<p>Yikes! Don’t worry, I don’t believe this. But i have several “granola” friends who insist there is some big government conspiracy to cover up the real facts about vaccinations. I know CC parents ALWAYS know where to get the correct info or the info to easily refute their claims (I already tried using the scientific study approach).</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with people not wanting to get a flu vaccine and I also understand that some people should not get the flu vaccine, I just get upset when people spread incorrect information (that they claim is scientific) to others. </p>
<p>I’m looking for a reliable website (or information from those in the know) that uses real science to explain the pros and cons of the flu vaccine and shows the flaws in their thinking.</p>
<p>Odds are people that want to believe something will continue to believe it and just say the CDC is just repeating the line they’re supposed to repeat.</p>
<p>Well, the only time my H. got a flu in around last 15 or so years was a year when he had a shot. He did NOT get it from the shot, he got it about 5 or so weeks later, but he never gets a flu. And for him to skip a job is a complete taboo. The only reason hw got a sho because my employer provided it for me at no cost and for family members for $10. He never ever got a shot since then, he got spooked. I refused to get my free shot, I never had a shot, not comments. My Med. student D. MUST have flu shots every year, she has no choice. No side effects so far.</p>
<p>My H’s boss talked the whole department into getting free flu shots one year and he got very sick almost immediately. It wasn’t the flu but the result was a lingering cough that took months to go away and a resurgence of his childhood asthma, which he had grown out of. He has never had another flu shot and we opt out for our D as well based on that experience.</p>
<p>I am normally very pro vax, but in this case I’m with H. On the other hand, my great-grandmother DIED in the 1918 flu epidemic, so I’m well aware of what the flu can do.</p>
<p>I work at a hospital and am required, or strongly encouraged to have a flu shot, so I have had it every year for the past 20 years. I have not gotten the flu in 20 years, but I have gotten Walking Pneumonia and various viruses, that the shot does not cover. As a working mom of 3 I figured I didn’t have time for the flu which was a motivating factor for the shot. One year D1’s entire soccer team got the flu a week or so before finals, so I decided it was in the kid’s best interest to get the shot as well.</p>
<p>There are so many viruses out there every winter that are not true influenza A or B. People who get sick after a flu shot are getting some other virus that they just happened to get. You can’t get influenza from the influenza vaccine (it’s attenuated virus not a live virus), but you can get every other cold in the world. Argh this drives me crazy!!</p>
<p>As the parent of someone who has a suppressed immune system (you know, the people at higher risk for these illnesses killing them) , I am mystified by the anti-vaccine movement. Corrolation and causality are not the same thing.There’s virtually no hard science to back the position, and the notion that the choice to non-vaccinate has no repercussions outside that household is erroneous. Enough people continuing to non-vaccinate puts my son at risk. And I can’t do a thing about that. He does get his flu vaccine, since it’s inactive. Even when he was thought to be allergic to eggs, they thought the risk to him from the flu was much higher than the vaccine, and he had it. But he can’t have active vaccinations, so believe me when I say if modern medicine thought he could catch pneumonia or H1N1 via the vaccine his team of doctors would NEVER allow him to have it. I respect/understand that not everyone feels that way. I’m just saying, it’s not a choice you are making just for yourself.</p>
<p>“There are so many viruses out there every winter that are not true influenza A or B. People who get sick after a flu shot are getting some other virus that they just happened to get. You can’t get influenza from the influenza vaccine (it’s attenuated virus not a live virus), but you can get every other cold in the world.”</p>
<p>Sycophant! That’s what they TOLD you to say! Okay, sycophant is not the right word, but I’ve been DYING to use it in a sentence.</p>
<p>Flu shots don’t necessarily catch the flu that catches you. They are based on what is most likely to show up in a particular year. No, you shouldn’t get the flu from getting the shot. As a health professional I’m supposed to be a great advocate.
