FYI: Flu vaccine for 2012-13 season

[jayem]

CDC website has vaccine info for the upcoming flu season. The strains covered in this year's vaccine are A California (H1N1); A Victoria (H3N2); and B Wisconsin. The H3N2 and B are different from last year's vaccine, but the H1N1 is derived from the 2009 Swine Flu virus. All persons > 6 months old, without a major contraindication, are still advised to be vaccinated.

Here's everything you want (or don't want) to know about the current flu shot. Read it and decide for yourself.

Prevention and Control of Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — United States, 2012–13 Influenza Season

 

[cow451]

CDC website has vaccine info for the upcoming flu season. The strains covered in this year's vaccine are A California (H1N1); A Victoria (H3N2); and B Wisconsin. The H3N2 and B are different from last year's vaccine, but the H1N1 is derived from the 2009 Swine Flu virus. All persons > 6 months old, without a major contraindication, are still advised to be vaccinated.

Here's everything you want (or don't want) to know about the current flu shot. Read it and decide for yourself.

Prevention and Control of Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — United States, 2012–13 Influenza Season

Got mine today. Get one every year.

 

[Desk trauma]

I really should start getting flu shots, I just have the minor issue of jumping like a scalded cat into the nearest corner, raising my fists and growling something about "over my smoldering corpse" at the sight of someone coming at me with a hypodermic needle.

 

[cow451]

I really should start getting flu shots, I just have the minor issue of jumping like a scalded cat into the nearest corner, raising my fists and growling something about "over my smoldering corpse" at the sight of someone coming at me with a hypodermic needle.

Try closing your eyes.

 

[JustMeSee]

Thanks for sharing. I need to get my shot.

 

[Dairy]

I don't feel the flu shot is a bad idea, but I've personally have had good luck avoiding winter colds by taking vitamin D3, reaching a testing level of around 50ng/ml. I've read others experiencing similar.

"Unique vitamin D observations"

Unique vitamin D observations | Track Your Plaque Blog

snippet:

...–Immunity from viral infections–I first learned of this association from Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council (Vitamin D Council > Information on Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency and Vitamin D Toxicity). Dr. Cannell recounts his experience with the 2006 flu epidemic in the hospital in northern California, where he is a psychiatrist charged with the health of 200 inpatients held in closed wards. While the flu spread like wildfire to the patients in all the other wards, the 200 patients in Dr. Cannell’s ward failed to contract a single episode of flu while taking 2000 units of vitamin D per day.

I was a little skeptical at first, having been disappointed by the failure of several nutritional agents like zinc, vitamin C (perhaps, at best, a minimal effect). Now, three years into my vitamin D experience, I am absolutely convinced that Dr. Cannells’ early observation was correct: Vitamin D enhances immunity enormously. Not only have I personally not had a virus in several years, the majority of my staff and patients have been happily free of viral infections. There have been a few, to be sure. But the usual winters of hacking, coughing, and sneezing in the office have become largely a memory. It is a rare person who comes to the office with viral symptoms....

 

[Dairy]

I don't feel the flu shot is a bad idea, but I've personally have had good luck avoiding winter colds by taking vitamin D3, reaching a testing level of around 50ng/ml. I've read others experiencing similar.

"Unique vitamin D observations"

Unique vitamin D observations | Track Your Plaque Blog

snippet:

...–Immunity from viral infections–I first learned of this association from Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council (Vitamin D Council > Information on Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency and Vitamin D Toxicity). Dr. Cannell recounts his experience with the 2006 flu epidemic in the hospital in northern California, where he is a psychiatrist charged with the health of 200 inpatients held in closed wards. While the flu spread like wildfire to the patients in all the other wards, the 200 patients in Dr. Cannell’s ward failed to contract a single episode of flu while taking 2000 units of vitamin D per day.

I was a little skeptical at first, having been disappointed by the failure of several nutritional agents like zinc, vitamin C (perhaps, at best, a minimal effect). Now, three years into my vitamin D experience, I am absolutely convinced that Dr. Cannells’ early observation was correct: Vitamin D enhances immunity enormously. Not only have I personally not had a virus in several years, the majority of my staff and patients have been happily free of viral infections. There have been a few, to be sure. But the usual winters of hacking, coughing, and sneezing in the office have become largely a memory. It is a rare person who comes to the office with viral symptoms....

 

[Wolseley]

If I get the flu, I get the flu. I don't want to deal with the side effects of the shot.

