Have you got your flu shot? Wife person just informed me that her hair dresser's father is in a nursing home, and has the flu. What really scares me she said that thirty five of those old people have the flu. It is a very contagious sickness. Please get your shots before it is too late. This is not a time to get sick. Of course there is never a convienient time for the flu or any sickness. The flu can spread like wildfire. Me and mine get our flu shots as soon as they start giving them, which is the first day after thanksgiving.

-- Notforlong (Fsur439@aol.com), December 23, 1999

Answers

Wouldnt even consider it. I will take my chances! By the time the saulk vacine was in use the virus was already on its way out. Do you have any idea how many people were infected with Polio who might not have contracted it all because the first vacine was live and not atinuated. It made the whole situation worse. Retired Nurse

-- Susan Barrett (sue59@bellsouth.net), December 23, 1999.

Do those shots really work? My mother-in-law got one last year and then had two of the worst cases of flu in her 75 years.

-- (Here@today.com), December 23, 1999.

I haven't had a flu shot since I left the AF in 1990. I haven't had the flu since.

-- CygnusXI (cygnus@black-hole.com), December 23, 1999.

Flu shots are only good for two to four variants of the flu virus, and which ones are largely educated guesses on the part of the C.D.C. in Atlanta. Sometimes you win that gamble and the year's bad strains are the ones you are innoculated against, sometimes you lose when a new one drifts in on the wind from the far east.

And then again, a lot of people GET the flu from the shots, which is basically about as counterproductive as you can get.

I think I'll take my chances.

O d d O n e

-- OddOne (mocklamer_1999@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.

I have a nasty cold right now, and I'm doing everything I can to try to get well before new years. Does anyone know of any remidies, besides vitamins, hot baths,and soup? I guess it's better to get it now than next year...

-- Crono (Crono@timesend.com), December 23, 1999.

Both my I and my husband got flu shots. 6 WEEKS later, we got the flu. Just about everyone in this small SW New Mexico town has the flu..one is in the hospital with pneumonia. It is a bad strain and obviously the shots didn't work. Just a warning.

-- Judy (judy@here.com), December 23, 1999.

I know that the times I had the flu these last ten years, I had to be hospitalized each time, and it took several weeks to finally bid adue. However, I have taken the innoculations each year for the last five or six years, and I haven't had the flu once. I am knocking on wood, my head. Neither has my brother, my wife or sons. However you are right about the shot giving a person the flu, I have seen that also. Also the shot is not a one hundred percent proof of not getting the bug, it gives one about a 75 to 80 percent chance of not getting it, and then it is not as severe if you do. I have a sister-in-law who refuses to get them, and she has colds, but not the flu. From my own personal experience, I am going to keep getting them, and will make sure family persons do as well. The wife has not suffered from the bug in recent history. I am sure glad because I am a disaster in the kitchen.

-- Notforlong (Fsur439@aol.com), December 23, 1999.

Here is a link providing a lot of factual info regarding the flu vaccine:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/flu/fluvac.htm

Short summary: The vaccine cannot cause the flu (it is an extract of a 'dead' virus). It is 70-85% efective (so you could still catch the flu). This means that 7 of 10 people who whould normally have gotten the flu would not contract the disease after getting the vaccine. 8 of 10 poeple who would have died once getting the flu would live had they received the vaccine. I think the odds of not catching or of surviving the flu are much better if you have received the vaccine. But, the vaccine also requires 1-2 weeks to become effective.

Here is an extract that seems to fit well into this thread:

Although annual influenza vaccination has long been recommended for people in the high-risk groups, many still do not receive the vaccine. Some people are not vaccinated because of misconceptions about influenza and the vaccine. They mistakenly perceive influenza as merely a nuisance and believe that the vaccine causes unpleasant side effects or that it may even cause the flu. The truth is that influenza vaccine causes no side effects in most people. The most serious side effect that can occur after influenza vaccination is an allergic reaction in people who have a severe allergy to eggs, since the viruses used in the vaccine are grown in hens' eggs. For this reason, people who have an allergy to eggs should not receive influenza vaccine.

