Flu Epidemic Winter 2013

[Ragnus]

I've never gotten a flu shot and the only strain I've contracted was H1N1 four summers ago. Meanwhile my fiance has gotten the flu shot the last two years and she's 2/2 on getting the flu during flu season. I know it's anecdotal but it's enough of a vindication to me.

[shaggnix]

the hospital i work in forces employees to wear a mask at all times until flu season is declared over if they refuse a vaccine (for reasons religious, medical, or stubbornness related) , only exceptions being closed break rooms, cafeteria, or elevators (lol?). a neighboring hospital has a "get the flu vaccine or get a new job" policy. obviously there's many benefits to getting vaccinated, but this has rustled a number of jimmies.

[Eurell]

The Flu shot can not give you the flu. Every Dr. I ask and everything I've looked up has all agreed with this. Theres some mild reactions people can have of course, but they are giving you a dead virus (not sure if this is the correct wording) so you can't actually get the flu from it.


As far as getting the shot, no reason not to. I didn't out of laziness and I think I'm coming down with it since last night (body aches, soreness, wheezing). I used to never get sick so it was never anything I thought about lol, but since having a kid, I've been sick a good 4-5 times in the past year and a half. I did make sure to get my son the shot though. I guess next yea the wife and I will have to get it too.

[kuronosan]

The Flu shot can not give you the flu. Every Dr. I ask and everything I've looked up has all agreed with this. Theres some mild reactions people can have of course, but they are giving you a dead virus (not sure if this is the correct wording) so you can't actually get the flu from it.


As far as getting the shot, no reason not to. I didn't out of laziness and I think I'm coming down with it since last night (body aches, soreness, wheezing). I used to never get sick so it was never anything I thought about lol, but since having a kid, I've been sick a good 4-5 times in the past year and a half. I did make sure to get my son the shot though. I guess next yea the wife and I will have to get it too.

The reactions you are getting from a flu shot are from your immune system's response to the stuff in it and not to the dead virus.

If you get the flu after a flu shot, it was a either different strain than the one you were vaccinated against or you already had it.

[hey]

Meanwhile my fiance has gotten the flu shot the last two years and she's 2/2 on getting the flu during flu season. I know it's anecdotal but it's enough of a vindication to me.

lol, this guy.

[GoggleHead]

Am I the only one who refuses to get a flu shot simply because I hate needles?

[Xno Kappa]

They have a spray vaccine.

[GoggleHead]

Since when!?

[kuronosan]

Since when!?

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/nasalspray.htm

[Cream Soda]

Am I the only one who refuses to get a flu shot simply because I hate needles?

[Ksandra]

I think that this forum will kinda have skewed answers to this question.

They always threaten there is a limited supply of shots (whether that's true or it's a tactic to get it early, idk and idc). I've always heard the general rule that if you are a young adult with no kids and don't work around kids/elderly to avoid getting the shot so there's enough for the rest.

I wasn't consistent about getting it back in the day, but will now get it every year.

[Dotsudoku]

The Flu shot can not give you the flu. Every Dr. I ask and everything I've looked up has all agreed with this. Theres some mild reactions people can have of course, but they are giving you a dead virus (not sure if this is the correct wording) so you can't actually get the flu from it.


As far as getting the shot, no reason not to. I didn't out of laziness and I think I'm coming down with it since last night (body aches, soreness, wheezing). I used to never get sick so it was never anything I thought about lol, but since having a kid, I've been sick a good 4-5 times in the past year and a half. I did make sure to get my son the shot though. I guess next yea the wife and I will have to get it too.

Inactivated/killed, means the same

My immunology knowledge is limited, but I'm fairly certain that you always either get an inactive virus(dead- the form the flu vaccine is), an attenuated one(severely weakened, not likely harmful), or the capsid proteins that ordinarily house the viral DNL(no virus is actually in you, your body is just trained to recognize the coating it arrives in)

probably beating a dead horse here, but the amount of post hoc/straight up ignorance about how vaccines work on a forum whose more active posters are usually pretty knowledgeable people is pretty disappointing

[Anoat]

The meningococcal meningitis vaccine was like $300. I wasn't gonna live in a dorm or frat house or an otherwise unsanitary shitty living conditions. And my doctor told me the risk of infection in America tends to be 1 in 100,000. So I was like, yeah, I'll save that $300. And I haven't gotten it yet so I feel pretty good about my decision.

