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Thread: Did you get a flu shot?

  1. #91
    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Barry View Post
    Unbelievable what some people believe. The internet is a poor source of information. Lots of data to support your viewpoint, just not enough
    real information. PS: I'm sure the anti-vaxxers think the same way.
    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Funk View Post
    Unfortunately, the plural of Anecdote is not 'Data'...
    And unfortunately neither is a synonym for Confirmation Bias

  2. #92
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Demuth View Post
    I congratulate you on your health. Sincerely.

    But I'm the same age as you, still able to work hard and contribute to society, only because modern drugs have saved my life multiple times. I would have died in my early 30s from a ruptured appendix, in the days before antibiotics. I have had essential hypertension (high blood pressure) for nearly 50 years. Uncontrolled, it would have killed me decades ago, as it did my grandfather, when he was 45. I work with a couple of folks with Type 1 diabetes, one also in his sixties. He'd never have made it to high school without modern medicine, but insulin therapy, and the ongoing improvement of insulin dosing has meant that he has almost the same life expectancy as you and me. He, BTW, has devoted his life to the treatment of blood cancers with viral therapy. There is a 40-something mother not far from here dying of untreatable lymphoma 7 years ago, who is now healthy, working, and able to see her children graduate from high school because of his research.

    I mostly agree with you on the OTC drugs. I avoid them for the most part. But, as I say, I'd be long dead without the 3 prescription drugs I take for hypertension, or without antibiotics at critical moments.
    I have nothing against prescription drugs. Drugs are fine if administered and used correctly, and work. My wife takes gobs of them, BUT- she has only ONE doctor doing the prescribing, she's on the lowest dosages that work, and takes EXACTLY what's prescribed, no more, no less. In our area was a doctor, dubbed 'The Candy Man,' he was sentenced to 8 years for criminal over-prescribing. We had a DIL who was one of his regulars. Pay his office visit fee, tell him it hurts, and he'd write a script for a months worth of 4x a day 80mg Oxy. They'd never last a month. After he went to jail she still found plenty of pills, they just cost more. She died in her sleep of congestive heart failure a few years ago, she was 38. But I don't blame the drugs. And the reason I don't get a flu shot, I just don't feel like it.
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 02-10-2020 at 2:42 PM.
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  3. #93
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    My wife takes gobs of them, BUT- she has only ONE doctor doing the prescribing,
    The other thing you have to take into consideration is that a doctor is going to account for the meds "they prescribe". Another thing that has to be taken into account is over the counter meds in addition to the prescribed meds.

    People who take boat loads of meds are more often than not people who will get a sniffle and run straight to the pharmacy and start downing zyrtec, allergy meds, and all sorts of other stuff. They will be slathering themselves with who knows what type of cream for an itch or going through abreva like toilet paper because they have a tingle in their lip an think its a cold sore.

    The doctor needs to be accounting for EVERYTHING an individual is putting in/on their system which is completely impossible. So the answer is to get ahold of the neurocies of prescriptions first, and then assess.

  4. #94
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    Every year for as long as I can remember.

    My primary care physician told me once that our immune system handles some high number of minor assaults every day. I figure, what's a few more. I know that it's a bit of a crap shoot. They get together every year and try to predict which virus emerging from the third world is going to be big AND how it will mutate before it really starts to spread. I can't imagine how hard that would be. But I'll take the odds.

  5. #95
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    Yes, every year. Being retired military, I'm quite used to the vaccination routine. Even if I weren't, I'd do it anyway since I'm on a couple of drugs that can suppress the immune system.
    Brett
    Peters Creek, Alaska

    Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

  6. #96
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rainey View Post
    Most of us realize that health care is a huge business with obscene salaries to a few players in the system. There are many honest people in the system and they try their best, but even they will admit that money game dominates. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been looked at carefully. As previously stated, the best estimate is that if 200 people got the flu shot, and 200 did not, there would be about one less case of flu in the group that got the flu shot. In today's health care environment is would be foolish to think that profit does not play a role in promotion of the flu shot. You make the choice. If you like the odds, get it. If you don't, pass.
    More like 10. Although years vary a lot, it is not uncommon that 10% of the population gets influenza. The vaccines run about 50% effectiveness (again, with considerable variation). That yields a case reduction of 10 per 200.

