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[sars]

This fascinating article makes me glad I never bothered to get the H1N1 vaccine, and just reinforces my opinion on flu vaccine's in general.

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Drug/risk_of_swine_flu_0150100835.html

Comments

[anjak_j]

Even though I have asthma and a weakened immune system I never have the flu shot. Yes, I have had chest infections - and pneumonia on one occasion - because of becoming infected with the flu. But I prefer to wear a mask and look like a fool to try and avoid infection or actually get infected than pump my body full of vaccines that barely work from the experiences my friends who've had them have shared.

[sars]

Looking at that article I'd say it's not that the vaccine's don't work, but that you're just more prone to the strains of flu it doesn't cover because of your suppressed immune system.

I'm like you. I'd rather have the odd cold and occasional bout of flu than pump myself full of infections in the hope I don't get sick. Everyone I've known who's had the flu shot has gotten sick. One year a co-worker got the shot and then contracted glandular fever and lucky me had never had that before and got infected as well. We both ended up off work for like a month.

[anjak_j]

Which is mostly the point - people pump themselves with a vaccine and it might cover you for the most common strains of the flu. But I do think that some people forget that even though you've had that shot, you need to exercise infection control still since it is a very narrow spectrum of viruses that it covers you for. That and these viruses continuously mutate.

Almost everyone I've ever known to have the shot has become ill right after it. And not the mild kind of ill they advertise. It's one of the big reasons I avoid it.

At the end of the day, if I'm going to a country that recommends various vaccines - typhoid for instance - I'm getting that jab. But I think people are fighting a no-win battle with flu vaccines.

[sars]

Totally agree.

I'm totally for childhood vaccinations like MMR and chicken pox and whatever else they are giving kids these days, but as you said, flu changes from year to year. They're fighting a losing battle.

[jslvr4vr]

I only got it last year cuz I was in two Nursing homes. Other than then I don't know when I last got the shot. I felt sicker after I had it then when I went without so I never got the H1N1 vaccine this year. Didn't think it was worth it to myself.

[sars]

I've never had one, even though when I'm working it's in one of the areas where they recommend it. Think my immune system does a fine job on its own.

That's what I've heard. All my friends who've had a flu shot have always felt sicker and gotten sicker those years.

Though my friend who was pregnant was encouraged to have the H1N1 shot last year because apparently it was hitting pregnant women worse.

[jslvr4vr]

My friend is pregnant and got it though she seemed like she didn't want to. It doesn't seem like it did her any bad but also no good. Shots can help but to my thinking the flu shots make u feel worse unless u already got a bad immune system. Then maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't.

[sars]

Personally I'm against the swine flu vaccine being given out on such a massive scale because everyone I know who had swine flu didn't even realise they were infected until after it had been and gone. So there's a chance you could have had it already, and then you go and take a vaccine that suppresses your immune system. Doesn't make sense to me.

[gategrrl]

My entire family and I caught the H1N1, or one its strains, last November, just before Thanksgiving. Oy, it was *miserable*! I've never had the flu shot, though. My temp did shoot up to 102 for a few hours and then it went down and I felt better.

My nurse-doc told me she knew of several people, healthy people, who ended up in the hospital and dying. *headdesk* So she was taking H1N1 seriously. In any case, it's up to the individual to figure out if they need it or not. I don't know if I'll ever get the flu shot; if I do get sick, I rarely realize it. Heck, the nurse asked me on that visit how long I'd had the fever I had and I was, "What? What are you talking about?"

Anyway, the flu shots are a shot in the dark, so to speak.

[sars]

None of my friends who caught H1N1 were sick enough to even realise they'd had it. They had to have blood tests to confirm that they'd had it like weeks before.

And really, if you work in the health industry of course you will hear of it, of course you will hear of it happening to someone, somewhere.

I've had proper flu a couple of times and yes, it is miserable. But I've never even been to the doctors when I've had it. As long as you're sensible you're usually okay.