/2018 at 7:45 PM, Baboontyme said:

Honestly the "downside" for me is finding time to do it. Not necessarily for me personally, I could go during the work day. But I'm not really concerned about me, more so the kids. Mondays we have Scouts and catechism, Tuesday is basketball, Wednesday is Dance and the after school art class, Thursday cheerleading, blah blah blah. 

The reason I asked the original question was just because I have often heard/read (from dubious sources) that the strain they vaccinate for is rarely the prevalent strain. And with all of the craziness that encompasses our daily lives these days I would not want to waste our time trying to figure out a way to get it done. The info jimmyjazz provided above though does seem to indicate it's worth the effort of trying to get them in to get it done. I guess I just needed to read a little further into the fine print on the CDC's website. 

Go to your local pharmacy and they can do it for you.  Takes 15 minutes and doesn't cost anything.

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Wally Fairway

Wally Fairway 5543

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3 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:
3 hours ago, Deej said:
Get your flu shot. If you really want to avoid the flu. Stay away from children and people with children.
I love the annual "I have never had a flu shot and have never had the flu" parade of idiots.  Yep, not getting the shot protected you from the flu. 
"I never wear my seatbelt, and have never died in a car accident. Seat belts are worthless."

Seatbelts drive the cars?

no - Elon Musk drives the car.

Does not wearing your seatbelt protect you from the other drivers on the road? Or do you only drive when the roads are empty?

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13511

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Putting on a seat belt every time you step into a vehicle is more time spent over a year than walking into a pharmacy to get a shot.  Or if you really want to be efficient just schedule an annual exam with your primary care doc every October.   the nurse will give you the flu shot in 5 seconds.

but ridiculous conversation to treat seatbelt and flu shot as having to choose one over the other.

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