I know that in some quarters there is controversy over vaccines. With all of my bad habits (like sneaking meat into my diet despite my gout), I’ve never worried about adding one more risk.
A casual inspection of today’s Drudge Report shows that the current version of the Flu is running rampant in some areas.
Here’s what I know for myself: For the last 19-years, I have gotten the ‘Flu Shot’ vaccine. I’ve never had any side-effect from it. Most of the time, it’s been offered for free by either my employers or the local medical center. And, for the last 19-years, I have not gotten the Flu.
I understand the axiom that “correlation does not imply causation” or, in this case, the (sorta’) reverse. I’m just saying. . . .
Maybe it’s just luck but, you should know that for the last 19-years I have been employed in jobs that bring me in near physical contact with other humans. Most of those years I was a salesman (shaking hands), and for the last three, I’ve been a ‘car porter’ which is basically a valet who doesn’t get tips. My hands are on a hundred steering wheels every day, as well as shift knobs and door handles. And, when was the last time anyone cleaned, or at least sprayed their steering wheels, shift knobs, and door handles with Lysol? Granted, I DO wash my hands a lot because there are no vaccines preventing colds or Norovirus. And, until I do wash my hands, I keep them far away from my mouth and eyes.
Okay, go ahead, tell me all about autism and other dire effects of vaccines. I haven’t gotten any of them and I haven’t gotten the Flu. Nineteen-years without the misery of the Flu. I’m doing something right and I believe that it is getting the Flu vaccine every year.
I’m just sayin’. . . .
8 Responses to “Flu Shots”
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on 08 Jan 2013 at 8:08 pm # John in Palm Springs
I also get a flu shot every year and have since I had the most god awful case of flu about 20 years ago. Haven’t had it since, have had one short lived cold last September for the first time since 2006. Largely, because as you do, I was my hands many, many times a day. As a wise old man once told me, the ten most common causes of colds and flu are attached to your hands.
on 09 Jan 2013 at 6:26 am # MichigammeDave
I teach private music lessons to students from age 4 to late 60’s, from four different school systems and a fairly wide geographic (rural) area.
I haven’t had a flu shot since 1983, and haven’t had the flu since then, either.
You’re right, Jeff, about correlation and causation, so I don’t know what my case proves, or disproves. But there it is.
on 09 Jan 2013 at 8:07 am # comatus
I get a flu shot every year, just before the disease factories open. It makes me sick every year. One year the formula will be off just the right amount, or there will be a perfectly understandable mistake in the production lab, and that will be it for me. Pay money, take ride.
I have no illusions: I do this out of faith, not science. I’m a westerner: we eat chemicals to drive out demons, and sometimes we die of it. It’s what we do. Apollonian tribalism.
I met a guy who got Guillain-Barre in the plague year. An organist, he lost his “muscle memory” when the nerve endings went. He was (eventually) able to re-learn, but it changed his playing style, for sure. Run that out to a 90% infestation, replace keyboard skills with, say, astronavigation, and you’ve got a hell of an SF story. It’s Rod Serling’s world; we’re just living in its Philip K Dick episodes.
on 09 Jan 2013 at 10:15 am # Gerry
I’ve never got a flu shot and never had the flu.
I will say that most of the folks I work do not have school age vermin, I mean children, so my exposure is very limited
on 09 Jan 2013 at 10:42 am # joated
MichigammeDave, I taught high and middle school for 32 years. I got the flu shot early on but stopped when I realized I had been exposed to every virus known to man every September and October. Did I ever get the flu? No. Colds? Occasionally, but usually after running myself ragged with extracurricular activities like camping and hunting in cold, wet, rainy conditions. When I was well rested and drank my OJ daily, I was in good physical health. (Mental health on the other hand required an occassional R&R day away from the teeming hordes.
)
on 09 Jan 2013 at 5:00 pm # MingoV
There are numerous possibilities for not getting the flu for 19 years.
1. Great immune system in regards to influenza.
2. No exposure to anyone who was contagious.
3. Good response to vaccines and #1, #2, or both.
Note that I don’t list “Good response to vaccines” by itself. That’s because each year’s vaccine is made using the strains of viruses found during the previous flu season. However, every few years a mutant influenza appears that will not be stopped by antibodies produced after vaccination. Thus, if someone did not get influenza for 19 consecutive years, it couldn’t be due solely to the vaccines.
– a clinical pathologist
on 13 Jan 2013 at 6:55 am # bogie
Glad the shot seems to work for you. I have not gotten a flu shot in the past 31 years. In the past 31 years I have not gotten the flue. Coincidence or proof that not getting a flu shot kept me from getting the flue?
I don’t have any beef with those that decide the flu shot is right for them (or their families).
on 13 Jan 2013 at 6:56 am # bogie
Ha: my fingers just had to type “flue” instead of “flu” a couple times