Does anyone (or everyone) here get their annual flu shot?

Well, I do. Yesterday, I started running a fever and aching all over at work. It got bad enough that I left a little early. Even after taking over the counter remedies, it didn't subside. So, I took a sick day and went to the doctor. You guessed it.... I have the flu. Just in time to be contagious for Thanksgiving.....

I'm guessing you got the version this year's jab doesn't cover, assuming you got your shot at the beginning of October.

I get a flu shot every year. I don't feel the needle, no pain, no side effects, and no flu.

I avoid any flu shots or inoculations that I possibly can. I have never trusted the massive drug industry and their very spotty history of putting very bad stuff into people under the guise of health. Drugs like this are a huge business and money is the driving force, not public health.

No flu shot for me are shingles are the pn monia. No sense me trying to spell that one!

Every year since my heart attack in '03. Never gotten sick from it-or the flu.

Don't bother with them. I have been taking Vitaman C for about 15 years now, it DOES make a difference.

I get one annually, and have for the past 20 years. I'm sure I've lucked out with not getting the flu, since it doesn't cover every strain, but they're free, so why not?

PS - I've also had fewer colds. I know there's no real connection between colds and flu, virus wise, but I really believe your overall immunity gets built up.

have gotten it for 7 or so years now...i haven't had the flu since. But i always get 1 realllly bad cold that's almost a flu per year. High temp..not real high and not puking ect. Just bad congestion and muscle aches ect

knock on wood

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M&P9 FS APEX Kit

Never have.... never will... willingly.

Getting sick is extremely rare for me... knock on wood.

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Not enough space

1972 in air force had to get flu shot, arm ached, whole body ached, felt awful. 1973 checked with clinic and found out flu shot was not required by air force regulations. We were told go get your flu shots. I said no, and recited chapter and verse about required shots. Boss told other guys to go get shots, they said if Bob says no, we aren't either. Next day, Day Shift looked like dead dogs, night shift felt fine.

October 1972 was my LAST flu shot and I never had the flu either.

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S&WHF 366

Quit being a pansy. Get the shot. 20 years of needle pricks are better than one 2 week stretch of the flu. The chances of the flu killing you are much greater than any possible reaction to the vaccine. And you won't be infecting all your family (but if you don't get it, they may infect you.)

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Dick Burg

I find it difficult to believe that you use problems with the medical technology of 40+ years ago as an excuse not to have a shot now. Really?

The worst effect I've had in 17 years is a slight pain/stiffness in the upper arm. At no time have I had any nasty reactions or caught the flu.

I have been taking extra Vitamin C this year to (hopefully) avoid getting any colds, which often turn into sinus infections with me. That is a not uncommon Vegas problem because of the climate.

Just to be clear, I did get my flu shot & get one EVERY year! . It apparently doesn't cover the strain that I have right now.

I get my shot every year. Science works.

Yep, it happens and it blows. However, think of all the OTHER strains that you didn't get.

Think of the flu shot this way. It does not GUARANTEE that you won't get the flu, but it does cut down the chances.

I've only missed one year since 1983...and guess what happened the year I skipped it?

Every year since they started giving them. I have a had several mild case of something flu like but they never lasted more then a couple days, I got them on active duty and every years at the VA all free.

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Carpriver.

Having had a heart attack in 1997, I get a flu shot every year per the advice of my Doctors. I have also gotten the shingles vaccine and the pneumonia shot.

I guess I just can't comprehend what some of you folks have to go through.

I don't mingle with people anymore, so I don't worry too much about catching anything. I don't eat anything that looks like I might have just stepped in it. The strongest thing I take is aspirin, and even at that, a bottle of aspirin is liable to last me a year. When I do have to go to a Dr. of course I always get the..fill out the question sheet and I list I only take aspirin and I get the look ?????? Like I should be one that keeps CVS or Walgreen's in business.

Oh Well...I guess I'll just have to croak healthy.


WuzzFuzz

I am around inmates & at the county jail frequently in the course of my work. I won't explain what a breeding ground for disease that place is........

I hear what you say Collector......I guess you can say I proverbially dodged the bullet from my time back on the force. I can still remember one or three I didn't even want to get them transported in the back of my cruiser, so I called the Paddy wagon for transport....

I too worked the jail at one time..All the stuff that was in those cells.


WuzzFuzz

If you're over 50 and haven't had the Shingles shot, get it. Just recently I've observed the effects of not doing so. It's not pleasant to get, or to look at. Out there are people who won't do this, a few will regret it.

