Flu Shots?

BVH

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Anyone here get a flu shot this year? I got one for the first time ever. I'm concerned about the possible Avian Flu Pandemic. Many articles by MD's indicate that many people can deal with the regular or Avian Flu and get over it but to get both in the same season (having the regular flu does not make you immune to the Avian Flu) or at the same time would be very bad for you. At least if you've had the regular flu shot, there's a very good chance that if you get flu symptoms later on, you can make the determination that its Avian Flu and take the appropriate actions quickly - like going to the doctor immediately.
 

Sigman

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I used to get them every year...Uncle Sam made sure of that for 21 years, but I've slacked off the last few years.

I think it's a conspiracy anyway! :tinfoil:
 

Ledean

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Went to get my flu shots yesterday at publix. They said they were giving it from 8- 12am. I could not get it done cause they ran out of flu shots during the first half an hour. Next time I was adviced to come half an hour early and wait in the long line.
I was'nt aware that flu shots are so scarce.
 

Wolfen

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How do you know you actually got a flu shot?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051029/ap_on_he_me/fake_flu_shots

Exxon-Mobil Workers Receive Fake Flu Shots By WENDY BENJAMINSON, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 29, 2:11 AM ET



HOUSTON - As many as 1,000 Exxon Mobil employees and 14 residents of a senior citizens home were injected with fake flu vaccine, authorities said Friday, and the owner of a home health care company was arrested.


Preliminary tests indicated the syringes were filled with purified water, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said. And no ill effects from the shots were reported.
 

LowWorm

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Well, unless the entire county health department in my area is corrupt, I'm pretty sure I got the real thing. :)

They set it up so that they are giving flu shots on three Saturdays only. The setup is large scale, so they could process a lot of people very quickly (something akin to a pandemic drill if they ever needed to mobilize and provide a lot of vaccine in a short amount of time). They used injector guns instead of needles...not exactly painless, but no sharps to deal with afterward.

My family of four got in and out within 25 minutes. Not bad!
 

raggie33

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i dont like no neeldes specaily mass shots like the flu shot im so afraid the nurse will forget to throw old needle away .only way they can give me shot is if i see em open needle new then i want em to dip needles in alchol and let it stay there a bit
 

PhotonWrangler

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Raggie, generally you can see them open up a new package with a sterile needle while you're waiting. Do you have a general physician? You could get it from him or her also.
 

James S

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While they might look at you funny, I'd expect any nurse about to give you a shot to honor the request to let you see her open the package.

The flu shot is generally pre-packaged, not something they need to draw up from a vial (not all of them, but most) and so it should be easy for them to just open it in your presence. If it's the pre-packaged kind it cannot be reused. The syringe has a catch on it and you can only push the plunger down once. It cannot be refilled by accident or on purpose for the next guy. Course, if someone is just drawing water up into them and selling that then you're much better off asking to see the packaging...

But be sure you ask before they go out to get the stuff and prepare it for you so that you're not wasting the one they already opened on the prep kit.

My Doc will be getting them in this next week and I'll be getting mine. I'm not sure it will do any good should there be a pandemic of avian flu, but at least I wont be trying to get over 1 and then catch the other. even without the threat of that hanging over our heads I've gotten the shot ever since we had kids, I dont want to be the vector by which my son or daughter dies of pneumonia. I dont think I ever had the flu until I was about 25 or so, and I was SO sick that I just never want to be that sick again. It's worth getting the shots if I can avoid another 3 day session of not being able to leave the bathroom without falling over dizzy or puking my guts out. the flu is NOT just a bad cold...

If you're paranoid about the place you're at maybe selling you a counterfeit syringe of water ask for the drug reaction warning information which they are required to have and give you to (I'm pretty sure) and you should also be able to ask for the lot numbers of the batch you're being given too. A real setup will have both those things and while they might get mad at you for holding up the line and making them give it to you, if you're worried, just ask them about it. If you read the article above, they had none of that stuff.
 
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BobVA

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Got mine on at work on Thursday, but the "shot" was actually a nasal spray. Some new thing they're trying out. At least they didn't have a bunch of needles to deal with afterwards.
 

Jumpmaster

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BobVA said:
Got mine on at work on Thursday, but the "shot" was actually a nasal spray. Some new thing they're trying out. At least they didn't have a bunch of needles to deal with afterwards.

Yeah, I was forced to get that nose-crap at Fort Gordon last year...I was spitting up junk for an hour after that. NOT FUN!!! I would rather have the flu shot from an air gun than that nose stuff again!!! (BTW, even the army doesn't use the air guns in basic training anymore...they did in 1993...but not now...)

JM-99
 

Wolfen

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I asked for the flu shot at my doctor today. He said I could have a fake one or no one. He doesn't have any. But meglomart has them. I'm with raggie I want my injections from somebody I trust and I don't trust meglomart. 12 years ago when we were getting our issued hepatitis C shots a nurse stuck the guy in another line with a used empty syringe / needle. Just a whole lot of problems I don't want to deal with...

