Flu shot

Posted , 6 users are following.

Do most of you get a flu shot each year ? I always have, until last year. I felt bad so often, thst I was scared to get it . I want to this year but not sure . What are your thoughts ?

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • Posted

    Renee, by getting a flu shot you're not only protecting yourself from the flu, you're protecting others who have weakened immune systems like the elderly and the ill, who are truly too sick to get one.  The flu is no joke to these people. It can be life-threatening.  

    At work one year, there was someone who came to work, sick as a dog, with another viral illness, snorting and snuffling, sneezing and coughing.  He didn't believe in putting "foreign substances in his body."  But he did, apparently, believe it was okay to infect others.  This "mild cold" (his words) spread to all of us, including one of our senior partners, who was in his 80's and a woman who had breast cancer and on chemo. She had to work in order to keep her insurance.  How considerate.     

    • Posted

      People with weakened immune systems and older people are considered at risk groups and get a flu jab every year. Or they should do. As far as I know women in menopause are not considered an at risk group. There are only a limited number of flu jabs available so those not in an at risk group should not be getting taking a vaccination from someone who needs it.

      i agree with you about the chap that came to work ill. It was inconsiderate and selfish. However, not everyone works for caring companies. For example, my husband's company will fire you if you are off sick more than twice a year.

    • Posted

      Furthermore, my GP told me that once you have a flu jab you have to have them every year for ever more because, having had a jab your natural resistance will weaken and if you then miss a jab you will have a very severe flu.
    • Posted

      Some people, such as the elderly in certain circumstances, and people  who are receiving chemo are warned not to get flu shots by their doctor. (I was told not to get a flu shot by my oncologist.)  Their immune systems are so compromised that they won't/can't react properly.  In the US, flu vaccines generally aren't rationed.  If people have access--young and old, they should get them.  

      Also, when one has the shot the immunity only lasts about 3 months--not a significant length of time. My husband got his, of course, but my oncologist warned him about that, too.    

      I'm sorry to learn about your husband's company--unfortunately, they're probably more the rule than the exception. xx   

    • Posted

      In the uk the shots are rationed. Or they were because my GP told me there was only a limited supply.

      I like the Japanese way of wearing a medical mask when you have a cold so you don't pass it into others. Sneezing and blowing your nose is also very frowned upon in public because, to them, you are expressing bodily fluids so it would be as bad as urinating in public.

       

    • Posted

      The Japanese have the right idea--wearing a mask is also protective.  Cancer patients often wear them in the US at their MD's insistence.  

    • Posted

      Yes, but in Japan it is the person who has got the virus who wears the mask. How civilised. People in the west would never do it - we are too concerned about appearance and it would be so uncool to do so.
  • Posted

    Yes, always get the flu shot. I forget it as soon as I get it. Have never had a reaction to it.

    I believe in all immunizations!

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