What's your opinion on flu shots?
polycounter lvl 17
It's "flu season" again, started about a month ago. Some people I know are praising flu shots, other people, like myself, think flu shots are a bunch of bullshit. Every year the news reports that the flu epidemic is worse and that there's even more of a shortage of the vaccine. At my studio they had someone come and give flu shots to who ever signed up for one.
What is your opinion on flu shots? Do you get them annually? In your experience has getting the shot or not affected how sick you've gotten during the winter season?
What is your opinion on flu shots? Do you get them annually? In your experience has getting the shot or not affected how sick you've gotten during the winter season?
Replies
If you're young and healthy, I wouldn't worry about the shot. It's more important for the elderly. If your immune system is weak, it's probably good to get one as well.
Also have a bad experience with it, most of the times i take it i got the flu a few months later. While i don't usually get it on the other years. Time will tell this time ha
To be protected against the flu, you have to get a flu shot every year. Unlike some other illnesses, like chickenpox, the flu virus keeps changing. The vaccine needs to change to keep up with the type of flu that is expected to cause problems that year.
Each year, doctors and scientists who study the flu try to predict which virus will make people sick during the next flu season. Then they make the vaccine out of a mixture of the three most likely viruses.
basically, don't take it unless you HAVE TO.
some vaccinations etc are money making on the health industry like stuff to take twice as much dosage altho you dont need it. it actually duplicated sales on those products.
[for the slow] i catually dont have explosive diahrreia but would be cool huh ! smearing shit all over !
What you are experiencing is normal, you just stay uninformed by your medical professional so that loonies don't freak out about 'OMG your giving me teh fluz?!?'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine
http://www.immunizenc.com/FluFactsMyths.htm
Johny, they just don't make the type of awesome you are anymore.
as long as you take care of yourself i think you'll be fine. if you aren't eating, you are running all over getting Christmas presents, working late, etc.. then your body will be much more prone to illness..
then there are those who do get sick and still do all the running, around spreading their sickness to everyone.... i'd like to see the US start adopting the face-mask like in asian countries.
of course it's worse every year.. vaccinating most of the population only makes the virus stronger.
Indeed, you just must to take it if you are too old, imunnedepressed, or work/study in a hospital. If it works good with you and you like to take it's ok. If you don't want to take it and you aren't on one of those situtions i listed you don't really have too. At least this is the health ministery guidlides here in Portugal.
Indeed, you just must to take it if you are too old, immune-depressed, or work/study in a hospital. If it works good with you and you like to take it's ok. If you don't want to take it and you aren't on one of those situations i listed you don't really have too.
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That sounds spot on to me. I don't get the shots myself. I've heard many doctors, including specialists in the human immune system say the shots aren't necessary for someone my age (22). If I were particularly unwell because of an injury or illness which might weaken my immune system, I'd consider getting a shot.
I'm not sure how correct this is, but I'm also of the mind that if you take things like this when you don't need them, you stand to weaken your immune system for the future. As it may become dependent on those shots to be at full strength.
I'm not sure how correct this is, but I'm also of the mind that if you take things like this when you don't need them, you stand to weaken your immune system for the future. As it may become dependent on those shots to be at full strength.
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No, the immune system doesn't work like that (take my word as a molecular biologist for that, too lazy to explain).
(the real talk starts about 1 min 30 seconds in)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...h&plindex=0
In fact vaccines for serious deseases (not the flu one) are one of the few true success storys of modern medicine, and have probably prevented much more suffering than any of the side effects have caused (even *if* everything in that video was true).
That said, yeah the pharma industry and their connections to politics are seriously fucked up.
@8ftSpider: Pretty much the worst case scenario, and what he ment was probably 60% of those infected (which is then only a few percent of the entire population). And these mortality rates appear quite overblown anyways since that are not 60% of the healthy but all the elderly that already weakend and get killed also count into this statistic (which is tragic but now where near as tragic as it sounds at first).
That said, well the birdflu is mostly a media scare right now, which might or might not become a problem in the future (for humans).
It's easy for us to take vaccines for granted because they don't seem to do anything obvious - but try visiting a country where vaccines aren't common, like India, and notice all the people dying of polio. You don't see polio much in countries that vaccinate. Please think carefully and educate yourself on the subject before spreading that video further.