BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time

Subject: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 10:11 PM

Well, it's that time of the year again, at least here in the northern hemisphere, to do your part to minimize the chances of infecting your friends and family with the flu and here to hammer it home is everyone's favorite Newf Rick Mercer.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Janie
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 10:31 PM

Thanks bobad.

My son is phobic of needles and refuses to get a flu shot. Drives me nuts. It will take him getting the flu (and surviving it) before I think he will consider it.

In the years before flu shots were common, I twice ended up with pneumonia on top of influenza. Most miserable experiences of my life. I now make sure I get a flu vaccine every year and also keep careful track of when I am due for a pneumonia vaccine.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 11:44 PM

Oh, I did that weeks ago.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: JennieG
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 11:49 PM

I had mine in April!

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 01:06 AM

Unless you are frail, feable, infirm OR
Diabetic, syphilitic, or worse...

I prefer to catch the contagion of each year's virus...
Full force...in the face, jowels and bowels.
Those who survive the "real thing" are innoculated for life.
Those innoculated play chance with the strain...and be incubaters for the "super bug."

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Please stay far, far away from me....ever notice how doctors in the hospitals use their elbows to punch floors inside the elevator doors?

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 09:23 AM

"Those who survive the "real thing" are innoculated for life."

Uh, no......they are immunized against that particular strain but new strains are continuously arising when an existing flu virus spreads to humans from another animal species, or when an existing human strain picks up new genes from a virus that usually infects birds or pigs.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 10:03 AM

If only I could get and stay healthy enough to qualify for shot! My doc won't let me near it unless I'm not coughing at all, and that hasn't happened in years.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 10:37 AM

Got mine in October.
I think April must have been last season's shot? (But who knows how flu goes in the south.)

I've been getting over the Cold from Hell, and I don't even want to imagine a flu. Gargoyle can have mine.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Elmore
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 10:45 AM

Done.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: CupOfTea
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:04 AM

For the first time in my life, I got one this year. After being largely healthy for 50 years, the past few have shown me how vulnerable I have become: asthma makes yer life different.

The slow recovery from a bug of unknown parentage (cold/flu?) that took near two weeks this summer was frighteningly enlightening. I have to wait until I get a bit older to get the shingles vaccine (my insurance company thinks I'm too young for them to pay at all for it, even though I've had three shingles attacks), but as soon as I can afford it, I will.

The "ounce of prevention" rule resonates here.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:16 AM

Always have the injection. Each year there are several new strains, including some which could potentially flatten us all. (I mean... seriously!) The 'flu virus mutates easily, our immune systems may not have met the new type before. So scientists each year select about three to concentrate on and put them in the current 'flu jab. They may guess wrongly, but at least we're doing the best for ourselves by accepting the immunisation. I've been very very ill years ago, two years running, after getting 'flu. Don't risk it! (By the way, I've never had a bad reaction to the jab. It's not 'live' so you can't get anything nasty from it.)

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,999
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:16 AM

I lived through a case of Hong Kong Flu in 1969. Other than pneumonia in the late 1980s, I never felt so sick in my life. If you can afford the shots, get them. That is especially important for older people and children.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: olddude
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:22 AM

I got mine from my docs in october, three days later I got a bitchin case of the flu .... two years in a row I got sick after the shot I ain't doing it again. Don't care what they say I take my chances next year

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,999
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:23 AM

For people wondering about the flu vaccines and how they work.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: vectis
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 05:14 PM

Got mine a month ago with my athsma check up

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 05:22 PM

Good timing on this thread - I was over to my GP yesterday for the shot. I've gotten them for years, and now that a family member has a "pre-existing condition" that could make having the flu a very dangerous thing, we all try to get the shots.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Amos
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 02:35 AM

I've never had one, on the same basis that Gargoyle describes that I was trusting my immune system. Nor have I ever needed one or wished I'd had one. Could just be lucky or less predisposed to infection than average. I've had minor flues and have always bounced back after two or three days.


