Flu Vaccine or No?

Pellegrine · Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:47 am

I'm 32. A global traveler based in Washington DC and Geneva, have never had the flu, and never a flu shot. If you get sick all the time or are immunocompromised i.e. have HIV, etc. maybe you should consider it with sound medical advice.

WarRI1 · Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:08 pm

My wife and I just had ours today because the Doctors advised us to get them. At our ages, we want to survive a bug that hits the young and elderly hard., no sense dying because of ignorance.

frmrCapCadet · Sat Sep 29, 2018 2:36 pm

I think this came out after this conversation started:

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/27/17910318/ ... r-flu-shot

Last year's flue season was the deadliest since 1976, 80,000 Americans died. 80K makes flu a major cause of death. I almost always get the shot, and don't think I have ever had the flu. But remember, there are other strange and mysterious viruses out there. In the last 20 years I have had 3 episodes of upper respiratory infections that hung on for 2 months. Two of them in one fall/winter. Medical advice was 'that happens'.

DocLightning · Mon Oct 01, 2018 3:06 pm

marcelh wrote:
Those people get already vaccinated, so why do I need - as a healthy 44 yo - a flu vaccin?

Because efficacy is 40-70%. It's not a terribly effective vaccine. But for now, it's all we've got. So the more people who get it, the less flu circulation we have. The less that people who have underlying health conditions catch flu. The less money we have to spend on treating flu.

My question is: if it costs you nothing, why wouldn't you get it?

DocLightning · Mon Oct 01, 2018 3:10 pm

Jouhou wrote:
fr8mech wrote:
Ok, so I've had just about all my doctors contact me and tell me to make sure I get the flu vaccine this year. Even the radiation oncologist sent me an email reminding me, even though I haven't seen her in over a year.

The radio talking folks said the CDC claimed it would be a bad year for the flu. This, presumably from the folks that put their stamp of approval on last year's vaccine, which was 30'ish percent effective.

I'm probably going to get the vaccine, along with everyone in the house, but I'm wondering whether you folks get it or not.

So, you bring up an oncologist so the answer is 400% yes.

Now, here's something people are not doing that they should be doing: researching the different flu vaccines being offered.

With normal vaccines, the run of the mill kind you'd get without specifically requesting something, they've been having trouble providing effective protection against the H3N2 virus. There are vaccines out there that show some increased protection against H3N2. H3N2 was the virus that made last year such a severe flu season. This year is likely to be an H3N2 dominant year as well. Last year the H3N2 variant referred to as the "Aussie flu" never circulated significantly in the US. It was more severe than the US variant from last year, and it is due to ravage the US this year. This year's vaccine formulation includes a new strain meant to protect from the "aussie" variant of H3N2.

I highly recommend seeking out a flu vaccine called flublok, which is fairly new on the market but has demonstrated increased protection from H3N2 strains. It's still not perfectly effective at protecting you from H3N2, but it will do a far better job than normal flu vaccines.

And yes, I get the vaccine every year.

I don't know how you know all this detail, but you're exactly right.

trpmb6 · Mon Oct 01, 2018 4:31 pm

Received mine along with my two sons exactly one week ago. No body is showing any signs of anything more than normal seasonal allergies. My arm is still slightly sore, which I do find to be slightly out of character, but not alarming. The boys seemed to completely forget the whole thing even happened and are still bouncing off the walls like normal.

Get your vaccine!

Jouhou · Mon Oct 01, 2018 5:42 pm

DocLightning wrote:
Jouhou wrote:
fr8mech wrote:
Ok, so I've had just about all my doctors contact me and tell me to make sure I get the flu vaccine this year. Even the radiation oncologist sent me an email reminding me, even though I haven't seen her in over a year.

The radio talking folks said the CDC claimed it would be a bad year for the flu. This, presumably from the folks that put their stamp of approval on last year's vaccine, which was 30'ish percent effective.

I'm probably going to get the vaccine, along with everyone in the house, but I'm wondering whether you folks get it or not.

So, you bring up an oncologist so the answer is 400% yes.

Now, here's something people are not doing that they should be doing: researching the different flu vaccines being offered.

With normal vaccines, the run of the mill kind you'd get without specifically requesting something, they've been having trouble providing effective protection against the H3N2 virus. There are vaccines out there that show some increased protection against H3N2. H3N2 was the virus that made last year such a severe flu season. This year is likely to be an H3N2 dominant year as well. Last year the H3N2 variant referred to as the "Aussie flu" never circulated significantly in the US. It was more severe than the US variant from last year, and it is due to ravage the US this year. This year's vaccine formulation includes a new strain meant to protect from the "aussie" variant of H3N2.

I highly recommend seeking out a flu vaccine called flublok, which is fairly new on the market but has demonstrated increased protection from H3N2 strains. It's still not perfectly effective at protecting you from H3N2, but it will do a far better job than normal flu vaccines.

And yes, I get the vaccine every year.

I don't know how you know all this detail, but you're exactly right.

My mom was a biochemist. I grew up in the boonies where we didn't have cable tv etc so I read her textbooks for fun. My first job was working in R&D at Idexx labs doing data analysis when I was 15. What I do for a living today is unrelated but this stuff still fascinates me.

Airstud · Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:26 am

DocLightning wrote:
My question is: if it costs you nothing, why wouldn't you get it?

Because the National Institute of Health says it brings a risk of respiratory viruseseses. :scared:

DocLightning · Thu Oct 04, 2018 6:26 pm

Airstud wrote:
DocLightning wrote:
My question is: if it costs you nothing, why wouldn't you get it?