Raggie alcohol kills many things but not the HIV virus. Chlorine bleach kills nearly everything.
 

The_LED_Museum

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I got mine a few days ago at the QFC not far from here.
I'm not at all concerned that I might have been administered something other than influenza vaccine.
 

raggie33

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i use bleach a lot at home cause i eat a lot a dirty food like chicken and while i bag it up to freeze it it gets everywhere.man im terified a aids man thats why i hate needles so much
 

offroadcmpr

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Have not got it, never got it, and probably won't get it. I have not been sick enough to miss school or work in years, but of course I'm only 18 and at that age, you've got to be invincible, right?:grin2: lol:nana::shakehead
 

picard

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I got flu shot a week ago. The chances of you contracting avian flu is low if you aren't chicken farmer or a live chicken dealer. You would have to handle the live chickens by bare hands and not wearing face mask in order to get bird flu. If a average person takes a Tamiflu ( bird flu vacinne) as flue shot, you only create resistance in human body which can pass on to other people. This then can pass on to the birds by tertiary infection hence the bird flu virus would develop resistance to the drug.

the human population will be at severe risk.
 

Lightraven

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People between the ages of 5 and 55 (I believe, from memory) can get the inhaled vaccine FluMist made by Medimmune, referred to above. This is a live, weakened flu virus. It hasn't yet been approved for the very young or elderly.

The introduction of FluMist was inauspicious. Demand was way too low for the price asked. Medimmune's (which actually bought the company that created FluMist) stock tanked but is gradually recovering. Ask me how I know that.

FluMist allows those not on the "priority" list (preemies, elderly, those with weakened immune systems, health care workers) to get vaccinated early in the season.
 

raggie33

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Lightraven said:
People between the ages of 5 and 55 (I believe, from memory) can get the inhaled vaccine FluMist made by Medimmune, referred to above. This is a live, weakened flu virus. It hasn't yet been approved for the very young or elderly.

The introduction of FluMist was inauspicious. Demand was way too low for the price asked. Medimmune's (which actually bought the company that created FluMist) stock tanked but is gradually recovering. Ask me how I know that.

FluMist allows those not on the "priority" list (preemies, elderly, those with weakened immune systems, health care workers) to get vaccinated early in the season.
they give u the flu lol?no thank you.that crazy like the time i had rabbies and wanted me to get that darn shot im ok now see ya dont need it
 

James S

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If a average person takes a Tamiflu ( bird flu vacinne) as flue shot, you only create resistance in human body which can pass on to other people.

Tamiflu is not a vaccine. Taking it before you get exposed to the flu will do nothing for you at all. It's an anti-viral drug, I forget the actual mode or operation but you can look up it's action if you want. Most of them work by messing up specifics of viral RNA transription somehow to stop them from being so good at using our own cells against us. You have to begin taking it immediately if you feel yourself getting sick in order for it to do any good.

If used properly it wont do much to give viruses immunity from it. The problem is like everything else people are lazy and self deluded and stop taking drugs before they are really better. Exactly the same as with an anti-biotic. You take the drug, which kills off all the buggies that are susceptible to it. That leaves behind a much reduced and weakened population of bugs that weren't killed by the drug, these bugs are resistant to the drug. Your immune system can mop up these remaining guys usually. But if you stop taking the drug too early then they get stronger again and multiply and your immune system again gets behind the curve. Only this time the only bugs left in your system to multiply were the ones left after you took the drug the first time, and their children have inherited the ability to resist the drug from their parents, and now you're in trouble.

Raggie, the idea behind the nasal spray and weakened virus is that since it's a weakened or crippled virus it wont be able to make you sick, but since your immune system doesn't know it won't make you sick it reacts to it like a real virus and will remember it when you encounter the real one. People that are severely sick, or who have aids or are on drugs suppressing their immune system like from a transplant or something might be so weak that they could get sick from even the weakened virus. But you wouldn't :) unfortunately the company thought that people hated the flu shot so much that they were willing to pay a lot of money for the spray. Turned out they priced themselves right out of the market and people weren't as afraid of the flu shot as the media tries to make them...
 
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Jumpmaster

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About the flumist crap...it's not actually a mist at all. When I saw the ads for it a few years ago, it made it sound like it was a mist...like nose-spray. WELL IT AIN'T! It is most DEFINITELY A LIQUID. They take the syringe sans needle (it looks like they're going to give you a shot in your nose unless you look very closely!!!) and then squirt the liquid into one nostril. Then they take another one and squirt it (LIQUID - NOT MIST) into the other nostril.

This is followed by most by coughing/gagging/etc. Most of us were having to cough/spit for the next half-hour. Really fun marching back to the barracks like that. "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, LEFT RIGHT [cough gag hack spit] LEFT..." etc.

Sorry to be so graphic, but it wasn't at all what I thought it would be from the ads. Wanted others to know what it's like before they decide to go that route. Give me the air gun shot any day!

JM-99
 
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