A

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 06:40 AM

I used to say the same thing, Amos, I was proud of my strong immunity. I'd been a schoolteacher all my life, and the exposure to germs had given me superb resistance to almost every infectious illness. I was never ill, and scorned any kind of immunisation. Then... I grew older and my immunity became weaker, and one winter I had a terrible bout of flu. I was hallucinationg, raging fever, delirious and the doc was considering hospitalisation. After it retreated, I was like jelly for weeks, stuck indoors and feeble to the point of bedridden. It honestly took me months to get back on top. Stupidly, I still held out against the jab, but a second performance of much the same thing another year convinced me. I had the injection and since then haven't looked back. It's not just the flu, it's the attendant complications, pneumonia, M.E., and all the rest. I'd advise anyone to swallow their pride and go for it.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 07:07 AM

Jeri, April is autumn in Oz - a good time to have the shot.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Morticia
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 07:50 AM

I am relatively young and healthy and won't take a vaccine that may be needed more by someone else. Also, did it last year and my arm hurt for a week, I would sooner have flu thanks

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 08:06 AM

Part of the rationale for having a flu shot is to protect other, more vulnerable people from acquiring the infection from you, who although being young and healthy and not severely affected can nevertheless pass it on.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Morticia
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 10:53 AM

yes I appreciate that but it HURT...

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 12:51 PM

There is plenty to go around, extras are discarded each year, and if the shot hurt last year, investigate the nasal spray or the other options (really small needles, or find a new practitioner to give the shot, or maybe they'll give it in the butt.)

It isn't just so you won't get the flu, it is so each of us won't get it and share it.

I have a little ache in that arm, but nothing to slow me down.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 12:54 PM

I can honestly say that neither my husband nor I have ever had a sore arm after the jab, and neither have any of my (elderly) friends.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: maeve
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 01:03 PM

I'll have to save up for it.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 01:09 PM

In UK, if you aren't eligible for a free jab on the NHS, Tesco's (and Asda) do it for £10.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: olddude
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 01:10 PM

Bruce wow, so that is why I got the flu and a big ass asthma attack afterwords
asthma

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,999
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 01:10 PM

"I can honestly say that neither my husband nor I have ever had a sore arm after the jab, and neither have any of my (elderly) friends."

Me too. Of course I prefer IM shots in the gluteus amximus.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 02:27 PM

A big part of the illness from the flue is because of your immune response. Olddude, it's not that the shot can give you the flu, but if you're in the process of coming down with it, the shot won't stop that. Talk to your doctor--I figure that asthma is your immune system freaking out for no good reason, and if the vaccine causes that to happen, you maybe shouldn't get it.

This year, I got nuthin'--not even a sore arm. Last year, I got a very sore arm and some short-lived cold-ish symptoms. I get vaccinated so I don't get sick, but also so weenies like Amos don't either. (PthththtTT)

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 02:51 PM

Good on ya Jeri - taking one for the weenies.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Janie
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 03:03 PM

Wrong, Jeri. A big part of the illness from the flue is due to breathing in all that soot or the noxious gases that don't get vented properly;^)

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 03:16 PM

;-) Crap...
Sometimes spelling counts.

In flew enza,
Up your rhinus
Inna Mercedes Benza
You gotta great big sinus

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 03:19 PM

In the UK a flu shot isn't recommended for young healthy people at all, for "though [influenza] can be uncomfortable, [it] is not normally a serious disease"

From Boots (our main pharmacy chain) WebMD site:

"If you are under 65 years old and healthy, you won't need a flu jab as influenza, though it can be uncomfortable, is not normally a serious disease. An annual flu jab is recommended for certain high-risk individuals who are more prone to flu complications such as pneumonia.
People who should consider getting vaccinated each year are:
Pregnant women - pregnancy can increase your risk of flu complications such as pneumonia.
People 65 years or older
People who live in nursing homes
Anyone over six months of age with chronic heart or lung conditions, including asthma, a long-term kidney or liver disease, diabetes or with any condition that weakens the immune system
Anyone with lowered immunity due to disease or treatment (such as steroid medication or cancer treatment)
Any person in close contact with someone in a high-risk group, such as the main caregiver of an elderly or disabled person
a neurological condition eg. multiple sclerosis (MS) or cerebral palsy
a problem with your spleen, for example sickle cell disease, , or if you've had your spleen removed.
People who work in certain professions such as poultry workers"

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Janie
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 03:59 PM

In the USA, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is recommending that everyone over the age of 6 months get vaccinated, and then they go on to list those who are at specially high risk, which is very similar to what CS posted in terms of higher risk factors.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2012-2013.htm#get-vaccinated

I'm guessing the difference in recommendations reflects the differences in our health care systems and how they are funded, i.e., in the UK, with a primarily tax-funded health care system, they give more consideration to the costs vs. the risks when formulating recommendations. A more rationed system. In the USA, where a significant amount of health care is still paid for through private sector insurance, the cost/benefit analysis by a government agency is weighted differently. With the upcoming expansion of Medicaid it will be interesting to see if the CDC recommendations gradually become more conservative.

