Does the flu shot really work?

Did you get a flu shot this season?

  • Yes

    Votes: 408 56.8%
  • No, I don't think they work

    Votes: 143 19.9%
  • No, they are not safe

    Votes: 91 12.7%
  • No, I have a health issue that doesn't allow it

    Votes: 21 2.9%
  • Other: please explain

    Votes: 55 7.7%

  • Total voters
    718
I have always had vaccinations: childhood ones of course and then for polio, but i will not get flu shot. I am an older woman and recall in the 70's when some people who got the flu shot wound up with Guillian (sp) Barre Syndrome--- a serious neurological illness, and/or the swine flu, and decided i would not get a flu shot--- fortunately i have not had the flu and hope i don't get it. Some people get pretty sick from flu shot itself, though they don't get the flu per se. Additionally, the flu shot does not cover all forms of the flu--the viruses change from year to year.
 
I don't get it for me, but herd immunity makes it a straight forward decision. I don't want to infect old people, babies or folks who are allergic.

Then you might want to keep away from new immigrants of all sorts, who have probably not gotten their flu shots. Just a thought.
 
I have always had vaccinations: childhood ones of course and then for polio, but i will not get flu shot. I am an older woman and recall in the 70's when some people who got the flu shot wound up with Guillian (sp) Barre Syndrome--- a serious neurological illness, and/or the swine flu, and decided i would not get a flu shot--- fortunately i have not had the flu and hope i don't get it. Some people get pretty sick from flu shot itself, though they don't get the flu per se. Additionally, the flu shot does not cover all forms of the flu--the viruses change from year to year.


Causes of GBS and relation to vaccination, by the UK NHS:

Sometimes Guillain-Barré syndrome appears to have a particular trigger. Some of the main triggers associated with it are outlined below.

Infections
In about two in every three cases, Guillain-Barré syndrome occurs a few days or weeks after an infection.

Infections that have been known to trigger the condition include:

Vaccinations
In the past, vaccinations (particularly the flu vaccine used in the US during a swine flu outbreak in 1976) were linked to an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome.


But research has since found the chances of developing the condition after having a vaccination are extremely small.


For example, a study into the vaccine used during the 2009 swine flu outbreak found that for every million people who had the vaccination, there were less than two extra cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome.


The benefits of vaccination are likely to outweigh any potential risk, as infections such as flu are more common triggers of the condition.


Other triggers
Other possible triggers for Guillain-Barré syndrome include:

BBM


IMHO as is often the cause, people who get ill after they had a vaccination, erroneously claim that this was because of the vaccination instead of at the time of the vaccination. Correlation does not imply causation.
 
Then you might want to keep away from new immigrants of all sorts, who have probably not gotten their flu shots. Just a thought.

Sensible advice, here in Europe we see diseases return that we thouht we had eradicated like Tuberculosis and similar.
 
Sensible advice, here in Europe we see diseases return that we thouht we had eradicated like Tuberculosis and similar.
Just because for example tuberculosis has been almost eradicated in some of the European countries, it doesn't mean it's gone far away, there's 15 European countries, most of them on the Balkan peninsula and in the former U.S.S.R., where it's still present (as well as almost all countries outside Europe, only a handful of non-European countries are not on the Swedish list of countries at risk of TB). In Sweden the compulsory vaccination against TB ended in the 1970ies, thankfully to get infected with TB one needs to be in close and long-time contact with a person infected with TB (i.e. a family member, room-mate or similar), so it's not as virulent and easy to catch as the flu, the measles and other infectious diseases.
 
Not about the flu vaccine, but about a vaccination many considers unnecessary, the chickenpox which is said to be a harmless childhood illness. It's not as harmless when a baby suffers a stroke as a complication, as there were recently at the hospital where I work, chickenpox seems to be the cause of a third of all strokes in young children. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/01.str.32.6.1257 , so why do parents want to take that risk as the consequences can be dire by not vaccinate their children?
 
Not about the flu vaccine, but about a vaccination many considers unnecessary, the chickenpox which is said to be a harmless childhood illness. It's not as harmless when a baby suffers a stroke as a complication, as there were recently at the hospital where I work, chickenpox seems to be the cause of a third of all strokes in young children. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/01.str.32.6.1257 , so why do parents want to take that risk as the consequences can be dire by not vaccinate their children?

I have worked with several older adults who went blind from Shingles. Get that vaccine! Shingles can be debilitating to older adults.
Shingles in the Eye: Symptoms, Complications, and More
 
Facebook under pressure to halt rise of anti-vaccination groups

Facebook is under pressure to stem the rise of anti-vaccination groups spreading false information about the dangers of life-saving vaccines while peddling unfounded alternative treatments such as high doses of vitamin C.


So-called “anti-vaxxers” are operating on Facebook in closed groups, where members have to be approved in advance. By barring access to others, they are able to serve undiluted misinformation without challenge.