[kuronosan]

Inactivated/killed, means the same

My immunology knowledge is limited, but I'm fairly certain that you always either get an inactive virus(dead- the form the flu vaccine is), an attenuated one(severely weakened, not likely harmful), or the capsid proteins that ordinarily house the viral DNL(no virus is actually in you, your body is just trained to recognize the coating it arrives in)

probably beating a dead horse here, but the amount of post hoc/straight up ignorance about how vaccines work on a forum whose more active posters are usually pretty knowledgeable people is pretty disappointing

I do have immunology knowledge, and the only vaccine that even remotely has the potential to get you sick is an attenuated one and only because it can retro-mutate into an infectious strain before your body has a chance to build up immunities.

In terms of the capsid protein vaccinations, it completely relies on the same premise - your body building a memory response in case the actual virus invades. If it builds a large enough response for long enough it will be effective in reducing or eliminating symptoms if you actually become infected.

In the case of HIV, the reason a killed virus doesn't work is because 1) there's no way to tell if it's completely killed, like Ebolavirus and 2) no one is going to infect themselves to find out if (1) has occurred.

Finally, in the case of the flu, a killed virus does work because the proteins are denatured enough to where, unless you're completely immunocompromised or are just prone to anaphylactic responses, the virus simply cannot replicate on a level that can compete with your body's ability to mount an immune response.

People that get sick from the flu vaccine are not developing the flu. If they are, they acquired a different strain of the virus or an allergic response. Allergic responses, if severe enough, can mimick flu symptoms pretty well (coughing up phlegm) but are different in terms of length of response and severity of symptoms (absence of fatigue, only a mild fever).

A lot of people think they have the flu after getting immunized simply because of ignorance of the symptoms. Either that or, again, they caught a different strain than they were immunized against.

[Tyrath]

Never had the flu or a flu shot. But getting one this year because I'm gonna be in close proximity of a newborn.

[Dotsudoku]

All pretty much exactly what I thought. Thanks for clarifying.

Didn't know the bit about HIV vaccination, though. Is that not something that can be reliably tested on animals? Or are the results not certain enough to do something of that nature in human trials?

[kuronosan]

They already test HIV vaccines on animals similar to how they test cancer treatments. The problem with human subjects is that they need to find someone not already infected that is willing to try it. There aren't that many of those people around to mount an effective enough clinical trial against something only proven in animals.

The best they can do is develop treatments that help current HIV patients, which have proven effective, in the hopes that people who decide to undergo these tests have very little to worry about.

There's one thing to infect someone with a virus that has symptoms lasting only days (or weeks) that can be controlled.

Severely devastating viruses are really hard to test against because the effects are either short-term (resulting in death) or long-term (resulting in death) and cannot be controlled.

You can't ever really be sure these types of viruses are completely killed, despite the extreme denaturing that occurs when exposed to intense heat; in addition, you can't heat them any further or you will completely denature the proteins into unrecognizable epitopes (sections of antigen the immune system can recognize).

There's a very fine line between "killed" and "not killed" when it comes to dangerous viruses.

[Tyche]

I've seen more than a fair shake of people attempting to get HIV in order to collect disability. I fucking wish I was joking. Clinical trial those people.

[Tyrath]

I've seen more than a fair shake of people attempting to get HIV in order to collect disability. I fucking wish I was joking. Clinical trial those people.

http://therantommenace.files.wordpre...-chan-wtf1.jpg

[Melena]

I've never gotten it. My grandmother, aunt, and dad all got it once and got sick so I said fuck that, i'll live and die by my superior genes. Haven't had the flu yet. I may cave and get it next year since I get it for free through my union since I work in a jail.