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Are you getting a flu shot this fall?

arkieb1 said:
I'd probably advise to do it, a larger than normal amount of people including healthy children have died in Australia from the flu this year, the wife of my mother's cousin (who was in her 70s) died from the flu 4 days ago other than that she was a normal healthy person..... so it's a nasty one this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/world/australia/flu-vaccination-deaths.html
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Yes, as I mentioned above, several children have already been hospitalized for it in Louisiana, though I haven't heard of any deaths yet.

My BFF is palliative care and hospice, so she sees the end result of the flu for some people, and they didn't get the shot.

Even if the shot isn't the exact strain, you do get some protection from whatever strain is going around...
 
Got mine yesterday and glad I did. People are already coming down with here too.
 
Got mine a few days ago.
 
Every year
 
I did yesterday for the first time! i just started working in a health center and figured my risk was higher this year, and it's supposed to be a rough season. Better safe!
 
Got mine a week ago. I have one every year. Who on earth wants the flu?? No, it's not perfect, but it's the best we have and could save you from a nasty illness. I can see no downside.
 
I do not plan to get a flu vaccine. The only time I did get one was when I was pregnant with the twins, on the advice of my OB.

To my knowledge, I've never had a real flu. Although I remember being very sick one winter when I was ~10 years old.

A family member contracted swine flu in 2010 and almost died, he was in ICU for a number of weeks and took several years to fully recover. He was in his 30s when he caught that.

Anne
 
Yep!
 
They claim one of the strains from the injections mutated a bit and for some people that were immunised it didn't matter they died anyway particularly the elderly. Cut and pasted from an interview with a leading Medical professor here;

"A key factor seems to be that the flu vaccine has been less effective than expected this year. Preliminary data suggests it offered only 15 to 20 per cent protection, Professor Collignon says. This means as many as 85 per cent of people who were vaccinated and then exposed to the virus still got infected."

"For whatever reason, the vaccine has been very ineffective this year."

Death toll tops 300




As the death toll from this season's deadly influenza rises, questions are being asked about the flu vaccine.

On average, over the past 10 years, the flu vaccine protected about 40 to 50 per cent of people from infection (this is substantially less than other vaccines, like say, measles, which is about 90 per cent effective).

One reason for this is the influenza virus can mutate rapidly.

But this year, the strain of flu that dominated in Australia (H3, a type of influenza A) is one known to cause more significant illness in the elderly. As well, it's known this strain underwent some changes this season.

It is the elderly who seem hardest hit. And it seems the vaccine was particularly ineffective in this age group.

"We've got essentially the same vaccine as England and Europe had last year. That vaccine appears to have been virtually completely ineffective in over 65s there. It just didn't work at all. We don't know why," Professor Collignon says.

But medical professionals are still advising to get it because in 50% or more of younger healthier patients it still reduced the severity of flu symptoms.
 
I got mine last week; my DH is getting his tomorrow. DD got hers a few weeks ago.
 
arkieb1 said:
"A key factor seems to be that the flu vaccine has been less effective than expected this year. Preliminary data suggests it offered only 15 to 20 per cent protection, Professor Collignon says. This means as many as 85 per cent of people who were vaccinated and then exposed to the virus still got infected."


Just a mind thing. either you catch it or you don't.
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I think the gist of the article was it reduced the severity in younger people but didn't save the older ones at all, we had a lot of people die this year from the flu or complications from it, more to the point.

DF this was the note at the end of the article;
Editor's note: This article has been edited to clarify Professor Collignon’s comment about the rate of infection for people who got this year’s vaccine: 85 per cent of those who were vaccinated and then exposed still got infected, rather than 85 per cent of all people vaccinated.
 
ark
I don't care what they say. I never had a flu shot in my life. The last time I caught the flu was 1981 or 82.
 
Dancing Fire said:
ark
I don't care what they say. I never had a flu shot in my life. The last time I caught the flu was 1981 or 82.
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I've never had one either, I always mean to and then never get around to it, but if I worked in a health care industry I would. You probably don't spend a lot of time near sick people DF.
 
arkieb1 said:
I've never had one either, I always mean to and then never get around to it, but if I worked in a health care industry I would. You probably don't spend a lot of time near sick people DF.
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Had a friend who was sick and kept on coughing for two weeks but we still go out for lunch every day, and I didn't catch what ever he had. I'm not a germaphobe I don't try to avoid sick people.
 
arkieb1 said:
As the death toll from this season's deadly influenza rises, questions are being asked about the flu vaccine.


But this year, the strain of flu that dominated in Australia (H3, a type of influenza A) is one known to cause more significant illness in the elderly. As well, it's known this strain underwent some changes this season.

It is the elderly who seem hardest hit. And it seems the vaccine was particularly ineffective in this age group.

"We've got essentially the same vaccine as England and Europe had last year. That vaccine appears to have been virtually completely ineffective in over 65s there. It just didn't work at all. We don't know why," Professor Collignon says.

But medical professionals are still advising to get it because in 50% or more of younger healthier patients it still reduced the severity of flu symptoms.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I read your linked article. I was unaware that there is a vaccine for the southern hemisphere. I wonder if the vaccines here in the US are different. I'm assuming they are? I do know that the strain that is showing up in Australia might not be the one that gets going somewhere else. Flu is such a difficult bug, it just is.

Off to try to dig up some more info. :)

ETA - Ah. Here we go.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/03/health/australia-bad-flu-season/index.html
 
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Ksinger - O.K so if according to your article this season's vaccines for the US are "essentially identical" to Australian ones we have just used then the issue we had here was they didn't work as effectively % wise as past seasons and in many people over 65 they simply didn't work and they don't know why other than the A strain they were expecting mutated slightly. This year the vaccine was less effective and % wise more people died from the flu or complications from the flu (which actually kill more people than the flu itself) than in previous years.
 
Got it last week. Arm was barely sore.
 
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