Don't joke, I've been trying to find an awesome use for one of my spare sets for years. (Something that doesn't involve vampires or zombies. Are we done with zombies yet?) My dentist actually does gold denture grills. I'm just enough of a flaky weirdo to consider it.
If I were more at risk from flu complications due to my health, age, or occupation (working with kids or older folks) I might be more inclined to get a flu vaccine, but since the vaccine just targets the most likely strains to occur that particular year, I'm young, and I don't have any serious health issues, I'm not really motivated to get it.
I get the flu shot every year because I have a friend who's unable to get the shot, and has some immune problems such that she's in serious trouble if she gets the flu. Now, she actually lives in another state; I've only gotten to meet her in person once. So I'm not particularly worried about passing germs on to her. But once she explained the problem, and how during flu season she pretty much has to become a hermit for her own safety because so many people don't get the shot... I realized that there are no doubt all sorts of people around me with similar problems, if maybe milder ones, where I'm just not aware of the issue. So now I get the shot every year. Also, the spouse has a serious needle phobia, so he's never going to get it unless it's absolutely required for something he desperately wants to do. So I view getting it myself as reducing the potential for the two of us to be a plague vector to our friends, and reducing the likelihood of both of us coming down with the flu at the same time. Because that has happened once, and it's more than twice as bad as having the flu alone.
It's possible that you could have gotten it and only had one or two pocks, and that's it -- that's what happened to my brother. (we think) Edit: I got the flu vaccine this year and I'm super glad, since it's the worst flu season in 10 years!
Come to think of it, you're possibly right; for the past several years I've found myself prone to rashes on my lower body that I always just chalked up to a generic nervous reaction because I've been a giant ball of stress. It may well have been shingles (outbreaks of which, I understand, can also be encouraged by stress), but it's not like I've actually done the sensible thing, like, say, seek the guidance of a medical professional.
Reading up on the lady who wrote this undeniably fucking horrible book, it looks like she's got some real grief issues. She lost a child and when the doctors told her it was due to a genetic disorder she insisted they were lying and that it was due to the vaccine he'd received earlier. So while this sort of thing still pisses me off (for my personal reason, see post #2) in this particular instance it just makes me a little sad.
Since MMR vaccination is required in most public schools these days, do all of these folks pretty much have to homeschool their kids with the rest of the fringe nutjobs? (Not implying homeschooling is solely a refuge for fringe nutjobs for anyone out there who actually was homeschooled, mind.)
That's because flu-like symptoms largely aren't caused by the disease, but by your immune system reacting to it. It reacts to the vaccination in much the same manner, ergo you still feel sick, it just doesn't last as long because it doesn't reproduce.
I was immune to chicken pox. Anyway.. Least here in my area of florida Chicken Pox vaccination is required for school. If you haven't had it you get 2 shots, one each year then your good. That said we did hold off on the MMR with my kiddo because he was showing reactions to eggs at the time it was originally due. We kept him out of most public mixing til he was 6, at which time we got him caught up on vaccinations. It was never our intent not to have him completely vaccinated just that allergies are severe in his family and wanted to avoid the rather nasty complications that can occur. Still even now (7th grade vaccinations) he gets pretty darn sick from the layer of shots he gets. Down for a day or so swollen and feverish. I never had that issue, anecdote from grandma says their family always has issues.
Makes sense to me. I've always believed that one of the reasons to push Vaccinations For All so strongly is so that herd immunity protects the small percentage of people who really can't get vaccinated, for one reason or another.
Especially having lost her son to a genetic disease, she probably finds it much easier to blame the doctors than her own body.
There is no legislation here which requires compulsory vaccination of children, or which requires schools to exclude children who have not been immunised. There is an exception if an unimmunised child has been in contact with a person with measles.
That's weird, I was sure it was at least required in WA; I have an ex who is a special needs teacher. I'm remembering wrong and I blame all of the Jimmy bloody Barnes records she made me listen to.
Sorry, zero sympathies from me. When she decided to spread this harmful message that will kill other kids she turned into a vile piece of shit, regardless of her personal history. Understanding her motivation doesn't mitigate this one bit.
I get you, but I've seen first hand the most extreme cases of what losing a young child can do to a mother. Unfair shit. But sure, it can also be argued that she was already irredeemable if her first conclusion was "the doctors don't know what they're talking about, it has to be this highly controversial and ridiculously alien thing that has zero basis in science, and I'm going to validate my tragedy by spreading my awful assumptions to the world".
There is strong support for it in WA, as there is in most states, but it's not compulsory. A school may ask for an immunisation certificate, at which point a person can provide a statutory declaration that you are a conscientious objector.
If you had shingles you'd go to the doctor. They show up on a nerve line and they FUCKING KILL. It is a 24-7 itching/searing/burning pain. It is the worst. They caused blindness in my grandmother's right eye because they started on her head then went down her face. I had it on the right side of my body so I couldn't put my arm down or else I'd be in agony.
