Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yep. Next year is the anniversary of the 1918 flu epidemic. A lot of older cemeteries have entire sections full of people who died of the flu that year. It's no joke.
Yep. Next year is the anniversary of the 1918 flu epidemic. A lot of older cemeteries have entire sections full of people who died of the flu that year. It's no joke.
Similar situation for the 2009 Flu Pandemic which also hit young adults harder than older adults who were around for the 1957 Flu Pandemic, and got immunity from having gotten that strain of the flu.
A shot in the arm isn't the only path to immunity. Measles, mumps, rubella, etc., are the perfect examples of this.
Similar situation for the 2009 Flu Pandemic which also hit young adults harder than older adults who were around for the 1957 Flu Pandemic, and got immunity from having gotten that strain of the flu.
A shot in the arm isn't the only path to immunity. Measles, mumps, rubella, etc., are the perfect examples of this.
Perhaps you should have read the article. It isn't anywhere near the "final word" on the 1918 pandemic as the title implies. Nor is Time magazine a science journal, nor its writers science writers.
Measles vaccine is one of the best there are. Very few people who have been immunized against measles get the disease. In the Disney epidemic, 77% of those for whom records were available were unimmunized, and another 8% had only had one dose of vaccine (85% total). Only about 12% had two (or more, 1 person had 3) doses. 1% had evidence of either vaccination or disease, it's unknown which. These numbers do not add up to 100% due to rounding. Keep in mind as well that many more people were exposed and didn't get the disease. There were 49 cases of measles in the US in 2016 through August. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmw...cid=mm6406a5_w https://www.verywell.com/measles-outbreaks-p2-2633796
Rubella is best measured by the occurence of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) a dangerous syndrome in which fetuses of infected pregnant mothers develop many different types of birth defects. In 2013, there were 3 (three) cases of CRS in the US. Therefore, one can conclude that the vaccine is doing its job. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6212a3.htm
Mumps disease has seen a resurgence the past few years, among vaccinated and unvaccinated. However, the rate of disease is very low, indicating that the vaccine is highly efficacious. At the University of Illinois, there were 317 mumps cases among students and faculty/staff. There are about 30,000 students alone, and many faculty/staff. That is a very low disease rate.
I've only been getting regular flu shots for the last 8 years, it was hit and miss prior to that but I haven't had the flu yet. What prompted me to even start was getting that one flu in the early 2000's that came with a 10 day fever. That was enough! My employer provides them free every year and it's the closest thing to a "health plan" I get from them so I take advantage.
I've only been getting regular flu shots for the last 8 years, it was hit and miss prior to that but I haven't had the flu yet. What prompted me to even start was getting that one flu in the early 2000's that came with a 10 day fever. That was enough! My employer provides them free every year and it's the closest thing to a "health plan" I get from them so I take advantage.
As a flu vaccine provider I've heard that story many times over.
Similar situation for the 2009 Flu Pandemic which also hit young adults harder than older adults who were around for the 1957 Flu Pandemic, and got immunity from having gotten that strain of the flu.
A shot in the arm isn't the only path to immunity. Measles, mumps, rubella, etc., are the perfect examples of this.
Immunity is not the goal of vaccination. Preventing people from getting sick is.
No vaccine -> get sick, possibly seriously so -> become immune. Of course, if you are maimed or die, immunity becomes not so important.
Take the vaccine -> skip getting sick-> become immune.
Immunity is not the goal of vaccination. Preventing people from getting sick is.
No vaccine -> get sick, possibly seriously so -> become immune. Of course, if you are maimed or die, immunity becomes not so important.
Take the vaccine -> skip getting sick-> become immune.
No flu vaccine > possibly get sick with the flu.
Take the flu vaccine > possibly get sick with the flu.
Didn't you say before that you have never had the flu in your entire life? How do you think you didn't get it prior to getting regular flu shots?
Not getting the flu shot does not mean that you will get the flu on any given year. There is always a possibility of getting the flu on any given year with our without the shot.
Last edited by MissTerri; 02-13-2017 at 09:18 AM..
Take the flu vaccine > possibly get sick with the flu.
Didn't you say before that you have never had the flu in your entire life? How do you think you didn't get it prior to getting regular flu shots?
Not getting the flu shot does not mean that you will get the flu on any given year. There is always a possibility of getting the flu on any given year with our without the shot.
One's chances are much reduced with the vaccine. I don't like to quote Fox Business, but they did give some really good information here. Flu Death Rates Just Hit the Epidemic Threshold, but This Is the Real Shocker | Fox Business "What could arguably be the bigger shock is that researchers appear to have hit the nail on the head once again when it comes to predicting the dominant flu strains months in advance of flu season. . . .
As you can see below, a majority of the positive influenza tests this flu season have come back as an influenza A H3N2 variant, with a relatively smaller number of H1N1 and influenza B strain viruses. One of the primary strains that this year's flu vaccines focused on was H3N2. It'll still probably be a few weeks before there's an official reading on the effectiveness of this year's vaccine, but there's a pretty good chance that'll it'll be within range or above the usual vaccine effectiveness of 50% to 60%."
So it's probable that your chances of getting the flu are cut in half by getting the vaccine, which just about everyone's insurance pays for.
Take the flu vaccine > possibly get sick with the flu.
Didn't you say before that you have never had the flu in your entire life? How do you think you didn't get it prior to getting regular flu shots?
Not getting the flu shot does not mean that you will get the flu on any given year. There is always a possibility of getting the flu on any given year with our without the shot.
You are implying that the risk of getting the flu is the same whether you take the vaccine or not. That is not true.
The context of my post, which you apparently missed, was that in order for someone who has not had a vaccine (and the post I was responding to was not confined to flu vaccine) to become immune to that disease requires having the infection. The majority of infected people get sick, some dangerously so.
The majority of people who are vaccinated do not get sick. They just become immune.
I do not remember saying I have never had flu. I could have had it as a child and have no recollection of it. I know my husband had a bad episode in 1976 and I did not catch it, despite living in a tiny apartment with him. There is great interest in determining what genetic factors might increase or decrease susceptibility to flu in humans but those have not been defined yet. Therefore, not having had flu in the past is no guarantee you will never have it in the future.
In any given flu season as few as two percent of the population may get it or as much as twenty five percent. Even two percent of the total population is a lot of people. Preventing half of those cases means a lot of people do not get sick. There were an estimated 60 million cases of flu in the US during the 2009-2010 pandemic. That was about twenty percent of the population.
Taking the vaccine will not prevent all flu. It can prevent only the strains in the vaccine, with perhaps some protection against strains that are genetically similar enough for antibodies from the vaccine to cross react with them. Most of those who get the flu after having the vaccine either got a strain not prevented by the vaccine or caught a strain that was in the vaccine within two weeks of taking it - too soon for the vaccine to take effect. Those who get a strain in the vaccine after it should have taken effect generally have milder disease. They are not flat on their backs for two weeks and do not end up in the hospital ICU.
Despite your efforts to suggest otherwise, flu vaccine is not worthless. Less than perfect, yes, but still worth taking.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