But, YEARs ago, when it was new, the colleges did a blanket “come get your flu shot” to be safe…and tons of students overwhelmed the campus infirmary, including my roommate who became deathly ill within the week of receiving the shot. I can’t help it…I steer clear to this day. Not rational maybe, but oh well.</p>
<p>The typical influenza vaccine covers three kinds of influenza virus – the ones that they guess will be the most common ones that season. If they guess wrong, or you encounter a different uncommon influenza virus, you won’t be immune to that virus.</p>
<p>Re: #7</p>
<p>Be especially careful if he is considering attending a private K-12 school, since the vaccine-refusal rates tend to be higher in private K-12 schools than public K-12 schools.</p>
<p>One of my M.D. friends is an infectious disease specialist. As of our conversation about this several years ago, she said there had been no documented case of anyone getting the flu from a flu vaccine, even the live attenuated one known as flu mist (the injection uses a “killed” virus). </p>
<p>As a health care professional, I am even allowed to get a flu mist vaccine and continue to work amongst all immunocompromised patients except bone marrow or stem cell transplant patients. That tells you just how unlikely it is for anyone to get the flu from the live attenuated vaccine. As for the flu shot causing the flu-it uses a “KILLED” virus (actually inactivated). “Killed” viruses cannot replicate in the cells, which is what MUST happen in order for a virus to infect a host. Absolutely impossible.</p>
<p>All that said, I’ve met countless nurses who insist they got the flu from the shot. If even “educated” medical professionals are spouting this nonsense, it’s no wonder that lay people are so easily convinced of it.</p>
<p>I used to never get the flu vaccine, until I got the flu a few years ago. Since the experience is fresh in my mind I have started to get it. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know if it was the direct result of the vaccine, but I remember getting very sick after getting my smallpox vaccine. However, I would still do it again.</p>
<p>Some people for whatever reason do not respond to the vaccine. It doesn’t “work” for them. They can still become infected with the flu strain which was specifically targeted in the vaccine. </p>
<p>In these cases, they get the flu *in spite of *getting the vaccine, not because they got the vaccine.</p>
<p>I read an article recently which talked about the fact that some people just never become infected with any flu viruses to which they are exposed. They seem to have some kind of natural immunity to it. These are probably the people who are always boasting that they never get the shot and never get the flu. In these cases, they are correct-they are simply lucky. I admit I used to think I was one of those people, until I came down with it. I have never been so sick in my entire life. I now always get the vaccine because I just cannot afford to be laid up like that for so long again.</p>
<p>One of the questions when getting the flu shot is whether you feel sick already. If you are truly ill, it can make you sicker because it is stressing your immune system which is already stressed. And, immunity is not established for a few weeks after receiving. Usually the CDC does a good job of virus prediction for the coming year. Rarely, they’re a little off target. </p>
<p>I get the shot, and am glad to protect those around me from passing on the virus. I used to feel a little ‘off’ for a few hours after receiving it. Just fine these days. </p>
<p>Those anti vaccine folks are dangerous. We have lived with the luxury of no epidemics for a long while, and human memory is sort.</p>
<p>My mom is anti vaccination, and spends her winters scared of crowds because of ‘the flu’ She’d never get the shot though, as she believes all the anti vaccination nonsense. There are concerns, and it is good to look at these things. After doing so, I’m firmly in the pro vaccination camp.</p>
<p>If I worked in a medical environment, I would want every vaccine possible, since plenty of sick and infectious people come in.</p>
<p>So it is difficult to understand medical professionals who refuse vaccines. And, especially in medical environments, they become additional potential vectors to spread infectious diseases from one sick patient to another.</p>
<p>I don’t believe any of the anti-vaccine things either. I have never gotten a flu shot because I was never in one of the categories where they recommend it (diabetic, over 65, asthmatic,e tc). I think it is only in the last couple of years where they are recommending it for everyone?</p>
<p>My D has viral-induced asthma so both kids get the shot. My aunt contracted Guillain-Barre last year a few weeks after her shot. The doctors can’t say for sure if the shot caused it. It has been terrible, almost a year later and she is still bedridden and in and out of the hospital and a rehab facility. Still, I think the odds of complications for the flu are greater than contracting G-B. At least that’s what I hope!</p>
<p>There have been G-B incidents which may be associated with the flu vaccine. What I found interesting in studying this is that G-B incidents are far more numerous in people who are infected with the flu than those who have received a flu vaccine. In other words, your chances of being affected by G-B are far higher if you get the illness than if you get the vaccine. Small comfort to those who may have contracted it as a result of the vaccine, I’m sure.</p>
<p>I visit a nursing forum in addition to CC. There is an entire section devoted to influenza and the vaccine controversy. You would just be amazed at what nurses post there.</p>
<p>I used to get the flu every year right around late August/Early September… very, very early. Which would then wipe out my immune system so I caught every single bug that came through the rest of the season… I was sick every third week just about from September until June for three or four years in a row. I got my flu shot last year for the first time and made it all the way to November without getting sick… then I just got strep throat instead. Ended up getting some kind of flu-like illness in January but that was about it for the rest of the year. I will definitely be getting another flu shot this year. Even if I did get sick from the shot, which I didn’t, I’d rather go through that and be done than be sick all winter again.</p>