Because the National Institute of Health says it brings a risk of respiratory viruseseses.

No they don't.

Flighty · Thu Oct 04, 2018 7:14 pm

I'm open to the devil taking me when he decides to. I've had a good life. :stirthepot:

Airstud · Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:43 pm

DocLightning wrote:
Airstud wrote:
DocLightning wrote:
My question is: if it costs you nothing, why wouldn't you get it?

Because the National Institute of Health says it brings a risk of respiratory viruseseses.

No they don't.

But then what is this here article all about :confused:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404712/

DocLightning · Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:29 am

Airstud wrote:
DocLightning wrote:
Airstud wrote:

Because the National Institute of Health says it brings a risk of respiratory viruseseses.

No they don't.

But then what is this here article all about

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404712/

I'm surprised this got published. The p values were .3-.7. Less than 0.05 would be statistically significant.

Airstud · Fri Oct 05, 2018 1:17 am

DocLightning wrote:
The p values were .3-.7.

Gross.

Since my physical is coming up I suppose I ought to just print out the article and show it to my doc and see what the h he says about it (not sure why I didn't think of that in the first place :boggled:

). And also get hip to the fact that there is no 100% safety from anything in this world.

Channex757 · Sat Oct 13, 2018 4:43 pm

I need to book mine on Monday. Just had a reminder SMS message from the GP to ring and arrange it.

This year I can also get it done in my regular Pharmacy, the one where my electronic prescriptions go to. I'm not long out of hospital and my system hasn't finished the full reboot so I need all the help I can get this Winter.

fr8mech · Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:03 pm

Just for those itching to know, got the vaccine on Tuesday. Low-grade fever and some lower-extremity aches on Thursday, right as rain on Friday. Pretty typical for me.

I guess the vaccine causes a mild immune response in me. Neither kid seems to be affected.

cranberrysaus · Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:49 am

Need to get mine scheduled soon. Supposedly the nasal spray has finally been approved again, although it doesn't seem like very many places offer it.

flyingclrs727 · Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:47 am

DocLightning wrote:
marcelh wrote:
Those people get already vaccinated, so why do I need - as a healthy 44 yo - a flu vaccin?

Because efficacy is 40-70%. It's not a terribly effective vaccine. But for now, it's all we've got. So the more people who get it, the less flu circulation we have. The less that people who have underlying health conditions catch flu. The less money we have to spend on treating flu.

My question is: if it costs you nothing, why wouldn't you get it?

I convinced my wife to get one before her trip home to Ukraine for about 8 weeks. She wasn't enthusiastic about getting one, but I said I had been reading that this year's flu season seemed to be much worse than recent ones. I also pointed out that it would be much better to take the flu shot and maybe not need it than to get sick on her trip and waste much of her time home recovering from illness. After conversing with some friends in Ukraine, she agreed to get one with me almost 3 weeks ago.

I barely noticed a reaction to the flu shot. The only flu shot to which I noticed any unusually strong reaction was the H1N1 supplemental shot that came out in 2009. The only time I have gotten the flu in the last 30 or so years was in 2007. I and my father, mother and brother had all gotten the flu even though we all had gotten that season's flu shot. I do think that the severity was much lower than I have ever had before. I think I at least had some partial immunity. The main effect for my father was that he lost about 30 pounds in 2 weeks. It was weight that he needed to lose, but that's probably not an ideal way to lose it.

Flanker7 · Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:02 pm

I never had one and never have flu. My wife on the other hand gets one every year and you guessed it..got the flu.

cjg225 · Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:42 pm

I got mine at work last week. Strangely, it didn't burn like it did the prior two years. Something about the really cold liquid being injected makes it feel like it's burning, but this time it was nothing at all. Still hate getting stuck with a needle, though. Not that I'm afraid, but it's a really weird feeling. More disgusting than painful. *shiver* Yuck.

tommy1808 · Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:36 pm

cjg225 wrote:
I got mine at work last week. Strangely, it didn't burn like it did the prior two years. Something about the really cold liquid being injected makes it feel like it's burning, but this time it was nothing at all. Still hate getting stuck with a needle, though. Not that I'm afraid, but it's a really weird feeling. More disgusting than painful. *shiver* Yuck.

Start donating blood. After the first time they moved the needle under your skin for a minute or so to get it in a vain, you just laugh at those pesky vaccination needles..

Best regards
Thomas

trpmb6 · Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:38 pm

what annoys me is that soreness feeling you have for a couple days after. The needle itself is hardly noticeable.

LMP737 · Wed Oct 17, 2018 7:02 pm

It's really a no brainier. Especially if you have kids or elderly parents.

cjg225 · Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:57 pm

trpmb6 wrote:
what annoys me is that soreness feeling you have for a couple days after. The needle itself is hardly noticeable.

Soreness went away within a few hours for me this time. Really wasn't even uncomfortable when I went to sleep, and I'm a side/stomach sleeper.

bunumuring · Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:48 pm

Hey guys,
I missed having a flu shot last year - first time in about a decade - and of course I got the worst bout of flu I have ever had. Lasted on and off for about three months with one brief period of a few days in hospital. Tests proved that I had two strains of flu over that time.
I had flu six months ago (no reaction and never have had one) and have survived winter without anything hitting me, yet!
Now it's spring here in Australia and to me at least, our 'flu season' has been much milder this year than it was last year. Hardly anyone I know had a bad dose of any strain of flu.
Good luck all of you northern hemispherians for your winter flu season!
Cheers
Bunumuring

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