Please get a flu vaccine

[zartagen]

...

Please explain the concept of Herd Immunity?

...

Well, he did call us sheep...

[summit]

Excellent response. Makes me laugh, from my perspective as an ICU RN.

Ditto but faith trumps logic

That is why the loudest antivax types object on religious grounds along with new age faith in alternatives fear mongers like silver/dbs

[KQ]

So, you trust the CDC when it says not to take a certain vaccine but don't trust the CDC when it recommends that you take a certain vaccine?

It's like the question I asked earlier (and got no answer to): Who here would refuse a polio vaccine?

[Tele 'til You're Smelly]

And every bit of their business contributes to their bottom line.

How do you explain the manufacturer of flumist continuing to sell and market a vaccine that works so poorly that the CDC recommends against it?

To paraphrase Danno, I don't think anyone is saying do what Big Pharma wants when the CDC and other reputable public health officials recommend something contrary. I mean do what you want, but if Big Pharma doesn't want you to cut off your nose, it seems stupid to do so just to spite them.

[TheSilverSurfer]

Oh no! The Fluz are going to get you!

[Bunion 2020]

Yeah, the flu sucks. So do a lot of illness's. I think maybe a lot of you are starting to get just a wee bit hysterical about this.

How bad is this flu season?

At the moment, the 2017-2018 flu season is considered “moderately severe.” Large numbers of Americans have fallen ill, and every state except Hawaii has reported widespread flu activity. But some regions have been hit harder than others. More important, the number of people hospitalized or dying from flu nationwide is not unusually high. This season is closely paralleling the 2014-2015 season, which was dominated by the same H3N2 flu strain and was also “moderately severe.”
Is this year’s flu strain unusually dangerous?

H3N2 is the most dangerous of the four seasonal flu strains, but it is not new nor uniquely lethal. A typical season mixes two Type A strains — H1N1 and H3N2, and two Type B strains — Victoria and Yamagata. (The B strains normally arrive later and are rarer.) As of Jan. 7, about 78 percent of all samples genetically sequenced have been H3N2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That strain first emerged in Hong Kong in 1968 and killed an estimated 1 million people around the world that year. But it has circulated ever since, constantly undergoing small mutations. Many people have had it, and an H3N2 strain is a component of every season’s flu shot, so partial immunity is widespread.


How many people are ill, and how do we know?

Almost 6 percent of all Americans seeking medical care now have flu symptoms. That is tracked by the C.D.C.’s Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network, to which about 2,000 doctors’ offices and clinics around the country report weekly how many of their patients have fevers of at least 100 degrees plus a cough or sore throat. The 2014-15 and 2012-13 flu seasons also peaked at close to 6 percent. By contrast, the mildest recent season, 2011-2012, barely surpassed 2 percent. In 2009, during the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic, almost 8 percent of visits were flu-related, but they peaked in October, not in January. That never happens in seasonal flu but is typical of pandemic flus.

Are hospitals overwhelmed?

In some places, including Southern California and central Texas, some hospitals have seen so many flu patients that they had to set up triage tents or turn other patients away. But overall there have not been reports of regional shortages of antiviral medications, patients dying because a city ran out of respirators, or other signs of a major crisis.

Where is the flu spreading?

This year’s outbreak began in Louisiana and Mississippi, then spread across Texas to California and up the West Coast from San Diego to Seattle. It also stretched into the Midwest. Kinsahealth, which makes internet-connected thermometers and builds its database from 25,000 daily fever readings, says the current hot spot is the St. Louis area. The Northeast has been largely spared so far, as have Minnesota, the Dakotas and some Rocky Mountain states.
Are large numbers of people dying?

No, although it may appear so right now. The deaths of a few apparently healthy people — notably those of a 21-year-old fitness buff in Latrobe, Pa., a mother of three in San Jose, Calif., and a 10-year-old hockey player in New Canaan, Conn. — have been widely publicized, and some areas, like San Diego, have reported record numbers of deaths. But it is still too early to say how high mortality will be nationally. It can take weeks to confirm all flu-related deaths. As of now, the mortality rate for victims under age 18, a bellwether C.D.C. category, is well below that seen in the 2014-15 season.



How many usually die?

Even in a mild year, flu kills about 12,000 Americans, the C.D.C. estimates. In a bad year, it kills up to 56,000. Most of those deaths are among the elderly, but flu also kills middle-aged adults with underlying problems like heart or lung disease, diabetes, immune suppression or obesity. It is also dangerous for pregnant women, children under age 5 and children with asthma. And, every season, flu and its complications, including pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, kill some apparently healthy people.



Does this year’s flu shot work?

Its H3N2 component is a bad match for the circulating strain. Australia just had a severe flu season with many deaths, and the vaccine there had the same mismatch. Experts estimated that the vaccine prevented infection only 10 percent of the time. The shot’s efficacy here has not yet been calculated because the virus is still spreading, but experts expect it to be about 30 percent. In Australia, vaccination failed partially because it is urged for only the most vulnerable, while in the United States millions of healthy people are vaccinated.
Is it worth getting the flu shot anyway?

Experts say yes, because even when the shot does not prevent you from catching the flu, it may save you from dying of it. And while getting it in October is best, because it takes about two weeks to build immunity, it is still not too late, because the virus persists all winter and into spring.
Are antiviral flu medicines working?

Yes. Of all the samples tested so far by the C.D.C., only 1 percent were resistant to oseltamivir, zanamivir, and peramivir, the ingredients in Tamiflu, Relenza and Rapivab. But to be effective, these medicines should be taken as early as possible after symptoms appear. (Rapivab is given intravenously, usually in hospitals.)

[Viva]

It's like the question I asked earlier (and got no answer to): Who here would refuse a polio vaccine?

