A shot in the arm, in a couple days.

[vakkotaur]

With the shortage of influenza vaccine last year, I didn't get vaccinated since I wasn't in any of the higher risk groups. This year there is no general shortage, though there have been short-term distribution glitches. Because of that, the vaccination has been delayed from October and split into two sessions. In the first session, only one hundred doses will be available at work this Thursday morning and a list has been made up. I responded early enough to get on that list. This is good as I won't be at work the next time the vaccine will be offered, which has already been scheduled.

Comments

I opened the window, and in flew Enza

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I remember two years in a row, I got the flu shot, and both years I got the flu. Since then, for about six years, I've skipped the flu shot and I haven't had the flu. So I'm planning to skip it again this year. I apparently have an inverse immune system.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

No vaccine is perfect, alas. It's sort of like weather forecasts, there's a percentage involved. Maybe you get immunity, or maybe you only get partial immunity. Some vaccination programs work on a 'herd immunity' situation: While it's not possible to give everyone 100% immunity, it is possible to make so many immune enough that a single infection stays a single infect rather than spreading through the population. Not everyone is immune, but 'the herd' is protected. And it sucks to be the one who isn't immune and does get infected.

It's also unusual that work is offering the influenza vaccine on a day other than Friday. Some folks have a reaction to it and so the idea seems to be to have the reaction ruin a weekend rather than workdays. Fortunately, I've never had any reaction to vaccinations other the usual soreness at the injection site.

Re: I opened the window, and in flew Enza

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I have never submitted to the guinea pig process of the flu vaccine. My mate goes through it every year. Guess who gets sick more often? (Hint: not me.)

I particularly like to point to the "swine flu" scare back in the 70s, when they told us thousands of people would die unless everyone got vaccinated, then they couldn't make vaccine fast enough, and then it turned out that there were some rather unpleasant side effects for some people who did take the vaccine. (Including Guillain-Barre, which is not nice at all, though usually you do recover from it.)

Now we're hearing similar talk about "bird flu". Frankly, I think it's a crock.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I also remember the swine flu bit in the '70s. What I didn't realize then is that the concern was that it might be something similar to the 1918 strain which was rather unusual. With bird flu there is a similar concern. While I know more research has been done on the 1918 strain recently, I haven't gotten all the details of it. Maybe bird flu will turn out to be just a big hassle, except for those with avian concerns. I know the current vaccine has nothing for H5N1 and right now it looks like bird flu doesn't spread to humans unless there is direct contact with birds. What worries me is not bird flu itself, but that a "boy who cried wolf" effect is getting reinforced.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets downplayed whenever the press starts tabloidizing about flu and the epidemic of 1918 is this: Most of those who died then probably would have been saved today. The flu virus weakened them severely, but it was pneumonia and other bacterial infections that caused the huge death tolls. There were no practical antibiotics then, and even supportive treatment for symptoms was shaky.

Yes, they told us that 'swine flu' was going to be like 1918. I'm glad I didn't buy that theory. I'd much rather get the flu than Guillain-Barre. As a severe claustrophobe, I'm sure that 3 to 4 weeks of paralysis would leave me stark, raving mad.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

You reminded me I haven't gotten one yet. I just made an appointment at the clinic for Friday at 2:30.