Some things I've actually heard:
"I get sick every time!" No, you don't.
"It's a LIVE VIRUS! Everybody knows this!" No, it's not. You're just an idiot hanging around with idiots.
I felt worse than I'd ever felt in my life. Everything hurt when I moved or when I didn't. My head was killing me. I never stopped coughing. It woke me up at all hours of the night and took me hours to get back to sleep. I was drinking cough syrup like it was candy just to get some barely passable naps during the night. It eventually devolved into pneumonia.
By the time I recovered and came back to work, I'd coughed so much I no longer had any voice.
I'd thought I'd had the flu before, but like many other people are saying it was pretty quickly apparent that it had always just been colds. I got the flu the first time when I was almost 30. I too would be extremely surprised if your reaction to the flu shot was anywhere near as bad as a flu.
Based on that I think I've never had the flu.
That sounds about right. I did not really appreciate the distinction between a bad cold and the flu until I finally got the flu. I gained a real appreciation for why it kills weaker people.
It does matter. The claim here is basically "for certain people (me), the flu shot has been worse than the flu". If that person never experienced an actual Influenza infection, then that claim was made in error.
In that case, it would be like saying "my reaction to the vaccine was worse than any infection I never had".
That is equivalent to "my reaction to the vaccine was worse than my reaction to nothing", or more simply "I had a negative reaction to the vaccine". Fair enough, there's no questioning that.
Now, if you had ever had an actual Influenza infection, my guess would be that you would prefer the vaccine. If you react that strongly to just the vaccine, why should you react less strongly to the actual virus? To be on the safer side, why not just assume that the actual virus would completely overwhelm you?
> I am very reluctant to intentionally make myself sick for a few days every year.
That's the tradeoff. Feel miserable for a few days per year versus taking the risk of contracting a severe infection and potentially being dead for the remaining years of your life.
To complicate the matter, flu vaccines are only about 50% effective, though I'm told they help even with actual infections.
I'm not telling you what to do, except to re-evaluate your thinking on the matter.
Then why bother?
Also the immune response can suck, but I would think the risk for complications is still actually lower than genuine infection. I would see the flu shot as taking one for the team.
Are you sure you ever had an actual Influenza infection? It's not like a common cold.
Even then, let's say you do get Influenza, there's a solid chance you'll get pneumonia, even as an otherwise healthy person.
Most diseases to vaccinate against have are mild in the majority of cases. You're vaccinating because of the fraction of cases that are severe.
It just strikes me as unlikely. It's more likely that people don't understand the difference between a flu and a cold.
That's why I'm asking for clarification.
I'll be more vigilant in getting it in the future.
Please tell me more about how I've deceived myself.
Just as the MMR vaccine is less about you contracting measles and more about your spreading measles to more vulnerable populations that are unable to get the vaccine, the flu shot is identical in that regard. Sure, it helps you not get sick and/or to lessen the effects, but there is the fact that some portion of the population is unable to get the shot for various health reasons.
Edit: Instead of downvoting please tell me how my experiences are wrong. I'm very much aware of evidence and studies stating that its "impossible" to get the actual flu from the flu shot, yet I am walking proof of contrary evidence. I'm also aware of how batshit emotional people can get with regards to vaccines, and I want to be clear I am absolutely NOT advocating that anyone forgo getting a flu shot every year. When everyone else gets the shot, I'm safer. When I get the shot, my body reacts violently and I will contract the virus.
And yes, the flu shot isn't 100% effective. And yes some have bad reactions to certain vaccines. However, I find it extremely unlikely that you got it from the vaccine and instead that you were just very very unlucky at getting influenza. It's a bit of a sharpshooter fallacy to me.
And for those who are vulnerable, then their only protection is herd immunity where everyone else around them is immunized by vaccines.
No, this is false. The MMR vaccine is very much about stopping individual people who get the vaccine from getting measles. Herd immunity follows, and is important, but the primary aim of the vaccination is to prevent measles in the people who are vaccinated.
> Please tell me more about how I've deceived myself.
Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
It's not bias. It's a fact. My GP is the one that has specifically told me to avoid the shot because I have a history of complications with it.
If you're capable, I'd love for you to diagnose me with some other mental disorder or logical fallacy, but please look at my medical history before you start dismissing my experiences as idiotic.
> I'm very much aware of evidence and studies stating that its "impossible" to get the actual flu from the flu shot, yet I am walking proof of contrary evidence.
This is the famous "anti-tiger rock" argument from the Simpsons. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Apu_About_Nothing)
You have evidence you got the flu.
You do NOT have evidence you got it from the shot.
> My GP is the one that has specifically told me to avoid the shot.
Anti-vaccine cranks exist even amongst medical professionals. Hell, the whole movement was started by one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield
> the flu shot is not 100% effective or 100% side effect free
This is a strawman. Vaccine proponents agree with these specific statements. It's well known that the effectiveness varies from year to year, and that side effects are possible.
"A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine
I have nothing against vaccines, but my understanding is that you CAN get sick from it.
A dead-virus vaccine like the flu shot cannot give you the flu. It can cause "sick" side-effects (for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain%E2%80%93Barr%C3%A9_sy..., or the fairly common aches and pains from the immune response), but not the flu.
A live-virus vaccine like the flu nasal spray can give you the flu, especially if you're immune suppressed or something along those lines.
Are you saying that a lot of vaccines are NOT weakened versions of the actual virus which can give you the sickness if your immune system is weak?
Or are you saying that the commonly used flu vaccine in the US does not utilize a live form of the virus?
If you are talking about the specifics of the latter, you could be right, I am not an expert.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/misconceptions.htm
> No, flu vaccines cannot cause flu illness. Flu vaccines given with a needle (i.e., flu shots) are currently made in two ways: the vaccine is made either with a) flu viruses that have been ‘inactivated’ (killed) and that therefore are not infectious, or b) using only a single gene from a flu virus (as opposed to the full virus) in order to produce an immune response without causing infection. This is the case for recombinant influenza vaccines.
This is possible theoretically . yes?
There is no guarantee that you get lucky from flu shot at-least once.
However, "get sick" is a very vague term. In my case, to be specific, about 3 through 9 hours after the shot with a new strain in it, the shot site is tender and I run a small, but noticeable, fever kind of thing, barely worthy of the term but definitely a bit of an elevated temperature. Then it subsides. It is basically a minor inconvenience. By contrast, while I don't get the flu every year, it can hang with me for two weeks and knock me out cold for a good three or four days in the middle. And the shot generally covers more than one flu.
So yeah, both things may be "get sick" in some sense, but just because they both fit into the phrase "get sick" does not mean they are particularly comparable.
(Incidentally, over the past 10 years I've managed to do a lot of improvement to my immune system for various reasons. When I got the shot with a less-strong immune system, I generally didn't notice any symptoms from a flu shot at all. Everyone's different, but I'd suggest you generally should notice some symptoms from an effectual shot.)
The flu shot you get every year in USA and Europe is the vaccine for the most common flu that was seen in Asia and Australia the 6 months previous. And vice versa.
It’s a guess. If there are two common flus that went around, they pick one to vaccine for. Sometimes they get it wrong and the shot you get has nothing to do with the flu that ends up being common in your area.
It’s very possible to get the shot every year and still get sick.
There is a little bit of art in this science, a lot of people don’t get that.
haha so I wasn't the only one who interpreted it wrong. comment means "I get sick everytime from flu shot"