I work at a hospital. While employees can not be required to be vaccinated, there is always a big, big push for employees to get vaccinated - and the vaccines are paid for by the company. Makes huge sense from a public health standpoint, since every person who works in a hospital risks exposing the most vulnerable people, our patients, to flu. The hospital also does aggessive outreach with patients, since one patient hospitalized who has or gets influenza risks exposure of other patients, many of whom are in high risk categories.

Although I am generally quite healthy and have been for most of my life, anytime I have gotten influenza it has been much more than "uncomfortable." I don't call "sick as a dog" uncomfortable. And even when I was a child and adolescent, when I did catch the flu, I always ended up with a secondary infection of some sort or another. Of course, when I catch an adenovirus, the common cold to most people, I also get quite ill and am prone to developing secondary infections. I am fortunate in that I rarely become ill, but when I do, I get really ill, even from a cold.

People have a tendency to call many illnesses "the flu" from severe colds to 1-3 day stomach viruses.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 04:15 PM

Most drug stores in my area (North Texas) are offering the shot for about $25, walk in and request it. Occasionally I see "sales" when it is less expensive, and I imagine the county health department gives it for low or no fee.

I work in a densely populated environment - a university - and the high number of people in places I work or pass through makes a flu shot a really good idea.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Janie
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 04:46 PM

Whether you choose to get vaccinated or not, you can take significant steps to reduce your risk of getting sick, and perhaps even more important, of passing your illness on to others by taking just a little time and thoughtfulness to do the following:

COVER YOUR MOUTH (yes, I'm shouting) when you cough or sneeze, preferably with your arm and not your hand.

Stay home if your work permits, and if it doesn't permit, don't otherwise go out to malls, events, the grocery store, etc. if you can avoid it. Keep your germs to yourself as much as is possible.

Wash your hands freguently and thoroughly, especially during cold and flu season. I am constantly amazed, in public rest rooms, by the number of people who do not wash their hands after going to toilet, or who think a quick rinse, or two second wash constitutes handwashing.

When washing your hands in a public or office restroom, or if someone in your home is ill, leave the water running until you have dried your hands, then use the towel you dried your hands on to turn off the faucet and to open the bathroom door to exit.

Wash your hands for 20 seconds (sing happy birthday to yourself under your breath, twice thru) and vary your hand washing movements instead of sticking with the typical "handwringing" motion. The tips of the fingers, the sides of the fingers, including the point between fingers where they meet the palm, and the center of the palm are often missed. Intentionally wash around the entire length of each finger, and comb through the fingers with the fingers on the opposite hand.

While alcohol based hand sanitizers are better than nothing, soap, warm water and a thorough 20 second washing work best and kill the widest variety of germs.

If you work where a lot of people handle the doorknobs, telephone receiver, etc., pass pens often to other people for their signature, or if you are yourself ill with a cold, wipe the doorknob or telephone receiver or pen frequently with a chlorine based towelette (we are required to have them on hand at the hospital.)

To protect yourself from other peoples' germs during cold/flu season, keep your hands away from your face. Rub your mouth or eyes or lay your hand along your cheek after handling a pen you just passed to a person with a cold, or gripping a shopping cart in the grocery store, and chances are good you will soon have the same cold.

I know this sounds like the rantings of someone with a germ phobia, which I do not have. These are the well researched recommendations that are standard instructions and annual training in any health care facility. These measures are scientifically proven to significantly reduce transmission of disease. Most of us aren't going to practice all of these measures more than 50% of the time, but if we do practice them 50% of the time, we will likely decrease by 50% the number of times we either make some one else sick, or catch a disease carried by someone else.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 02 Dec 12 - 04:59 PM

Good advice Janie. At a university convocation I attended in 2008 the keynote speaker Dr. Julian Davies, a world leader in antibiotics and a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, delivered the Convocation Address, the main message of which was that the singular most action you can take to prolong your life is washing your hands - and he should know.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 05:00 AM

Oh Janie, you're so right! I walk around our city (Norwich UK) and people sneeze a great big AAAACHHHOOOOO! with no hanky and no hand over the mouth, turning their heads in all directions to make sure that most of us receive the maximum dose of whatever they've got. I've got to the stage where I'm tempted to go up to them and remonstrate, but my husband holds me back. He's much more polite and reserved than I am. I absolutely hate it, and on the bus of course the germs are floating about the whole journey. Grooooo! And (rant continues!) in our superstore Tesco's, the checkout lady coughed copiously all over our food as it travelled along the conveyor belt towards her. In this instance, I had to speak out, after all it was our food she was contaminating. She was quite huffy and cross, and proceeded to lick her finger to get some bags. I told her off about that too. I'm turning into a right old curmudgeon, but I just don't want to be ill, and it's sheer ignorance not to cover the mouth when coughing or sneezing! (Oh I do feel better now, having had a good old moan!)