I wouldn't. In my view, that vaccine actually provides real value.

Now, if a broadly neutralizing vaccine were developed against the common cold, capable of overcoming the antigenic variability of those various viruses for life, I'd be first in line for that innoculation. Fuck yeah!

Why? The cold has proven far, far more disruptive to my life than the few bouts of the flu that I experienced over a relatively long time frame.

Sent from my XT1650 using TGR Forums mobile app

[Art Shirk]

Oh no! The Fluz are going to get you!

Yeah yeah, its just an anecdote I know, but 5 years ago a good friend of mine who was 33 years old who took care of herself by all measures got the flu. She then got pneumonia, eventually sepsis and died. Left two girls and a husband at Christmas. I've no idea if she had a flu shot or not. I'm sure if she had to do it over and never had the shot, she would have chosen to stick it to big Pharma.

I don't go around looking for solutions to virtually non-existent problems, but vaccines are an easy preemptive insurance policy against the worst things in the world, whether they are likely or not.

[Bunion 2020]

I don't go around looking for solutions to virtually non-existent problems, but vaccines are an easy preemptive insurance policy against the worst things in the world, whether they are likely or not.

Drunk Drivers and Meth Heads worry me a lot more.

[iceman]

I had the flu about 10-12 years ago and got absolutely slammed. Horrendously sick for at least 2 weeks, like not get out of bed except to go to the bathroom for days on end sick. Living in some weird day/night twilight zone, not eating, forcing myself just to drink water. It was rough. If there was a 1% chance a flu shot could prevent that from happening again I'd get one.

Many places give flu shots for free. There's not a rational reason not to get one. Takes 5 minutes, doesn't hurt, can definitely help.

I think you pussies are just scared of needles.

[jackstraw]

In my case and probably many, it's just one of those things in life that you don't make time for and/or forget about it because life gets in the way.

I'm certainly not afraid of needles and my immune system kills everything good and bad, so yeah, I've got that going for me.

[summit]

Drunk Drivers and Meth Heads worry me a lot more.

On an average flu season year, flu still kills more people in the US than either drunk drivers or meth heads.

On a bad year, several times more.

[skaredshtles]

<snip>
I think you pussies are just scared of needles.

You joke... but I think this is a *big* part of it for a lot of people.

[The AD]

Less than 60% of eligible voters voted in the last Presidential election, so that should tell you something about how difficult it is to get the vast majority of Americans to do anything they don't have to.

[KQ]

Less than 60% of eligible voters voted in the last Presidential election, so that should tell you something about how difficult it is to get the vast majority of Americans to do anything they don't have to.

To be fair it's that example not as simple as it sounds. A certain party has made it more of a hassle to vote than not.

[k2skier112]

No. Never have. I wont touch any door handle with a bare hand in the winter, always washing hands...I'm self employed so I don't have to get in contact with the dirty filthy public, unless I choose.

I did get sick this year for the first time in about 6-7 years, only because my wife and son brought it home from work. That shit stayed in the sinuses and lungs for weeks.

[truckeelocal]

On an average flu season year, flu still kills more people in the US than either drunk drivers or meth heads.

On a bad year, several times more.

And what terrifies medical practitioners is an awful year like 1918 where 3-5% of the entire world population died. That would be 10-15 million people in the US. Get the $%*$@ vaccine !

[Bunion 2020]

Well, so far maybe 200,000 people in the US have gotten the strain you are all so worked up about.

Flu is a contagious, viral illness that causes mild to severe symptoms that can sometimes lead to death.

There were 14,401 new laboratory-confirmed cases during the week ending January 13, bringing the season total to 74,562. These numbers do not include all people who have had the flu, as many do not see a doctor when sick.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fl...pdk?li=BBnb7Kz

[summit]

And what terrifies medical practitioners is an awful year like 1918 where 3-5% of the entire world population died. That would be 10-15 million people in the US. Get the $%*$@ vaccine !

Somewhat miraculous that society did not collapse from that alone, especially in the setting of WWI and Communist unrest, although some think that WWI favored deadlier strains.

It would be interesting to see how much better modern healthcare could have done against it with antibiotics (for the secondary viral pneumonias), and better supportive care including pharmaceuticals.

The prospect of a similar pandemic should terrify anyone.

[old goat]

Listening to NPR today--apparently there has been a promising development in the search for a universal vaccine. And according to Anthony Fauci the Natl Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease now considers flu its number 1 priority, ahead of things like HIV and Zika.

I suspect that every dollar spent looking for a universal vaccine would be repaid 10 times over if you consider the economic impact of the flu in time off work.

Just don't get your hopes up for a cold vaccine--colds are caused by a wide variety of completely unrelated viruses.

[summit]

Listening to NPR today--apparently there has been a promising development in the search for a universal vaccine. And according to Anthony Fauci the Natl Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease now considers flu its number 1 priority, ahead of things like HIV and Zika.

I suspect that every dollar spent looking for a universal vaccine would be repaid 10 times over if you consider the economic impact of the flu in time off work.

Just don't get your hopes up for a cold vaccine--colds are caused by a wide variety of completely unrelated viruses.

I read about this a couple weeks back... looks good but hey lets see when we get into trials.

[DBdude]

Oh no! The Fluz are going to get you!

elegant response

[riser4]

I'll be the first to admit it. I'm a huge pussy. Terrified of needles. I still get my shots, flu included. Even though I have to lie down so I don't pass out when they stick me for blood collection. I would not make a very good junkie.

[adrenalated]

This whole thing reads like a climate change thread.

[Kenny Satch]

I like how he's not against vaccines he just against bad ones.

I guess he'll be called a quack and loonie and so on