    But it's the part where my risk goes down by half that interests me. For the minor inconvenience of the shot, that's a risk reduction I'll take.

  7. #97
    I used to not get a flu shot. Now I get it every year and I kind of judge those who refuse to. I'm convinced it is a good move to get it. And having just had a baby, I also got my TDAP (whooping cough) shot this year. Furthermore, I am considering getting a shingles vaccination since my dad just had it.

  8. #98
    Meanwhile, in Central Texas...
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    Ex-SCM and Felder rep

  9. #99
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    This article addresses most of the points raised here clearly and succinctly, and is quite consistent with my knowledge gained from decades of working in infectious disease research.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...-how-to-decide

    Just one more note of interest, as researchers work to predict future flu strains one of the things they watch carefully are the avian strains circulating in wild waterfowl in China. It seems that the virus gets communicated from wild birds to domestic ducks and then on to pigs and eventually humans as it mutates to adapt to new hosts over a 7 to 10 year period.

    It will be interesting (epidemiologically) to see how the devastation of the Chinese pig population by the African Swine Fever virus affects influenza over the coming decade.

  10. #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by roger wiegand View Post
    This article addresses most of the points raised here clearly and succinctly, and is quite consistent with my knowledge gained from decades of working in infectious disease research.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...-how-to-decide

    Just one more note of interest, as researchers work to predict future flu strains one of the things they watch carefully are the avian strains circulating in wild waterfowl in China. It seems that the virus gets communicated from wild birds to domestic ducks and then on to pigs and eventually humans as it mutates to adapt to new hosts over a 7 to 10 year period.

    It will be interesting (epidemiologically) to see how the devastation of the Chinese pig population by the African Swine Fever virus affects influenza over the coming decade.
    Thank you Roger
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  11. #101
    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Barry View Post
    Unbelievable what some people believe. The internet is a poor source of information. Lots of data to support your viewpoint, just not enough
    real information. PS: I'm sure the anti-vaxxers think the same way.
    I am all for the common vaccinations, but there is no way I will ever get a flu shot.

    I must be doing something right as I haven't missed a day of work or anything for that matter from being sick in probably 15 years or more.

    It's my choice to avoid doctors if I so choose.

    Best part of America is if I want to eat total crap food, balloon up to 400 pounds and die at 45 from a heart attack, I can.

  12. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Demuth View Post
    More like 10. Although years vary a lot, it is not uncommon that 10% of the population gets influenza. The vaccines run about 50% effectiveness (again, with considerable variation). That yields a case reduction of 10 per 200.

    But it's the part where my risk goes down by half that interests me. For the minor inconvenience of the shot, that's a risk reduction I'll take.
    The flu shot can be a little effective, and one should have the option of getting one. This is a nice review. The summary states Healthy adults who receive inactivated parenteral influenza vaccine rather than no vaccine probably experience less influenza, from just over 2% to just under 1%. It is a very interesting subject, and if you are interested more detailed statistics, PM me and we can have a good discussion. Stay healthy! Mark

  13. #103
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rainey View Post
    The flu shot can be a little effective, and one should have the option of getting one. This is a nice review. The summary states Healthy adults who receive inactivated parenteral influenza vaccine rather than no vaccine probably experience less influenza, from just over 2% to just under 1%. It is a very interesting subject, and if you are interested more detailed statistics, PM me and we can have a good discussion. Stay healthy! Mark
    Mark do you get yearly flu shots ? Most of the info I see is much higher than 2%.
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  14. #104
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    I just saw where this years flu shots are only 45% that doesn't seem like good odds

  15. #105
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Stanek View Post
    I just saw where this years flu shots are only 45% that doesn't seem like good odds
    45% better than the alternative...

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