FallGirl

I finally got a seasonal flu shot for S (age 13, asthmatic). It seemed like an ordeal what with the inflexibility of the pediatrician's office and so many places only vaccinating 18 years old and up. But finally we found a walk in place yesterday.

So now the next step is to get him the H1N1 vaccine.

RebelCats

When I am sick (and that is rarely) I do not go around anyone unless they live in my household. There are choices everyone has to make in life, and this is the choice I make for me and my family. You can make the choice to get the shot and you can make that choice for you and your family.

There was a few others in this thread that said they were not gonna get either of the shots either, why single out me and Member.

emeraldkity4

you can be communicable without even knowing you are sick
FOr example I picked up Hep B, from somewhere- I hadn't been around anyone that had been more ill than a cold and I had not had more than a "cold" myself ( or so I thought)

I do not do routine immunizations- but I do consider each one on a case by case basis.
I recently had a booster for tetanus because I have the risk factor of working outside & while I do not get the regular flu shot although I have asthma, I am planning on getting the H1N1 vaccine and am concerned about people who do not because as we know- you can carry something and have very mild symptoms.

JustAMomOf4

RebelCats - yes well by then it's too late. With the flu and many other viruses you begin shedding the virus BEFORE you show symptoms.
Feel free to add bluebayou to my list. Getting influenza can also trigger Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

I have no problem with adults making an INFORMED decision for themselves. Just make it based on scientific fact not voodoo; and realize that the lives of your children are affected, not just your own.

speihei

Informed choice is fine but if you believe that the shot is a government or illuminati conspiracy to sterilize the masses, create a new disease, dumb down the population, etc., you're either paranoid beyond help or so stupid that logic won't work on you.

If the government wanted the masses to die out, they'd just stop all vaccination programs and watch the dirt poor die from previously eradicated diseases.

Onward

That's my thoughts exactly, speihei. Or if they really wanted to get rid of all of us, they would pay us to get vaccinated. People would flock to get shots if they thought they'd get money for it.

mantori.suzuki

Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger. Come on, flu! I'm ready for ya!

Just think how much stronger the human race would be if we would just let the weak die. Vaccinations: Socialism in a Syringe.

I don't really believe that. I just figured someone would say it eventually, so I'm getting it out of the way now.

member

A smart person questions what they consume, a dumb person doesn't. If it does not occur naturally on this planet, it is not going in my body. Simple as that. Call me stupid all you want, the medical testimony speaks for itself.

molliebatmit

It is possible to know exactly what vaccines do in the body -- for example, there are many textbooks available for free full-text search at the NIH website, and one of them is the classic immunobiology textbook written by Janeway. There's a nice overview of vaccination there.

In short, your immune system produces little minion cells that travel around your body snatching up protein fragments floating around in your blood. These cells present the protein fragments to the boss cells, the T cells and B cells, which triggers an immune reaction if the protein fragments are "non-self". The T cells are the cops, and they go around killing cells that produce the offending non-self proteins. The B cells are the bookkeepers, and they remember what non-self proteins they have seen before and produce big bulky antibodies to bind to previously-seen non-self proteins.

It's a super-cool system. And what we're doing with vaccination is giving the immune system a target to hit -- the response to vaccination is 100% natural, unless you have a moral problem with the unnaturalness of adaptive immunity (it's fairly recently evolved).

There are many things in our lives that are more unnatural than vaccination, starting with, perhaps, processed food and most other modern medical interventions. Antibiotics, for example, are more artificial than vaccines, but there are very few people who turn down antibiotics to die of simple bacterial infections.

Mom0f3

More than 48 hours since S had the vaccine--no side effects that we can see. Seems to feel fine, and since it was the nasal spray, he doesn't even have a sore arm.

member

That is again simply what you are told. It doesn't mean it is true. It is very well possible the vaccines we take have nothing to do with what you claimed, do you or the doctors test each of these every time they are used. I think not.

I would never take a antibiotic and don't eat processed food.

speihei

^^^

Like I said, beyond help.

great lakes mom

The fear surrounding this vaccination is unfortunate. Yes, I think it is good to look at the thngs we put in our bodies.

I come from a vaccination fearful family. I've looked at the arguments for stronger non specific immunity, and I'm not impressed. The Natives in this as well as other countries that were decimated by foreign diseases such as smallpox and measles had additive free diets and a lack of some of the debilitating influences on health caused by our modern lifestyles.

A foreign virus came though these communities, and wiped people out quickly and easily due to lack of immunity. The same thing happened in 1917. H1N1 is yet another foreign virus, at least to the under 50 crowd. Luckily H1N1 is not as frighteningly lethal as these other viruses. But there have been deaths, in pregnant women and children that were otherwise healtny. Winter, and real flu season has not yet even started.

The vaccine is the same one as the regular flu shot, which is typically a combination of the 3 viruses the CDC thinks are most likely to run through the population in the coming year. But this year, in addition to the predicted 3 viruses, there is a special one manufactured for H1N1. No prediction needed-it is here.

The flu shot is overwhelmingly safe. I have given hundreds and hundreds, asking each patient in the pre assessment paper if they've had any problems in past years. A little arm soreness, rarely some mild flu like symptoms are all anyone has mentioned. The statistics are very good. Yes, there is correlation with Guillian Barre, though their are also other causes for Guillan Barre, and some of the correlation could be coincidental, or not.

These days in much of the world we're living rather carefree lives healthwise due to the vaccination efforts in past generations. Small pox is eradicated, polio is not a current concern, measles is not killing kids. Fifty to sixty years ago, parents were terrified of their kids contracting polio. What changed that? Massive vaccination campaigns.

There is a tendency toward irrational fear. We're more afraid of flying than our daily statistically more dangerous commute. We have a method for keeping our population healthy, but reject this important vaccine out of various free floating anxieties that have very little statistical basis in reality.

For the most part vaccine refusers ride on the coattails of the general immunized population. In this case, I'm becoming concerned about the prevailing anxieties that will keep far too many from getting vaccinated to achieve that herd immunity.

Member, I've been exposed to various pieces of the anti vaccination arguments over decades, and I"m not impressed. Yes, we are playing with immune system function. For the most part we all live longer, healthier lives as a result. I've eaten strict natural foods diets, treated myself only with herbs, etc. I still got the flu every year till I started taking flu shots.

What has impressed me the most are the friends who carefully avoided pertussis vaccine for their infants. Two friends had kids that later came down with pertussis, and after months of being up comforting a child who was coughing to the point of throwing up, came to regret their decision.

I want my college students to get the vaccine ASAP. They can't afford the time out of busy semesters to deal with this illness, and I want them to protect those around them as well. My kids are not life science majors, and need guidance on this as well as other health issues.

Cardinal Fang

I'm not paying any attention to those pointy-headed intellectuals with their "science" and their "books." I'll look it up in my gut.

Son of Opie

Better wear your tinfoil hat- but not Reynold's wrap, that one is controlled by the freemasons.

Fnord.