Just found out I will get a flu shot this year!

I went to my health clinic Tuesday, to ask about my getting the flu shot this year. My doctor always insists that I get one.

I was told they didn't have any vaccine, and when they did get some, it wasn't going to be enough. The doctor's were going to get together, and looking at patients records, decide who got the vaccine and who would have to go without.

Just got a call a few minutes ago, from the clinic, and they told me to come in next Tuesday at 2:00PM. I am so relieved! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Wish their was enough for all those in need though. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

oldgrandpajack

Luckily this is happening while it's looking like the flu this year will be much more mild than last year. The infection graphs from Australia (I think thats where they were from) are much better this year than last.

Not an excuse not to get one if you're one who needs it! But perhaps a reason not to get too frantic if you don't get one. My wife will be able to get one, being a health care worker and being exposed to everybody all the time, but I probably won't. Just have to keep my fingers crossed this year. I've not been terribly susceptible to it in the past, probably getting it every 2 or 3 years before I started getting the shot and never since then. But WOW, talk about knocking you on your backside. Didn't kill me, just made me wish I was dead /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I was reading about this and I didn't realize how many companies just buy the stuff and give it out free to all their employees. The statistic is that the employee who gets the shot misses on average 4 fewer days of work that year! Thats really significant to a company with thousands of employees. They won't be getting any this year and productivity will suffer slightly because of it. (this is also an affront to the folks that think the flu shot can give you the flu, if it caused more absences than it prevented it would show up in their bean counters math and they would not offer it free to their employees unless it saved them money!)

You know that "they" put mind control drugs into the flu vaccine /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

On a side note, I'm supposed to get one from my hospital since I'm in direct patient contact all day--but I was told to get it elsewhere! They're saving it for the patients since they don't have enough.

I understand their reasoning, but if I can't get it from them, where do they think I'm going to get it from? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/duh2.gif

Suddenly I feel like taking a few sick days off.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As far as I can tell, the flu shot supply in Canada hasn't been affected by the lab problem in the UK.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I called my MD's office the day after the story broke, and they said they wouldn't be getting *any* vaccine. (I normally get an influenza vaccine due to severe asthma.)

The person I talked to advised me to get a flu vaccination anywhere I could.

I got on the 'net, and found a drug store having a flu shot clinic that morning (Sept 23rd) I drove there and got the vaccination. The was only one person ahead of me. I showed the nurse my two asthma inhalers, and I was out the door, less $20, in about 15 minutes.

In the USA, in a 'typical' influenza season, 34,000 people die of influenza related causes, and 100,000 people are hospitalized. And I assume this is with all 'at risk' people geting the vaccine. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sick.gif

It will be much worse this season, certainly.

So far, my State Health Dept. states they are 200,000 doses short of covering 'at risk' people just in the largest metro area. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

good to hear, Gramps. they wouldn't even give me a flu shot and i have asthma! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

James, as a business student I have read that too. Ive often wondered if it really causes fewer sicknesses or gives folks a reason for not taking off. Hard to take time off of work for the flu if you got the shot, right?

I use to get them, but about a week afterwards I got the flu for 2 weeks anyway, several years in a row. Since I quit getting the shot and the flu. I know folks say you can not get it from the shot, but I did and I have heard others say the same.

Glad you got yours and you want it. I heard of some deaths from folks waiting in lines in the weather and fighting and what not.

Personally I think its a test of our ability to innoculate the population incase of a biological weapon attack. Last year was supposely a terrible flu season of another strain that the shot wouldnt help, but folks rushed and got it anyway. Supply is effected. What a better way to sell something than to tell folks they cant have it? (Reminds me of a southpark episode)

I believe if you are not in those catagories to get a shot you can still get the myst shot you squirt up your nose.

Re: Just found out I will get a flu shot this year

I was highly irritated a couple of weeks ago when I had to stand in line for 2-1/2 hours to get a flu shot. From what I now hear I was fortunate. I heard about one couple who stood in line for five hours and then were turned away. Glad to hear you're going to be able to get a shot, grandpajack, especially without having the long line thing happen.

flownosaj -- My son told me a few years ago that he won't get shots because he's wary of big brother (Tom Ridge's boys). He believes that they might be using the occasion for implanting microchips in the citizenry. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Paul

Re: Just found out I will get a flu shot this year

Paul--the only thing that I am paranoid about is exactly why the UK shipments of the vaccine were pulled.