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 05:06 AM

I guess. He'd have been 76 or so at the time of the convocation.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: MikeL2
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 05:38 AM

Hi

We have been having annual Flu jabs now for many years. Our Gp always reminds us to get them done ( not that we need reminding).

Until having the jabs I used to suffer from several bad colds and occasional Flu every winter. Since having the shots I don't get anywhere near as many colds and they are usually less severe. Not had Flu since.....touch wood.

What can't speak can't lie !!! Get your jabs !!

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 05:56 AM

BIG PROBLEM - in the UK the brand is called TamiFlu. However for many reasons the maker Roche is not divulging important details of its product, how it is made, what strength it is, if it actually works, what the side effects are, etc. So whilst the vast majority of elderly and infirm are requesting a flu jab this year, many are not. These latter - like myself - are holding back whilst trying - unsuccessfully to find out more about the risks. Its a case of not trusting Big Pharma.

===

Scandal of the poison pen-pushers: How doctors and patients are kept in the dark about potentially dangerous everyday drugs
By DR BEN GOLDACRE
PUBLISHED: 22:00, 1 December 2012

Tamiflu is supposed to be the miracle flu drug. Patients across the UK rely on it. In medicine cupboards everywhere patients have eagerly stockpiled it, and in some winters there has even been talk of rationing.

The Government itself has spent £500 million on stockpiling the drug to keep the country from collapse in the wake of a bird-flu epidemic, since it's supposed to reduce the risk of pneumonia and death.

And yet for all we know, Tamiflu might be no better than paracetamol: because Roche, the company making it, still withholds vital information on the risks and benefits from researchers, doctors and patients.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2241431/Scandal-poison-pen-pushers-How-doctors-patients-kept-dark-potentially-dangerous-everyday-drugs.html

====

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 06:11 AM

http://www.gene.com/gene/products/information/tamiflu/pdf/pi.pdf

Given your legitimate concerns, CJB, that is worth a read in its entirety.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 01:16 PM

"It's Flu Shot Time"

No it ain't. It's whiskey time. Flu shots are for chumps, not Chimps.

- Chongo

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 01:28 PM

Tamiflu is NOT a vaccine - it is an anti-viral drug used to treat influenza.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 01:32 PM

Never had a flu shot and have no intentions of getting one. I have been asthmatic since very early childhood and work in the healthcare industry (albeit administrative rather than clinical) but I have not had the flu since I was very young. I usually get a cold or two a year but really don't believe in pumping unnecessary medication into my system. Had a bout of the flu run through my employees just last month (3-4 out sick with it) but I never caught it. The more medications we use, the more medications we NEED.

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: bobad
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 06:53 PM

" Cursing your sick colleague for the infection you can feel settling into your chest? You might want to aim the finger of blame closer to home.

It's entirely possible you may have infected yourself with whatever respiratory bug has latched onto your lungs. The same can be said about the some of the stomach-wrenching gastrointestinal ailments people occasionally get.

That's because with a number of infections, people sometimes self-inoculate. They take germs they picked up on their hands when they were hanging onto bus poles or shaking a hand someone recently sneezed into and they deliver the bugs to places where those bugs can go from harmless to disease causing.

In a nutshell, they stick germ-coated fingers into their mouths, they rub their eyes, they are even known to poke a finger into a nostril.

And voila! Bug on skin becomes bug on mucus membrane — a much more porous surface and an easier route to a warm and welcoming place for the bug to migrate towards.

Handwashing and alcohol gels can slough those germs off your fingers. And that's why public health officials repeat the handwashing mantra relentlessly, particularly during cold and flu season."

Flu Prevention: The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Prevent Cold And Flu

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 07:52 PM

My HMO provides shots as part of my benefits. Always get one and haven't had flu in 8-10 years. I did NOT like the last time I had it. Never a problem or sore arm.

(They protect against the 'major' form for each year. There is a chance of getting some off-brand flu.)

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 04:50 AM

LOL Bill, 'off-brand flu'! Sounds as if it can be bought at Lidls!

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:26 AM

IF you folks who get the flu because you didn't get a flu shot die, can I have your ponies?

Subject: RE: BS: OK Folks, It's Flu Shot Time
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 11:41 AM

Lidls? I assume that's the equivilent of K-Mart here....

I'm sure that a few trips to K-Mart can get you some form of flu for free.