FLU Season is here

[unclrob]

OK kids after spending 36 hours in bed and dropping 6lbs,going thru caffine withdrawl as well as nicotin withdrawl I'm going to do something I never do and thats get the dang shot.30 years ago I got a flu shot and dang I got the flu and since then never got one but I think this time I think I'm going to get one even though I've already been infected in the hope's I can avoid anymore down time.So if your thinking of passing on this......DON'T.....it sucked and it also almost made me miss a gig,that I should of missed but I have never missed a gig.Got sent home once by a club owner who paid me anyway so I'm not sure if that counts.Just stay healthy and take care of yourselve's.


Off the soap box now.

[ST]

If I lived in a vacuum, I wouldn't bother but since I'm frequently in the company of other...

I've been getting a flu shot every year (as soon as they are available - typically October/November).

I do this mainly for the sake of others around me (some of whom are in higher risk groups).

When I'm gigging there's a lot of close contact with people and if there's even a chance that having a shot can reduce the likelihood of transmitting the flu, then I think it's worth it to do it.

I've never had any kind of side-effect of the flu shot.

[JOYCEfromNS]

Ask your Doctor if he/she gets the Flu Shot - there is a very good chance, if they answer you honestly, they don't. At least thats the way it was a few years back. So it certainly made me go hmmmmmm.

There is no charge ( $ ) for me to get the flu shot yet I have never taken "the shot" and rarely have the flu. Further I am in contact with the public on a fairly frequent basis ( except when I am on here :-)

[Mr_LV19E]

Ask your Doctor if he/she gets the Flu Shot - there is a very good chance, if they answer you honestly, they don't. At least thats the way it was a few years back. So it certainly made me go hmmmmmm.

Around here hospital workers are required to get the shot or they are let go from their jobs. There is a lot of controversy as to the workers rights but it does seem to be in the best interest of patients.

Haven't got the shot myself yet this year but plan on it since the high number of cases being reported. I got my first one about four years ago and have only had it twice. Both times I had a fever of 101 and a sore throat the night of the shot but felt better the next day.

I put off getting the shot for years because back when the swine flu originated (the first one) my mother got the shot and winded up in the hospital for 2 weeks and almost died. Seeing as I seem to be afflicted with my mothers genes I didn't want to take the chance.

[DaveyO]

yes it is, and its kicking my butt.
thought it was gone and then it came back .
take good care of yourselves all,
Dave

[LeftyBlake]

I'll never get one. I am completely opposed to the idea. I'd rather man up and deal with being miserable for a couple days than to get injected with some cocktail of bad things manufactured by a major pharmaceutical company. YMMV.

[ST]

Every now and then you've just got to trust somebody.  It's up to you if this is the now or then for you.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention
What You Should Know for the 2013-2014 Influenza Season


CBS News January 11, 2013
CDC: Flu vaccine 62% effective; 47 states report widespread illness

The Canadian Press October 15, 2012 on CBC.ca
Efficacy of current flu vaccines questioned
"Until new vaccines are developed, researchers say people should keep getting shots"

CBC January 7, 2013
Fewer Torontonians seek flu shots this season
"Toronto Public Health has seen a spike of hundreds of flu cases this week, during a flu season in which officials say fewer people were vaccinated than last year."

[unclrob]

I'll never get one. I am completely opposed to the idea. I'd rather man up and deal with being miserable for a couple days than to get injected with some cocktail of bad things manufactured by a major pharmaceutical company. YMMV.

My thoughts also but a few days is more like a few weeks.The two time's I got the shot I got the flu and was really sick for 10 days after that I never got the shot,this time I'm going to do it after the fact,I think?

[Queequeg]

In December, an Indiana hospital fired eight employees who refused to get flu shots, according to ABC News.
And in Pakistan there is a Taliban campaign to convince people that they should not get the polio vaccine.
I worked on the medical campus here for about 5 years before transferring. They "strongly encouraged" us to get flu shots then, so I did. Now they literally make everyone over there get a flu shot.
Even though I am not on the med campus any more I continue to get flu shots every year. Never had a bad reaction. Haven't had the flu in the 11 years I've been getting them.
It is possible to get the flu even if you have had a flu shot. It takes about 2 weeks to build up and protect you, so you are vulnerable during that time. Also,  it is a cocktail of generally three different strains. So you could become infected from yet another strain not included.

Note: if you ever inhale in front of an SM58 that you don't personally own and never share, I think you'd be crazy not to get one. Gawd, those things get nasty. 

The anti-vaccination movement (AVM) is at least two-pronged: one prong denies a causal connection between vaccines and the eradication or significant reduction of diseases like smallpox, polio, measles, and rubella; the other prong perceives vaccines as causing diseases, e.g., it claims that the MMR (mumps-measles-rubella) vaccine causes autism. Either way, the AVM proponents oppose vaccination against disease.



