Friendly reminder: vaccines are not just about making YOU safe. It’s about making the COMMUNITY safe. The less people who can get it, the less people who will spread it, and the less likely it is that vulnerable people will get sick.
So yes, eat healthy, get your vitamin D (which is a whole 'nother can of worms, but we’ll ignore that for now), or whatever it is you have to do- but consider also that it’s not just about the INDIVIDUAL.
Carry on.
dr google last year’s strains were off for the vaccine (they got it wrong). but you do not get the flu from the shot and people will get colds after they get the flu vaccine and confuse the two things. flu-makes you super hot , gives you the chills, your bones and joints ache, you wake up soaking wet , your eyes are heavy, etc etc etc… it feels like it will never end and a lot of people not just old people wind up in the hospital or worse. I suggest getting the shot. I know a couple of heros in my own life, one converted (to a person who gets vaccinated) several years ago after getting the flu and she gladly gets the shot now.
My husband, who has not been sick any other time in his adult life, had the flu I think the year before last. I stayed up all night listening to him breathe because his lips were turning blue and I was afraid he would suffocate if I went to sleep. I actually think I might have posted here about it at the time, it was really scary. An otherwise healthy as a horse 30 year old, weight lifter, runner, etc. I almost rushed him to the hospital at two different times because he was in so much pain and he couldn’t breathe. He was so terribly sick. He’d gotten the shot, but too late. They said he was exposed too quickly before full immunity could take effect. He probably got the shot in January. We do think he may have gotten less sick than he would have otherwise, because though severe his symptoms were short-lived for the flu. He was okay in less than 7 days. But he also got on tamiflu within 12 hours of starting to feel sick, so I don’t know if it was that or the shot or both that helped him.
I’d gotten my shot in September, and I felt a little yucky for a few hours a couple days after he got sick, but I got over it before it turned into anything interesting. I have asthma, so if I had gotten as sick as he did I probably would have needed to be hospitalized.
Emaheevul07 when in doubt always go to the hospital! never “wait it out” from what you described!
Yes, I remember that very clearly. I remember thinking I wanted to wake up the next morning and read good news and not bad news! I don’t have that feeling very often about people on the internet I’ve never met!
Yes, please take your loved one to the ER or urgent care if you are staying up listening to them breathe because you are afraid they may stop breathing. If their lips are turning blue, they may benefit from supplemental O2, which can easily be determined at an urgent care or ER AND be provided! It’s just not worth taking the chance that you COULD have called sooner but waited until it’s too late for anyone to help your loved one!
Oh for heavens sake. He was seen promptly by a physician, and we followed our doctor’s instructions. Do I need to post a blow-by-blow of every personal detail, every decision made and why and which doctors were consulted in order to avoid my post being picked apart? I am sure you mean well and I completely agree with the advice you are giving in general, but you are mischaracterizing my post in a way I find offensive and the intimate details of what happened really have nothing to do with this thread. You don’t need to pick out details to find fault with that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
My point, which I apparently failed to make clearly, is that the flu is not the same as a silly common cold, and that even young, healthy people can be brought to their knees. I have experienced it firsthand and it can be very frightening. It’s not something to underestimate, so people might want to really consider getting their flu shots. Flu shots are what this thread is about. Apparently that’s all I should have said.
Unfortunately, people commonly call various illnesses “the flu” even though they are almost certainly not the real flu that is much more severe. So that may contribute to the general attitude that getting the flu vaccine is not that important, because “the flu” (as the term is commonly incorrectly used) is not that severe an illness.
Does the vaccine wane after it’s been given? I seem to recall hearing last year that it was really good for 3 months, sort of good for an additional 3 months, and not much good after that. Chances are I heard it on morning TV news as that’s where I hear most things.
If so, Oct seems to be a prime time to get it to have it at its best for Nov, Dec, and Jan - big holiday travel times - and decently good for Feb & March. If one were to get it now, that split would come a bit too early for some of us who work in petri dishes (eg public schools).