I retired a few years ago from 30+ years in middle school. I always got flu shots. Got two colds a year but never the flu. After retirement I let the vacs go since I wasn't around big groups of people.
Then last year I got bored and for a challenge accepted an offer to teach kindergarten half time. Five year olds are not terribly skilled at controlling body fluids. Parents are no longer in a position to keep their kids home when sick. The munchkins are all over you, all the time. I was sick the entire first semester; one bout of the kindercrud after another and couldn't get a flu shot. By Christmas break I'd developed resistance and got better, so got a shot. This year I'm fully faxed. Flu, shingles, pneumonia. So far so good.

I was walking through an 1800s cemetery-where the stones had short stories. Amazed at how many had died in family groups from an influenza epidemic that ran through the country at that time. Then a little genealogy research turned up a set of great-great-great grandparents died about that time from influenza.
If you don't get the shots, you are probably being protected by the people around you having the shots and not being plague vectors. Most of the population is resistant. But it leaves you as being a possible vector to spread the illness. The current outbreaks of measles are probably due to immigrants, but are spread because the herd feels no need to get protected any more-until they get measles.

I have got the flu shot the last 2 years. Guess what? I got the flu the last 2 years also. No I dont think it came from the shot, it just happened that way.

I havent had the flu in years until the last 2 years. It sure dosent seem to be helping me by getting it so I think im done getting the shot.

As far as I'm concerned they are injecting poison into your body. If you look at the ingredients you'll see that's not far from the truth.
I work with the public daily, don't get shots and haven't had the flu in years.

We never get them and have never had the flu either.

I get a flu shot each fall. I began after I got tired of getting the flu almost every year.

I'd just say to those that "DO" and those that "DON'T", it nice that we are residing in this free country where its our decision to have or not have the shot. I try to give thanks daily for being able to continue that privilege and yes, I do take the flu shot. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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Sam
S&WHF 333 S&WCA 2198

Being Type 2 diabetic, I get a flu shot every year. Blue Cross covers it, so it takes a 1/2 hour or so of my time. This year, a tender arm for a day or two. Usually not even that.

One year, I got a flu shot and a pneumonia shot the same day. I also made the mistake of asking my Dr. about preventative rabies (Due to possibility of exposure through my work). He had me wait until they chased some serum down. Got all three and they told me "You're gonna be pretty sick in an hour or so". Just made it home before I started throwing up. The pneumonia was the worst of the three. Rabies (all three boosters) was a snap.

One of my "duties" is Safety Officer. As such, I'm designated as an emergency first responder, OSHA compliance trained and FEMA certified. As such, I have to update our Continuity of Operations and our Pandemic Disease Plans, so I have to keep pretty up-to-date on what's happening. I'd get the shot each year even if I wasn't diabetic.

I have Never gotten the flu shot in my life.

I'd like to make two points:

1) That sounds very paranoid.

2) I agree with everything you said, 100%

I had to sign a waiver at the VA to NOT get a flu shot.

Flu shots typically have thimerosal, which is 49.5% mercury. You can get thimerosal free vaccines, but you have to know to ask or seek it out. Also, per the CDC web site "There is a small possibility that influenza vaccine could be associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome, no more than 1 or 2 cases per million people vaccinated."

I use to get the flu shot, but the more I read about it and the more I got my health to improve, the less I feel it necessary for me. I now rely on good health, vitamin C and plenty of water.

It's also worth understanding that the odds of the vaccine and having the right mix versus getting exposed to another strain means the shot is not 100% effective. I'm not sure the effective percentage, but I'm guessing it's less effective than we are lead to believe.

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18-4, 15-4

I honestly don't know the odds. When I was in the Navy, I occasionally got mild flu-like symptoms from flu shots. Since I got out (over 25 years ago), I have not taken one flu shot, and have not gotten the flu. I am under the impression that flu shots generally protect against LAST year's latest, not against what's going around now. Maybe that's not true.

Getting flu shots is a gamble. Not getting flu shots is a gamble.

Mostly I don't trust the folks that have all the answers.

Seems everyone is handing out flu shots like they are some sort of yummy candy. Me, I haven't had a flu shot since I got one 20 years ago and spent 10 days in bed. I prefer not to have something injected that I have no idea whats in it, by someone I know nothing about. The government has used the population as guinea pigs before.

Americans are inoculated for the Asian flu....are Asian's inoculated for the American flu??????

Various strains of flu are always around and they're mutating.This years shot will give you immunity to the strain (or maybe strains) that are most likely to take off.Some years they get it wrong.

I get the flu shot every year. I never get the flu, but every winter I either get a stomach virus OR strep throat once.

Started getting the flu shot about 15 years ago. Haven't had the flu since, and have had fewer colds too. My doctor says it's probably due to the shot raising my overall resistance. I also wash my hands every time I come home from having gone anywhere; that's gotta help. Had the pneumonia shot and i'll get the shingles shot, someday.