Less than one-third of those who receive vaccine have some soreness at the vaccination site, and about 5% to 10% experience mild side effects, such as headache or low-grade fever for about a day after vaccination. These side effects are most likely to occur in children who have not been exposed to influenza virus in the past.

Nevertheless, some older people remember earlier influenza vaccines that did, in fact, produce more unpleasant side effects. Vaccines produced from the 1940s to the mid-1960s were not as highly purified as modern influenza vaccines, and it was these impurities that caused most of the side effects. Since the side effects associated with these early vaccines, such as fever, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue, were similar to some of the symptoms of influenza, people believed that the vaccine had caused them to get the flu. However, influenza vaccine produced in the United States has never been capable of causing influenza. The only type of influenza vaccine that has been licensed in the United States to the present time is made from killed influenza viruses, which cannot cause infection. An influenza vaccine that is made with live influenza viruses has been developed and may be marketed in the future. This vaccine is made with viruses that can confer immunity but do not cause classic influenza symptoms.

Some people do not receive influenza vaccine because they believe it is not very effective. There are several different reasons for this belief. People who have received influenza vaccine may subsequently have an illness that is mistaken for influenza, and they believe that the vaccine failed to protect them. In other cases, people who have received vaccine may indeed have an influenza nfection. Overall vaccine effectiveness varies from year to year, depending upon the degree of similarity between the influenza virus strains included in the vaccine and the strain or strains that circulate during the influenza season. Because the vaccine strains must be chosen 9 to 10 months before the influenza season, and because influenza viruses mutate over time, sometimes mutations occur in the circulating strains between the time vaccine strains are chosen and the next influenza season is over. These mutations sometimes reduce the ability of the vaccine-induced antibody to inhibit the newly mutated virus, thereby reducing vaccine efficacy.

Vaccine efficacy also varies from one person to another. Studies of healthy young adults have shown influenza vaccine to be 70% to 90% effective in preventing illness. In the elderly and those with certain chronic medical conditions, the vaccine is often less effective in preventing illness than in reducing the severity of illness and the risk of serious complications and death. Studies have shown the vaccine to reduce hospitalization by about 70% and death by about 85% among the elderly who are not in nursing homes. Among nursing home residents, vaccine can reduce the risk of hospitalization by about 50%, the risk of pneumonia by about 60%, and the risk of death by 75% to 80%. When antigenic drift results in the circulating virus becoming different from the vaccine strain, overall efficacy may be reduced, especially in preventing illness, but the vaccine is still likely to lessen the severity of the illness and to prevent complications and death.

Sincerely,

-- Uhhmm... (JFCP81A@aol.com), December 23, 1999.

The mother of a farmer friend of mind got a swine flu shot several years back when it was pandemic....the next day she had rooted up 4 1/2 acres of peanuts before they could get a rope around her and hog tie her down..No shots for me!!!!!

-- J (Jayho99@aol.com), December 23, 1999.

Well, I got the flu shot , still got (at least a mild case) of it though (day 2 right now). Not as bad as people around me that didn't get the shot. Basically a bit of head congestion. What I've done so far is 3 times a day, take the following combination: 2000mg L- Lysine, 2000mg Vitamin C, 2 125mg Echinacea. It's seemed to work pretty well for me. No stuffed up nose (although it still leaks to an extent, and I sneeze every so often). L-Lysine, Vitamin C, and Echinacea are all good for the immune system. Don't take the Echinacea if you are allergic to flowers (I forget which one exactly, Daisys or Dandelions I think). Your mileage may vary of course.

-- James Collins (jacollins@thegrid.net), December 23, 1999.

Susan Barrett:

Polio is alive and thriving in countries without organized vaccination programs.

-- Sam Mcgee (weissacre@gwtc.net), December 23, 1999.

Susan,

You ask a rhetorical question. Speaking for myself, the answer is NO, I do not know the statistics. Do you? Please enlighten me. Please cite references. I am retired too. I remember when polio was common. I remember school chums who got polio in the 1st grade. I remember a President who had polio. I remember my parents being afraid to let me go to a public swimming pool. You are a nurse?

-- (gasping@my.ironlung), December 23, 1999.