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years"
The MMR vaccine controversy was a case of scientific misconduct which triggered a health scare. It followed the publication in 1998 of a paper in the medical journal The Lancet which presented apparent evidence that autism spectrum disorders could be caused by the MMR vaccine, an immunization against measles, mumps and rubella.[1]
Investigations by Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer revealed that the lead author of the article, Andrew Wakefield, had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest,[2][3] had manipulated evidence,[4] and had broken other ethical codes. The Lancet paper was partially retracted in 2004 and fully retracted in 2010, and Wakefield was found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct in May 2010 and was struck off the Medical Register, meaning he could no longer practice as a doctor.[5] In 2011, Deer provided further information on Wakefield's improper research practices to the BMJ, which in a signed editorial described the original paper as fraudulent.[6][7] The scientific consensus is that no evidence links the vaccine to the development of autism and that the vaccine's benefits greatly outweigh its risks.
Following the initial claims in 1998, multiple large epidemiological studies were undertaken. Reviews of the evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,[8] the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences,[9] the UK National Health Service,[10] and the Cochrane Library[11] all found no link between the vaccine and autism. While the Cochrane review expressed a need for improved design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, it concluded that the evidence of the safety and effectiveness of MMR in the prevention of diseases that still carry a heavy burden of morbidity and mortality justifies its global use, and that the lack of confidence in the vaccine has damaged public health.[11] A special court convened in the United States to review claims under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program rejected compensation claims from parents of autistic children.[12][13]
The claims in Wakefield's 1998 The Lancet article were widely reported;[14] vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland dropped sharply,[15] which was followed by significantly increased incidence of measles and mumps, resulting in deaths and severe and permanent injuries.[16] Physicians, medical journals, and editors[17][18][19][20][21] have described Wakefield's actions as fraudulent and tied them to epidemics and deaths.

[Danny]

  My wife gets the shot, I never have and probably never will. I do wash my hands a lot

[tuffythepug]

My wife is a nurse in a surgery center.   It's a pretty large outfit;  hundreds of employees.   They mandate that every employee must get a flu shot or, if they choose not to, they must wear a mask continually while on the job.  Employee badges have a sticker that indicates they have been inoculated.  If you are found at work without a sticker and no mask...   goodbye.

Personally I usually never take the time to get a flu shot;  it's not a political statement or a stand against organized medicine, I'm just lazy that way.    But this year I was getting a regular physical exam since I am on some blood pressure and cholesterol meds and the doctor strongly urged me to have his nurse shoot me up.  It was free, I was already there, so I got one.
So far, so good.   I did get a bad sore throat and lost my voice for a few days but no flu symptoms yet.    Thank God.   Many of my friends and co-workers have been knocked out like Unclrob.   

[dcarey]

I got the shot. I always get the shot.
Now, I got the flu. But, boy howdy, I got it a lot less severe than most of the folks I know who didn't get the shot!

[JOYCEfromNS]

I got the shot. I always get the shot.
Now, I got the flu. But, boy howdy, I got it a lot less severe than most of the folks I know who didn't get the shot!

So by getting the shot does it mean that you still might get the flu of the same virus in which you were immunized just lesser symtoms or just the virus of ones you weren't 

[unclrob]

  OK one really bad thing left over from this bout with this flu is.................................... I have an incredable amount of GAS...and not for guitars,I mean I'm movin air like crazy.....Ya I know discusting but I thought I'd pass {pun intended} on 

[dcarey]

OK one really bad thing left over from this bout with this flu is.................................... I have an incredable amount of GAS...and not for guitars,I mean I'm movin air like crazy.....Ya I know discusting but I thought I'd pass {pun intended} on 

Make that at least two of us! Even the cats leave the room!

[unclrob]

Make that at least two of us! Even the cats leave the room!

I wish mine would they follow me into the bathroom and just sit there looking up at me waiting.

[LawDogStrgsAttach]

See my wife's blog entry here - Flu Vaccine Blog Post - she's an epidemiologist by trade.

[unclrob]

First CONGRATS on the incoming as my wife and I call "Long strange trip" to you and your wife.Next good blog and pretty much how it is.

[GA-ME]

See my wife's blog entry here - Flu Vaccine Blog Post - she's an epidemiologist by trade.

The blog entry fails to substantiate the argument your wife is attempting. The argument from analogy used to frame the position, clearly fails the relevancy litmus. There are multiple other logically fallacious aspects of the essay, but the false analogy alone is enough for prima facia rejection of the conclusion.

[JOYCEfromNS]

Nice blog Michael, congratulations on the upcoming new Jewell  . I do agree with GA-ME on the weakness of the analogy supporting the conclusion tho.