We will change this week’s poll to something different since we all know all the market is going higher. Let’s talk about the Flu shot. Do you get one? I don’t, but my wife and baby do. Reading Cronkite, in the iBC new section, I’ve become a bit of a conspiracy theorist.
Other than that, I read numerous health articles explaining why not to get the Flu shot, so I choose not to. It seems a bit odd that the media continues to push the shot on us , claiming the flu is spreading like wild fire, that’s all I’ve heard this weekend.
This brings me to my next twitter poll. Do you get the Flu shot? CLICK HERE TO VOTE! (no account needed to vote, go ahead and click the buttons.)
My employer gives away free flu shots to all employees plus their families. They are clearly believers in the bullshit.
Anything that my employer believes that strongly in, is clearly not in my best interest.
indeud. I support this comment 100%
Why would you work for them than?
This is simply sad… if you don’t believe in them, find another employer .
Check out the package inserts on these vaccines. Definitely, not something you want to be putting in your body.
The flu.. You get it, you fight it off for a few days and then you move on. It’s like training for your immune system.
Thanks for all the “no” votes. Now I have ammo for my wife.
as a doctor I have to say I strongly recommend the flu shot for people under 2yrs old or over 65yrs old or anyone with a chronic illness. reason is these are the groups that are more likely to suffer the bad consequences of the flu such as flu meningitis, pneumonia or death. these are the main groups that are truly targeted by me and most doctors I know. let the media hype it for everyone all they want but really I look at it as a tool to prevent high risk patients from ending up in the hospital I am not as concerned for your average joe who will only be ill 5-7 days and then be fine.
that said the remaining majority of people i feel should make up their own minds as long as they have all the facts. the big misconceptions i run into are
I got the flu from the flu shot. 100% impossible the shot is a dead virus (flu mist is live attenuated and a different story). that said it doesn’t mean you cant still get the flu on a good year its like 70% protective they cant predict all strains that will hit the country. also it doesn’t protect you for 10-14 days after you get it and there are other viruses that mimic the flu. however those that do get the shot and still get the flu have been shown to have a more minor illness.
also a big study in canada showed that on days 3 and 4 after getting the shot you are slightly weekend and more likely to get the flu if exposed another good reason that if you do get the shot to get it early in the year.
True adverse reactions to the vaccine are very rare and most commonly things like fever and malaise.
that said I get the shot every year and give it to all my children because i am constantly exposed to it and almost guaranteed to get it and bring it home if i don’t. to all others it is a personal choice I never push it on people who don’t want it but do feel you should have the facts and make an educated decision.
I appreciate this comment. Good stuff. @ Dr.Cole
All those years in school and you didn’t learn to spell weakened? I wonder what else you don’t know?
I started getting the shot about 8 yrs ago. One of the big reasons was so that I would minimize the chance of passing the bug onto my elderly mother, who lives 6 hrs away, but I visit as regularly as possible. A second reason is to minimize the chance that I am sick with the flu when it’s time to leave this frozen Tundra for a respite in Panama and CR in a few weeks.
Now I’m not big on putting foreign crap or chemicals in my body. To wit, I am allergic to brown liquor, beer, red wine, aged cheese, etc. — but instead of taking Reactine or some other such nonsense everytime I eat, or denying myself culinary pleasures for a diet of rice cakes, well let’s just say this — I’m enjoying a Kirin as we speak, will partake of Bordeaux with dinner, which will consist of something topped with the best Reggiano available, topped off with a snifter of C. Montifaud or Camus.
In 8 years I have not had a case of the flu and not had a single side effect — I’ll continue to get them till ……
I would only have concerns about getting the shot if I was young enough not to have contracted many strains of the flu virus, and had thus not built up some immunity — sadly that is not my status. I missed the great Spanish flu epidemic at the turn of the 20th century but have had most all of them since then.
Get the damn shot — for the greater good if nothing else.
I’ve decided that for me, the risk of complications from the shot is less than the risk of more serious complications from the flu. It is mostly a “getting older” thing. I could be wrong.
Here is a link to one of the more general data reports from the CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf
The flu is number 8 on the list, about two percent of deaths. Homicide is number 15 on the list, less than one percent of deaths. More people choose to kill themselves, than each other.
Hypertension and diabetes are nearly four percent of deaths, thank you fast food.
Friends and acquaintances are passing away each year, in greater numbers. I do not mean to be cruel here, just noting the reality of the technical analysis.
30 percent of TOTAL deaths are from problems with the plumbing (heart and stroke) and about 25 percent from cancer. Of couse the percentages are different when looking at one age or gender, race, etc.