I beat the flu! (Read 1098 times)

The flu sucks! The shot this year seemed to have missed the mark almost entirely. Glad you are feeling better. I was out for a full week, then had another week of being pretty weak.

Actually, the shot did fail this year, from what I've heard. I read somewhere that the CDC and whoever else decides what strains to include in the shots made an incorrect estimation this year. Hopefully they'll do a better job in the future.

Actually, the shot did fail this year, from what I've heard. I read somewhere that the CDC and whoever else decides what strains to include in the shots made an incorrect estimation this year. Hopefully they'll do a better job in the future.

Yeah, I saw something about that on the news last night -- only about 40% effective this year. It's always a little bit of a crapshoot because they have to decide well in advance what strains are expected to be prevalent and set up the vaccine accordingly. Sort of an aside, but I've always believed to it's really important to get flu shots, especially for your kids. I've read a little bit about the concept of herd immunity: From Wikipedia

Herd immunity (or community immunity) describes a type of immunity that occurs when the vaccination of a portion of the population (or herd) provides protection to un-vaccinated individuals. Herd immunity theory proposes that, in diseases passed from person-to-person, it is more difficult to maintain a chain of infection when large numbers of a population are immune. The more immune individuals present in a population, the lower the likelihood that a susceptible person will come into contact with an infected individual.

Not everyone needs a shot to keep a population relatively disease-free, but since school-age children are the primary carriers of most communicable diseases, immunizing them has a much greater effect on the health of the population as a whole. It helps when flu shot is more than 40% effective, of course.

it's about protecting infants, elderly, and those who face serious consequences if they get ill.

True. The shot is quite a bit less effective for the elderly, so it's not enough that they get -- people around them need to get it, too.

True. The shot is quite a bit less effective for the elderly, so it's not enough that they get -- people around them need to get it, too.

I got to give hundreds of flu shots to the elderly at a nursing home this winter. It was my first time giving shots, so it was a novel experience for everyone involved and I only made a few people cry. I kept the nasal inhalant vaccine for myself. The flu vaccine still helps protect you, even when they've included the wrong strains of the virus, so it's still worth getting, even when they miss the mark.

My 2 cents. Well, more like 73 cents. http://runningahead.com/forums/post/ab33d8f802e548ccbf5fb4e77de85b7d#focus

So, of course, right when I'm about recovered from the flu, this has to happen. I'm starting to get worried about my next race because the training has been going so bad. Last night at my hockey game, I went down to block a slap shot and took it right to the foot. The team doc says to stay off for at least 4 days. So now I'm going to get even farther behind. NOOOOOO!!!