Honest question - not snark - for those who follow the studies and would know the answer.
creekland, last years vaccine was not great because the viruses they incorporated into the vaccine were not good matches to the ones that spread. so, getting a vaccine against h2n2 but the flu virus that was making the rounds was h4n4 ( yes I just made those up as examples) you do not get your protection. so it did not matter when you got it.
There are different flu vaccines that cover different strains with different lengths of efficacy. I work for a health system that gives us the quad valent vaccine (covers 4 strains instead of 3) and is designed to last 12 months. Ask for it and see if your insurance will cover it–they had that as a choice last season at Walgreens. It takes 2-4 weeks for the vaccine to confer immunity so keep that in mind when you schedule.
This is always, however, an evolving virus that may not be covered by the vaccine. YMMV
I get mine in October and so do my kids.
My workplace gives it to anyone who wants it, usually in October. Very convenient. The public schools offer it here too so the kids usually get it there.
Last year D somehow missed it at school and we never did get around to it. Partly because the vaccine wasn’t as effective lady year. Less motivation to go hunt it down. But luckily it missed us.
I had the flu several years ago and it was awful. Never want to go through that again if I can help it.
@Creekland
I did a quick (and I stress “quick”) google search and found answers such as “1 year” and “a flu season”. And it seems the advice is to get it as soon as possible, but at least by October. A couple addressed the idea of it “waning” or being less effective but it seemed that there is little evidence of this.
Very interesting discussion, I’d never heard that the flu vaccine could “wear out” that quickly. I also did a quick google and found this:
"How long your own flu shot lasts depends on how powerfully your own immune system reacts to it, said Dr. John J. Treanor, a vaccine expert at the University of Rochester medical school. In a young, healthy person, protection might last for years, even as circulating flu strains change. Conversely, he said, there is some debate about whether older people or those with compromised immune systems ought to get two flu shots per season, since a shot they got in October may wear off by March or April.
“It’s a controversial question, and there’s not a lot of direct data on it,” Dr. Treanor said."
And also this interview with “Dr. Michael Jhung, a flu vaccine expert at the CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases.”
"And what about the wearing-off thing?
The influenza vaccine does provide excellent protection against influenza. That protection does wane over the course of a year, and that’s one of the reasons why we recommend folks get vaccinated every year. But the protection that it offers should last throughout one entire influenza season, even if someone gets vaccinated in early October.
Or even September?
Or even September."
This is enlightening to me, because I was told that the flue vaccine lasts a lifetime, so because each year it’s developed for different strains, you’re actually rendered immune to s multiple of strains over the years. So I have dutifully gotten my shot each year, even though I have never contracted the flu. Now I’m rethinking this.
“I get a flu vaccine every year (I had the flu one time and never ever want to do it again) hopefully this years vaccine is better targeted but I think ithe flu vaccine is a must!”
-Good for you!
My neighbor almost died from H1N1 during the winter of 2014. He spent 2 months in the hospital and several months in rehab afterwards. He has memory loss and is a lawyer, but will never work again. He also has not been able to drive since then, but is hoping to be able to in the future. He was an otherwise healthy 50 year old before getting sick. I will get my flu shot by the beginning of October since we will be traveling to Europe mid October.
I still don’t see a reason people don’t get a flu shot. Even if all your “vitamins” and hand washing are protecting you, what is the downside?
I do know you can get MILD flu like symptoms for a day, or perhaps a sore arm, but nothing like getting the actual flu.
I say this having never had a flu shot because I was never in the recommended group until very recently when the CDC rec for anyone. I think this will be the year :). I replied earlier that my aunt got Gullaine Barre after her flu shot and that year my internist saw my hesitation and said Ok skip it if you want. And I admit that the link between GB and the shot is somewhat tenuous.
I can’t think of a reason not to get a shot.
I do agree that many people use the word “flu” for any winter illness. Most of them probably have not had the flu.
surfcity in the last 5 years in a lot of states you can now get the flu shot at the pharmacy or walk in clinic at cvs or target etc… and most insurance pay it 100%. so it is not like a while back when your doctor had a limited number and it was only for people over 65 or with asthma.
no excuse not to get it. like I said before …
I never had the flu and never got the shot. than I had the flu one year and I have never missed a shot!