Do you get a flu shot? Why or why not?

[BedieB71]

I did not used to get the flu shot every year til I got older. I now get it every year, because my health has gotten worse and my immune system is much weaker than it used to be.

[king4cash]

I understand that the flu shot for this year is only 10% effective...

[mapiklfish]

I do not get flu shots because I've read that they have been linked to alzheimers.  Also, my dad got one and was sicker than he'd ever been before after it.  So, I don't get them.

[jwkelly]

I got mine after seeing all the corpses of those who didn't

[ajamimajida]

I did get a flu shot because I have autoimmune disease plus I had 40 percent of intestines removed.  So I have to be very careful.  Plus I have COPD.

[gpanitzke]

I got mine

[brian8713]

Yes, it's required for my job. To the anti-vaccine people: Do you want your kids getting the flu? Do you want to spread the flu to vulnerable people who could die from it? That's so messed up.

[sbenkoski]

No flu shot for me... anything that's only 17% effective is not in my wheel house as a smart thing to do.  If my car only worked 17% of the time it would be a paper weight as it would be in the scrap yard. And made in to something else.  And Rabies is the only shot I give my dog because I have to... vets give shots to dogs  and do not change the dose to the size, it kills many dogs every year. Its insanity. ! 

[UGetPaid]

I'm not sure how to interpret those % effectiveness figures.  But I wouldn't think 17% effective necessarily means that 83% of people who get the shot will still get the flu.  That still doesn't take into account the variables of actually being directly exposed AND not be using proper hand washing techniques AND other factor which increase or decrease your risk, etc.


I have no medical background (therefore, I may not be characterizing this properly) but up until recently, I did not realize that the flu was strictly a respiratory disease. I'd always heard about people talking about stomach or intestinal flu and didn't know that this wasn't really "the flu" or some other variation of it.


I have gotten a flu shot every year for at least the past 10 or 12 years and I've maybe had the real flu once in that span... maybe!  Now I've had several encounters with stuffy nose and sore throat - so maybe those were minor cases of the flu and I just don't know any better, but I tend to believe that these were either allergies or common cold.  I've also had numerous bouts of the 24-36 hour violent stomach and intestinal expulsions -- all along thinking that was what my flu shot was supposed to prevent.

So I think that my experience with the flu shot has been about 92% effective or better (again depending on whether my sniffles and coughs were minor flu or just colds).  But I still believe that effectiveness rating doesn't really account for incidents of exposure.  Other than last week when I was experiencing a minor headache and very slight throat irritation (neither of which turned into any actual pain requiring medications to get rid of - so not the flu in my best guess) I have been taking communion wine every Sunday of this flu season and have been holding and shaking hands with those arounds me during the appropriate times during Mass. 

And generally speaking I am a very frequent face/mouth toucher, eye rubber, and nose itcher - often without even realizing I am doing it.  I am an average hand washer (far from overboard and probably still not nearly as much as I should during flu season). Yet with all of this  :::knocking on wood:::  I still haven't picked up any flu.

Do I attribute this 100% to having had a flu shot? Certainly not. Do I believe having the flu shot has helped in some way?  Absolutely!

[madeara]

I do not. I am afraid of having an adverse reaction.

[cmosley2011]

Never have and never will haha I also don't take things for colds either and my immune system works great as I never hardly get sick and even if I do it's ezpz lol 

[king4cash]

I do not believe in taking flu shots.....

[NRAJOE]

Nope, don't trust them. 

[catchow]

I do not get one anymore, I got it one year, and for 6-8 months afterwards, it felt like someone had hit me in the arm with a baseball bat it was so tender. It had brusied up within hours after getting it, but then that pain lasted all that time. My doctor said normally that doesnt happen, so leave it to me!

[AnnaKiki]

I'm 62 years old and never had one or never will! I haven't been sick in years! Maybe because I'm from Chicago and worked out in the weather for years. My mother used to always say that we came from sturdy stock!