DEC-1982
Full time employment: Posting here.
I have always wondered how effective the flu shot is. I keep hearing that half the time it doesn't cover the current (year) strain of flu.
I have always wondered how effective the flu shot is. I keep hearing that half the time it doesn't cover the current (year) strain of flu.
The flu vaccine is effective if virus strains spread as predicted. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't. Still, it's worth getting the flu shot, imo.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/vaccine-selection.htm
I don't distrust most medical professionals. If I run across one I don't like/trust, I'll move to another. Easy to do. HOWEVER, I don't trust the medical insurance companies and drug distributors. Possibly the biggest bunch of crooks in any business segment, IMO. Of all the things they care about, the customer is last. Moving from them is not as easy to do in many cases and I'm not sure if one is much better than another.On a slightly different but somewhat related track, apparently most Americans don't trust the medical profession.
"In 1966, more than three-fourths of Americans had great confidence in medical leaders; today, only 34 percent do. Compared with people in other developed countries, Americans are considerably less likely to trust doctors, and only a quarter express confidence in the health system."
"Mistrust can lead people to skip the flu shot".
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/upshot/do-you-trust-the-medical-profession.html
Sime interesting observations:
1. DW had symptoms a few days before I did, primarily coughing. It may have been coincidence, but it's likely that we both were hit with the same flu virus.
But her symptoms were much milder. If it weren't for me, I would have said she just had a cold.
My guess is that we both had the same flu, but her shot was more effective at limiting the symptoms. That is, her immune system worked better in conjunction with the shot than mine did.
2. My 29-year-old daughter and her fiance were bigly exposed to the flu while we were with them, but neither got the flu. They also hadn't had shots.
I have always wondered how effective the flu shot is. I keep hearing that half the time it doesn't cover the current (year) strain of flu.
NPR interviewed a CDC representative who said that getting the flu shot every year will help build your immunity against all strains of the flu. A cumulative effect of the shots.
Another possibility is that many of us older adults received a pneumonia vaccine within the last couple years. What killed my neighbor was the flu associated pneumonia. I do not know if she received the pneumonia vaccine and am reluctant to ask her son.
According to this poll, 11.7% of the responses got the flu.
If the respondent did get the flu shot, the chances they had the flu was 12.5%.
If the respondent did NOT get the flu shot, the chance they had the flu was 9.3%.
According to us, getting the shot does more harm than good.
Now, there's an obvious flaw in the methodology. The point of this post is to get your critical thinking skills going. Why would this unexpected result arise?
See my post #38 earlier in this thread. People who are less prone to get the flu for whatever reason (better health, not exposed as often to flu conditions, etc) tend not to get a shot.
Just for clarification: pneumonia is infection of the lung(s). It can be viral (most common), bacterial (common) or even fungal (rare). The influenza virus, like many other viruses, can cause pneumonia all by itself. And pneumonia due to the influenza virus can be fatal.
The “pneumonia vaccine” you refer to is pneumococcal vaccine, which protects against infection with pneumococcus, a bacterium that commonly causes pneumonia independently of the flu. Sometimes, other bacteria, for which there is no vaccine, also cause bacterial pneumonia.
When a person who has the flu develops pneumonia, it may simply be an extension of the viral infection into the lung(s). Sometimes, the mucus and airway swelling associated with a viral bronchitis can cause blockage of copious secretions, with collapse of the alveoli (air sacs) in one or more areas of the lungs. The air sacs become inflected and inflamed by the virus. This is viral pneumonia. Pneumococcal vaccine won’t prevent it, and antibiotics won’t treat it.
Some flu patients, who happen to have bacteria within their lungs, will develop secondary bacterial pneumonia when their airways are swollen and blocked. These people will benefit from antibiotics.
Distinguishing viral and secondary bacterial pneumonia can be confusing, since symptoms are common to both. The severity and timing of the symptoms, the X-ray findings, and the white blood cell profile may help. If there is sputum production (which often begins as the airways are beginning to open up), sputum can be analyzed for bacteria in the lab.
I woke up this morning with sore throat, coughing, runny nose, temperature of 101. (yes, I did have the flu shot). So I go to the doctor, have the rapid flu test (nose swab), comes back negative and the doc tells me I just have a cold. This seems a lot worse than the cold, I never run a temperature with a cold and I feel like I have been run over by a truck. I guess other than Tamiflu a cold would be treated about the same as the flu. But it feels a lot worse than a cold to me.
My question is what is the accuracy of the rapid flu test, does anyone have any knowledge on the rapid flu test? And does it really matter if I have a cold rather than the flu so far as treatment goes?