As of yet, I have never gotten the flu shot. I will be 60 this year and have always believed I should let my immune system deal with as many ailments as it can. Even though I suffer from bronchial asthma and my doctor recommends the shot, I still haven't taken his advice. Believe me, I am not afraid of needles . I just can't see the logic in putting something into my system to combat the sickness. My hubby has gotten a flu shot for as many years as I can remember and this year he's already had two bouts of the flu. My best friend also got the flu shot and the pneumonia shot for the first time this year and has had pneumonia twice and the flu once, so knowing this doesn't really push me to follow my doctor's advice. What is your take on the flu shot? Do you get one every year or do you opt out?
Something seems off about the recent pushes for vaccinations for this and that, including the flu. It seems that every year, the strain of the flu that they vaccinate for is not the one that hits a particular part of the country. Now, I am not blaming anyone for being wrong, since there's no such thing as a perfect science when it comes to that sort of thing but, given how often they are wrong, as well as the known dangers that come from the vaccinations themselves, it seems reasonable to allow people to make up their own minds. In fact, even if it weren't for these considerations, I don't know how we can argue that abortion should be legal because a woman has the sole right to her body, but then say that no one should have the right to refuse a vaccination. You're introducing a poison into my bloodstream in the hopes that it will help defend against something that hasn't yet found its way into my body, and I should have the sole right to make that decision.
When I was younger my Dad always used to get the flu shots at work, but my Mom and I were left to decide for ourselves whether we wanted them. We had them done one year, but the next year when we went to see our doctor about them, he said he didn't believe in them and never had them himself, so we've never bothered since then. I get the occasional bad cold but never the flu, and I haven't seen a doctor since I was in my early twenties.
I did get the flu this year but the flu shot wouldn't have prevented it since the flu shots they were giving wasn't the strain that people here got.
I do not bother with getting the flu shot. I seldom get sick, and I try to eat foods and take vitamins that also help ward off things like flu and colds. Last year, they insisted that my husband have the pneumonia shot, and within a month after that; he had pneumonia, and was having to go to the VA and get antibiotics for the pneumonia. I think that when person has a healthy and well-functioning immune system, and is at least reasonably good health; you should not need to take shots, and even when you do get the flu shot; it certainly does not stop people from getting the flu and being sick.
We had the same experience with my Dad last year. He had both the anti-flu and anti-pneumonia shots, but ended up in hospital with pneumonia anyway. The only reason he even had the shot was because he'd had pneumonia the year before, although to be fair he didn't get it as badly the second time. I guess his immunity just wasn't that good any more.
I agree that it's more important to build a good immune system than to have a flu shot. Of course anyone who is already frail and at risk of dying if they catch flu should have it, but there is no need to have it if you are healthy. It's also true that it will not stop you getting flu when it's a different strain that's going round, and not the one you've been injected against. I know people who believe they won't catch cold if they have the flu shot, while others say that the shot causes them to have flu-like symptoms. I had the flu shot twice. I didn't need it, but the company I worked for offered it free to all employees and I felt, that if I refused, it would not do my reputation any good with that company if I were to get flu and have to take sick leave. In my 60+ years I've had real flu, as opposed to a very nasty cold, 3 times. It's not something anyone would willingly have but in the long term it does no lasting harm, unless you have a medical condition or are in a frail state of health.
I totally agree, Ken, we should be allowed to make up our own minds. I'm not willing to take a chance with getting the wrong strain and then of course, I'm not a fan of having anything I'm not sure about, put into my body.
The same thing happened to a friend of mine. She was more or less forced to get both the flu and pneumonia shot and she has been so sick ever since. Because I have bronchial asthma, my doctor "insists" I get the flu shot and now the pneumonia shot. I'm so sick and tired of fighting him on this matter, and although I don't condone lying, I did tell him I got both shots from the clinic doctor. He knows I go to the clinic for refills on my inhalers because its more convenient therefore I guess he believed my story. At least until my next appointment when the records from the clinic will be available to him.
Our government may not be the most evil government in the world but they are quick to jump to conclusions based on faulty science, impose their solutions on everyone, only to find that they were wrong later. Plus, there is the fact that our government has a history of experimentation, which has included the deliberate infection of people with deadly or debilitating diseases, exposure to biological and chemical weapons, human radiation experiments, injections with toxic and radioactive chemicals, surgical experiments, and other tests. These tests have included children, mentally disabled people, prisoners, racial minorities, and soldiers. Briefly, I don't trust our scientists to get it right, and I don't trust our government to do the right thing. I have only had the flu shot once, when it was required for all EMS personnel, and I was sick for three days afterwards.
When I was young we got the shot every year and I would get sick every year. I decided that when I could refuse to get the shot I would. It seems some people my be allergic to the stuff in the shot which could cause a reaction. I do not get the shot because of the reactions I get.
Nope I do not get the flu shot, and finally the doctor has stopped asking me about it. I do not care if I am in a risk group or not. Mostly I do not get it because I hate needles, I also agree that one should let their own natural immunity grow. True story, when we were kids in school they would take us all down to the auditorium and line us up to give us shots from this gun. They would shot in a couple of different inoculations all together and that thing hurt like the dickens. I remember standing in line thinking how it just could not be good for the body to shot it with three or four different virus strains at once. Alive or dead it just seemed to defy intelligence, so I decided to slip off to the bathroom and never got those shots. The school was lazy and did a dumb thing, this was way before computers so the shots were listed in a little booklet they gave you for gym and stuff. They did each book by first initial last name. So when the time came for college I took my sisters book and off I went. I didn't get them shots there either. It was not until 2002 when I returned to college for my second degree that it caught up with me and I had to get the MMR done. The funny thing about the MMR shot was all my life I had this weird nodule in my throat like a swollen gland that never went away and I would have these awful sore throats until I got that vaccination in 2002. This swelling went away and so did the sore throats. I read a few years ago there was something wrong with the MMR shots they gave us back in the 60's, I believe I had a bad one and for some reason when they did the booster whatever was ailing me all those years cleared up. I have never had throat problems like that since, in fact I am seldom sick.
If I got a flu shot you know I dead. Vaccines have been a big scam for years but because it is backed up by WHO, CDC you are not allowed to challenge them. Even the government protects them by making it illegal to sue the companies for damage you have to go to a special court who uses your money to pay damages and not the company who caused the problem.
I used to get a wicked bad case of the flu every year. After I developed diabetes several years ago, my doctor advised me to start getting a flu shot each year and I have not had a bout of the flu since. It is so nice not to spend a week in bed with the horrible body aches, vomiting, ect. I know that there are some people who have a reaction from getting the flu shot and I am thankful that I am not one of them and that I no longer have to suffer from the flue each winter.
This is the first time in many years we didn't get the flu shot. Only because the supply didn't come in when scheduled. We plan to keep getting the shots every year.