Mine wasn't so bad, but that was partly because I correctly realized what it was, and got my ass to the doctor fast enough to get started with antivirals within the 72-hour window after it kicks off. If you miss the window, you get at least a couple of weeks of it; with the antivirals, it's about a week, the discomfort is lessened, and the likelihood of long term effects reduced. Shingles is moderately unusual in people not in their sixties, so younger people getting it often don't realize they should go get treated, or at least not early enough. Mine were in an interesting rosette pattern at the base of my spine. Initially I wondered if it was some sort of allergic reaction to the label in my underwear. Then they headed off down my sciatic nerve. I can't imagine how unpleasant they'd be on your face, god.
I was ten when I got it and the doctor didn't listen to my mother when she told him she thought it was shingles cause I was so young. But it was! And then both my younger sisters got it within a month. My youngest sister still has a scar on her back, just a little discolored patch where the worst of her shingles were. I just remember laying in bed at night crying while my mom put compresses on it because I was so uncomfortable and they hurt so much. All caused by stress from visiting with our dad on the weekends. That was a fun time.
Pretty much. Every year the CDC (and other health agencies like WHO) tries to predict which flu strains will be the prevalent one, and then the vaccine manufacturers make a flu shot against those strains. But they're about as correct as often as the weathermen are. Because of that, there's not a ton of evidence out there that shows the flu shots really do anything. From ye old wiki: I never bother to get one, but we do get them for my kids, especially since one's a type 1 diabetic which means his immune system is kinda compromised.
Herd immunity protects ALL if us. If not enough are vaccinated the virus will evolve faster, making out existing immunities irrelevant. Thanks, morons.
I have a proactive HMO. Any time I go in during the appropriate time of year, they nag me to get the flu vaccine. Then I feel smug for a few months. Knock on wood, I haven't gotten the flu yet. But I'm sort of ridiculously healthy for a plump, sedentary 45 year old.
This year is a good year to make an exception, since the flu is active with a vengeance this winter. Last year's flu rates on the left, this year's (so far) on the right. Note that Idaho has apparently ceased to exist. Boston has so many cases that they have apparently declared a public health emergency. Here in Monroe country NY, we've had ~1,300 reported cases so far, and eight adult deaths. The flu vaccine is only about 50-70% effective, so it is a crapshoot to some extent, but one in which your odds of not getting the flu are measurably better. Think of it like seat belts: many accidents are fatal anyway, but you are still better off wearing one.
We declared an emergency? That explains why my Grandma randomly called to make sure I wasn't dead/dying! I have a hate on for anti-vax people because my mother is a Pediatrician. And hoooly shit the amount of fucking drama those people cause in the pursuit of making their children's lives more dangerous.
I'm guessing the virus that caused my stomach flu is not the same as the ones that can cause influenza. Fuuuuuuuck that noise. I am going to hibernate for the rest of winter once I'm moved in to my apartment. I don't have the time or energy to be sick again this season, especially while job hunting.
That's correct. "Stomach flu" is a total misnomer, they're usually food poisoning or rotaviruses. Err, for adults it's norovirus, rotavirus is the one that causes it in kids.
We get the flu vaccine for free from the company every year, which is a good idea with how quickly plague tends to spread in this office.
We do too, except they limit the number of people that can get the vaccination. I believe this is somewhat unintentional as it's done through appointments and the nurses only being available for a limited number of days thus limiting the appointments. I don't know why they don't just let people line up, it's not like it takes long.
Kids can can Norovirus, too. And that shit is crazy. Kills a lot of people, though most just get pukey and pee-pooey. But that virus is something else. It evolves quick enough that the vaccine for it is only 33% effective. It's insanely contagious, in that "Each gram of feces contains around five billion noroviruses." So, that diarrhea you get from norovirus has billions and billions of viruses in them, and "It takes fewer than twenty noroviruses slipping into a person’s mouth to start a new infection."
Holy shit, you aren't kidding. I knew who he was in a general sense, but this is the first time I've really read up on the whole sequence of events and conflicts of interest involved in his MMR vaccine controversy. I wonder if Wakefield ever has trouble sleeping at night.
My boss never gets sick. Never. In all the years I've worked here he's taken one sick day and that was to get some bloodwork done. Right before Christmas? Out for three days with the flu. We had to have his boss tell him to STAY HOME because whatever he had was going to kill the rest of us. So that was my early indicator that we here in Boston were boned when it came to the flu. I know of at least three people with it now and two of them had had the flu shot. So fuck you flu shot! You are the worst this year!
The proper way to enjoy keyboard chow is to hold the keyboard at an angle and shake it so the crumbs fall right into your mouth. Delicious.
I was picturing a keyboard like the lickable wallpaper in Willy Wonka. "The P's taste like pineapple! The Z's taste like schozzberries!"
Unfortunately, this is not the case in WA. I work with kiddos every day, and it was really fun to get a phone call from the WA Dept. of Health a few weeks ago telling us that there is a major out break of Pertussis. Even more fun as I'm one of those immunosupressed people mentioned upthread. Boss lady says she knows of numerous kids who've gotten exemptions for all sorts of vaccinations as apparently Washington State has one of the highest exemption rates in the country, to the point that they recently changed the law to make it more difficult. Now you have to actually get a medical provider's signature to opt out. Fuck those people. Honestly. Medical necessity is the only reason to refrain from immunizing your kids.