I suppose one of these days I'll get the flu, and it'll be severe enough to kill me. That'll be too bad, won't it?

 

[HalfoffSale]

If I get the flu, I get the flu. I don't want to deal with the side effects of the shot.

I suppose one of these days I'll get the flu, and it'll be severe enough to kill me. That'll be too bad, won't it?

Only if you still show up to work and hand it to everyone else too.

 

[cow451]

If I get the flu, I get the flu. I don't want to deal with the side effects of the shot.

I suppose one of these days I'll get the flu, and it'll be severe enough to kill me. That'll be too bad, won't it?

My twenty-something daughter had a similar attitude. Then she got the flu. She did wish it would kill her at one point, she was so sick.

 

[IanCG]

I get the flu mist every year, as does everyone else on base.

 

[cow451]

I get the flu mist every year, as does everyone else on base.

Flu mist= Flu missed.

 

[juliepeasandlove]

Do they have a flu mist equivalent? Last year I got the shot but my kids were lucky enough to get the mist. I am hoping there is one this year too, I really hate having to wrangle those 2 little people and get them all emotional! Thanks for this post, it reminds me to go find out, and hurry up about it!

 

[katautumn]

Only if you still show up to work and hand it to everyone else too.

Has anyone who shows up at work with "the flu" actually had the flu? Sorry, but most people erroneously call sinus infections and wicked colds the flu. You really get the flu, you aren't making it out of bed, let alone getting dressed and commuting to work and actually working an eight-hour shift.

Most spreaders of influenza are children, because they are contagious while still asymptomatic (whereas adults usually have to pass the virus through airborne particulates, such as coughing and sneezing). Since the children aren't showing symptoms of the illness, parents send them to school or birthday parties where they are sharing flu germs with everyone else and then come down with flu symptoms one to two days later.

It's not that I'm knocking the flu shot. I choose to not get one, because I have fibromyalgia and maybe it's coincidence, but vaccinations cause flares and then I'm all messed up. My exposure level is low. I am careful about keeping my hands away from my face, and if someone at church or the store is coughing or sneezing everywhere, I steer clear. Still, others I'm in close contact with, and cannot avoid being around them in they are down with the flu, get vaccinated, because their risk of exposure is higher and they aren't as conscientious about hygiene.

But I did want to make the point about the issue of sharing the "love", because not all of us who opt out of the vaccine are just a bunch of selfish super spreaders with no concern for our fellow man. If I get the flu because I chose to not take that one extra precaution, then I stay home until I know I'm no longer shedding the virus.

 

[Paulos23]

Got mine today. Get one every year.

So do I. My company pays for them.

 

[Supreme]

I get the flu pretty much every year. I'm quite lucky, as my age group isn't at risk of any complications with the flu. It's usually just an annoyance rather than anything else. Also, I do not believe it's available to people of my age group.

 

[Fenny the Fox]

Will be getting mine very soon, as I haven't yet. And I do every year.

 

[jayem]

I get the flu pretty much every year. I'm quite lucky, as my age group isn't at risk of any complications with the flu. It's usually just an annoyance rather than anything else. Also, I do not believe it's available to people of my age group.

Younger adults usually recover easily if they get the flu. The glaring exception was the disastrous 1917-18 pandemic, which may have killed 20 million people worldwide. (I've read estimates of 40+ million deaths, and 500+ million people sickened.) And most of the victims were healthy young adults. We know that an H1N1 strain was the culprit. Which is why the H1N1 Swine Flu in 2009 scared epidemiologists so badly.

In the US, vaccination is recommended for everyone aged 6 months or older. Unless there is a contraindication.

 

[DaisyDay]

It's not that I'm knocking the flu shot. I choose to not get one, because I have fibromyalgia and maybe it's coincidence, but vaccinations cause flares and then I'm all messed up. My exposure level is low. I am careful about keeping my hands away from my face, and if someone at church or the store is coughing or sneezing everywhere, I steer clear. Still, others I'm in close contact with, and cannot avoid being around them in they are down with the flu, get vaccinated, because their risk of exposure is higher and they aren't as conscientious about hygiene.

But I did want to make the point about the issue of sharing the "love", because not all of us who opt out of the vaccine are just a bunch of selfish super spreaders with no concern for our fellow man. If I get the flu because I chose to not take that one extra precaution, then I stay home until I know I'm no longer shedding the virus.

It sounds as if you are one of the reasons other people should get their shots - for the sake of herd immunity.