The groups are large and sophisticated. Stop Mandatory Vaccination has more than 150,000 approved members. Vitamin C Against Vaccine Damage claims that large doses of the vitamin can “heal” people from vaccine damage, even though vaccines are safe.

Health experts are calling on Facebook to do more to counter these echo chambers. Dr Wendy Sue Swanson, spokeswoman of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said: “Facebook should prioritise dealing with the threat to human health when falsehoods and misinformation are shared. This isn’t just self-harm, it’s community harm.”

(...)

The threat posed by the Facebook groups was put in stark relief by the World Health Organization (WHO), which lists “vaccine hesitancy” – reluctance to vaccinate – as one of the top 10 global health threats in 2019. The WHO points to a 30% worldwide increase in measles, a highly contagious illness that can cause deafness, brain inflammation, pneumonia and death, especially in children


BBM
 
I got my flu shot this year and after taking care of my daughter who did not get one I came down with the flu. I will still get the shot next year. I have been so sick in the past with the flu I just don't want to go down the path again. Hopefully my shot kept me from getting that sick again when I did get it this year.
 
I am in UK and had flu jab about 12 years ago and was quite poorly. I had my latest in Dec 2019 and was given the jab for the over 65's and it seems to have worked.
 
To me there are two things to look at when it comes to the flu shot. For me personally, it is not effective. I rarely get sick because I am a carrier. The people around me I think should get them because I will bring all kinds of germs around me. Sure, I wash my hands a lot and am careful because I know I am a carrier.
 
Whether you decide on the vaccine or against it is a personal decision.

If you have the flu, please stay isolated as much as possible. If being in public is necessary wearing a mask is common courtesy.

The two occasions I have come down with severe flu followed recent trips to the doctors office where I was exposed to the virus.
 
I am in UK and had flu jab about 12 years ago and was quite poorly. I had my latest in Dec 2019 and was given the jab for the over 65's and it seems to have worked.

The over 65 shot is a bit stronger and I always ask for it here in the US. A lot of older ones don’t know about it and aren’t told. I’ve been at two retirement communities where the flu shot is given and it’s not the over 65 type, which it should be. Of course, none of the shots are 100% effective, but in all the years I’ve gotten them I’ve never gotten the flu.
 
Idk the flu shots always work for me.

Flu shots are based each year on a predicion as to what strains will be prevalent. But here's what my doctors (plural) who I deeply respect and trust as they aren't medicine or treatment pushers without reason, said:

1. Each year the percentage rate of effectiveness depends on how well they predicted the strains that would be prevalent. This season I think it was less than 50%.

2. However, even if it doesn't prevent one from contracting a particular strain of the flu, all flu vaccines are related genetically so any flu vaccine will generally help in reducing symptoms. So most people who contract the flu after getting a vaccine, do not die from it or get it as severe as they would have.

3. Even though flu viruses mutate every year, every vaccine adds to your immune system library and will help prevent you from contracting strains for which you were vaccinated against, even if they mutate. And if they mutate a lot the vaccine will still at the least reduce the severity of the illness.

I have asthma. I got a regular cold this year. Not the flu. I was laid out for three weeks. I coughed so hard I pulled muscles. I couldn't sleep more than a half hour at a time for two weeks. I was very weak due to breathing issues. I lost a lot of work time.

When I went to the urgent care one night (I had to go twice), it was FULL of people in masks coughing and they were calling in doctors to come in early for their shifts due to the overflow.

They sent urgent care patients to various departments because it was so insane.

And that was just a cold.

The flu is vastly more dangerous. It can kill me.

I've gotten the vaccine every year since the late 90's after a horrible flu that I felt the effects of for years.

On a couple occiasions I felt under the weather for a few hours sometime after the vaccine. My body probably struggling to create an immune response to it.

But I haven't had the flu since.

Those who bring up risk like Guillian Barre should do some math. The flu is super dangerous. Every year a host of elderly people die from it. Kids and healthy young adults do too.

The amount of people who die from vaccines is negligible. It's practically unheard of. The rates of people who have a serious adverse reaction are also negligible.

It's kind of like saying, "Well, sometimes seatbelts actually kill you instead of saving you. So I'm not going to use them."

That's not logical. Because the chances of such a thing compared to how many lives it saves renders not wearing seat belts, dangerous and irrational.

Each flu vaccine carries vaccines for multiple strains. Usually around 6.
I'm happy to build my immunize system library each year and hope others will too to protect people like me (who have medical problems like asthma), via herd immunity!
 
To me there are two things to look at when it comes to the flu shot. For me personally, it is not effective. I rarely get sick because I am a carrier. The people around me I think should get them because I will bring all kinds of germs around me. Sure, I wash my hands a lot and am careful because I know I am a carrier.

How do to know it's not effective?
 

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