Yeah, that polio vaccine, smallpox etc was a big waste of resources.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

Last time I had the flu was in the Army-45 years ago. I attribute that to overcrowded living conditions, being run ragged, not getting proper rest.
Again, the Vitamin C has worked for me.

I've gotten the flu when I've had a flu shot. I've gotten the flu when I didn't get one. I've gotten the flu from taking a flu shot.

I officially gave up on them.

Other things get in the way and we put off stuff like this.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

From the viewpoint of a pharmaceutical conspiracy, I think the industry would make a lot more money off all the hospitalizations, prescriptions and over-the-counter remedies for unvaccinated flu patients than off the pennies per flu shot, made by just a few labs, that are needed to vaccinate everybody.
As for the effectiveness, it's the old story: people's interpretations of their own anecdotal experience versus science. Should be no contest, but that's not how the brain works.
Now "immunization" is a bit of a misleading term, since noone claims that a flu shot makes you immune; neither do the shingles and pneumonia shots. But they make you considerably more resistant, and if you catch it anyways, it goes faster and much milder. On shingles, I speak from experience.
Now flu is one thing. Where the vaccination-phobia gets dangerous is things like the MMR vaccine. Until the 60s, measles/mumps/rubella killed enormous numbers of people. Then a simple vaccine basically eradicated those diseases, until a bogus study linked the vaccine to autism, and even though the study has been totally discredited, otherwise perfectly sane people are endangering their kids by refusing to vaccinate them, and there were several large scale outbreaks in various parts of the country recently, of diseases we thought we had basically wiped out.

Nearly every one of these vaccines contain some toxic chemical such as mercury. People can and do have allergic reactions to them as well as suffer from having this foreign material in your system. You can die from a vaccine is the ultimate downside.

If you think there is no danger from these things you need to do some more research. Don’t look for the manufacturers who make hundreds of millions of dollars off these vaccines to tell you about the down side and don’t expect the government to tell you either. You need to be aware that vaccines actually inject you with a small amount of what ever it is you are being vaccinated against. Hopefully they use dead virus and not live virus, but frankly I don’t trust them to make that clear.

So you need to make some enlightened decisions about them. Reward vs. Risk factors should be considered. Probably the Smallpox vaccine was an acceptable risk. The polio vaccine not so much, but more so than a flu shot.

To me the danger from the vaccine of the flu shots far out weight any possible benefits that might ensue from getting those injections. Also a vaccine should be for life. Why do people have to get a new vaccine each year for the flu? Those flu viruses must be plenty smart to keep evolving and changing every single year just like clock work. LOL

They never seem to evolve several times a year but exactly every year.

I feel the same way about prescription drugs. Only take those you really have to take. I would not take an aspirin without a very good reason. You have to love the possible side effect list on most drugs. It usually reads something like:

Headaches
Fatigue
Drowsiness
Dizziness
Nausea
Loss of Hair
High Fever
Internal Bleeding
Coma
Death

I got the shot about 40 years ago - got the flu that year - never had another shot and never got the flu again - YMMV

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Lou

When they first started giving the Flu shot, I took it. Got sick every year right after the shot. Not bad, but enough to take a day or two off work.

Then I quit getting sick and have been taking the shot every year with no problems and, so far, no flu.

Someone said, earlier, no shingles or pneumonia shots. I would bet he's never had either. Shingles are really, really the pits and pneumonia will kill you. I've had both and don't want either again.

There is a "new" pneumonia shot now and a "new" tetanus shot.

I plan to get both pretty quickly.

Bob

I have to get one every year because of my daughter's disease, doctors orders. I know they dont cover against all strains, but with a kindergartner, being a cop, and having a baby with a respiratory disease, if I can reduce the odds at all with the shot, I'll take it.

I drove city bus for 27 years, I used to get a flu shot every year because I had a daily dose of people sneezing and coughing in my close proximity...I never suffered any ill effects but still caught the flu from time to time. I transferred into building maintenance and finished out my career with the company another 12 years later, during my time in building maintenance I never got a flu shot and have not ever since...I have not had the flu since I quit taking the shots going on 15 years since. I remember having a chiropractor that wouldn't work on you if you had taken a flu shot, his theory was that you were a live incubator and he did not want to be exposed to your particular brand of flu bug. I told him I had quit taking flu shots years ago and he asked me if I had caught the flu since, I told him no I had not...he said "I rest my case."

"Does anyone (or everyone) here get their annual flu shot?"

NOT now...NOT ever................if it aint broke....don't fix it....

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There's nowt so queer as folk