We were told that they were "tainted", but in my opininon, that wasn't a good enough explination for me. I'd like to know whether they weren't sterile, had too-high amounts of the preservatives or the stuff that attenuates the virus, or maybe it was something else.

A paranoid person who believes that terrorism could have gotten into all of this might say that it is possible that some other virus could have been added into the mix. Think about that for a minute or two. I'm not saying anything like this did or could have happened--but if a terrorist with the means really wanted to mess with a country, doing something as small as adding a few hundred tainted "vaccines" into circulation could really cause a lot of damage. There are many more efficient/destructive ways than by messing with vaccine lots, but it's just a thought.

Sorry to hijack the thread--just sharing some of the crap that issues forth from my brain...

Re: Just found out I will get a flu shot this year

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I believe if you are not in those catagories to get a shot you can still get the myst shot you squirt up your nose.

[/ QUOTE ]

the flumist is not for children under 5 or people over 49. I've also seen this listed as 18 to 64, I don't know which is the more recent figure. Or anybody with respiratory problems or immune problems as, unlike the shot, it actually contains live virus. The shot contains dead virus.

If you get the flu from the shot, the place where you got the shot will want to know about that. There is a number you can call, they track that. If a batch of flu shot were to be contaminated with real, undead virus then everybody who got a shot from that batch would get the flu. That would be huge news!

At best the shot can take 2 weeks to kick in, and only works 100% in 7 out of 10 people.

[ QUOTE ]
cobb said:
...I use to get them, but about a week afterwards I got the flu for 2 weeks anyway, several years in a row. Since I quit getting the shot and the flu. I know folks say you can not get it from the shot, but I did and I have heard others say the same.
...

[/ QUOTE ]

Incubation period for the flu is about 2 weeks. It's very possible it was in your system for a week before you got the shot. That's one reason to get the shot earlier rather than later in the season.

I'm in the "high risk" category but I still don't know if I can get the shot. If necessary I'll ask friends in Canada if I should go up there.

Vulnerability is built into the system when an entire country depends on two private companies for protection from a lethal epidemic.

Brightnorm

I got mine by standing in a line at an Osco Drug Store for about 2 1/2 hours. I was #177 out of 200 doses available. Near the end, I started feeling sick. I could feel that I was becoming faint - I was breaking out in a cold sweat even though I was hot. I was afraid that I would pass-out.

I decided I should give up and go home. By the time I arrived home, I was feeling better. My wife insisted that I go back - in fact she came with me so that she could stand in line for me if necessary. (I had a number on my hand, so leaving and returning was no problem.)

When I returned to the store there were only a few people ahead of my position, but there were about another 100 people waiting in another line for any leftovers.

Thanks to my wife for her encouragement! She is really great.

Chuck

If you're really high risk and unable to get the shot, and want to do something lots of docs seem to be recommending that you get the vaccine for bacterial pneumonia. Thart is the most common and the most deadly complication of the flu in older folks anyway, and it's not in short supply at all.

As far as I'm concerned I'm skipping it this year since I'm very low risk and not exposed all that much to be a problem.

Cobb, I meant to chat about that 4 days thing. I have no idea where it came from. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to think that every employee will be out 4 less days does it. As only a small percentage would ever actually get the flu anyway. I've heard some people credit it with giving some extra immunity to other virus around, but I can't credit that with such a statistically significant thing. I like the idea of people just not having an excuse to call iln sick /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif But I've got to say that just having had the shot wouldn't stop me from calling in sick /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I do believe though that if it made the situation worse like a mass absence for the flu 2 weeks later that they would stop doing it though.

Doctor gives me the pneumonia shot every 5 years, so I've already got that covered. Local news says that all the local public vaccination clinics now require a note from your doctor, to get the flu shot. The only exception is for children under two years of age.

oldgrandpajack

Re: Just found out I will get a flu shot this year

So the reports now say there's an excess of the shots now; guess everyone did their part to conserve.
It'll be interesting to see what the statistics will show with everyone staying away from the shots this year vs. the normal shots-by-rote routine.