Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

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Leeraar
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Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Leeraar »

Influenza routinely kills 30,000 - 40,000 people per year in the USA. Traffic crashes, about the same.

The Ebola outbreak has, this year, killed about 4,500 people worldwide.

The number of people dying from West Nile Virus in the USA varies from less than a hundred up to a few hundred per year.

Get that flu shot, plan your car trips to drive less. Vaccinate your children. Ignore the noise.

L.
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dm200
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by dm200 »

Leeraar wrote:Influenza routinely kills 30,000 - 40,000 people per year in the USA. Traffic crashes, about the same.

The Ebola outbreak has, this year, killed about 4,500 people worldwide.

The number of people dying from West Nile Virus in the USA varies from less than a hundred up to a few hundred per year.

Get that flu shot, plan your car trips to drive less. Vaccinate your children. Ignore the noise.

L.
Getting one in the next few days - I almost always get a flu shot every year.
davebo
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by davebo »

I had never gotten the flu before a couple years ago, but did get it last year pretty bad. I'm getting mine in the next couple weeks.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by sport »

We had a niece die from the flu last year. She was only in her thirties. Get your shot!
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by madbrain »

Yes, 2 weeks ago.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by joe8d »

Every year I get the Flu Shot, i get the Flu.The years I didn't,no Flu. Go figure.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by ResearchMed »

jsl11 wrote:We had a niece die from the flu last year. She was only in her thirties. Get your shot!
That is so very sad.

I know it happens (people really do die from "the flu"), but have never known anyone who had to deal with it personally.
30 is so young.

We got our flu shots about 10 days ago.
We also got some other shots about 2 months ago, for travel.

And yes, ebola sounds more frightening. But distracted driving is probably more of a risk to us, and there's no shot for stupid (er, the distracted drivers, not us!)

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Lynette
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Lynette »

Got mine several weeks ago. Company gets outside vendor, provides conference facilities, and Health care provider pays. This is on company time - doesn't take long I guess its a mixture of concern for employees and wish to keep us healthy so that we can work and not pass the virus along to other employees. :D
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by MrBachelor »

No flu shot! Never have, likely never will. Not anti-vaxx crazy, just stubborn crazy. I still drive a car 20,000+ miles per year too. Manage risk or live under a rock.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by cheese_breath »

Got mine last week when I was in for my cholesterol test. They don't always help, but they've never hurt me.
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Leeraar
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Leeraar »

ResearchMed wrote:
jsl11 wrote:We had a niece die from the flu last year. She was only in her thirties. Get your shot!
That is so very sad.

I know it happens (people really do die from "the flu"), but have never known anyone who had to deal with it personally.
30 is so young.

We got our flu shots about 10 days ago.
We also got some other shots about 2 months ago, for travel.

And yes, ebola sounds more frightening. But distracted driving is probably more of a risk to us, and there's no shot for stupid (er, the distracted drivers, not us!)

RM
My grandfather died of the flu at age 32 in the pandemic of 1918-19. Not quite the same risk we face today, but he fell ill and was dead in two days.

L.
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dm200
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by dm200 »

MrBachelor wrote:No flu shot! Never have, likely never will. Not anti-vaxx crazy, just stubborn crazy. I still drive a car 20,000+ miles per year too. Manage risk or live under a rock.
do everyone else a favor - if/when you get the slightest hint of the flu - stay the hell away from me and everyone else. In my strong opinion, getting a flu shot IS managing risk.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

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LeeMKE
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by LeeMKE »

Got mine a few weeks ago. Still can't get DH to get one. I'm interested in ways to convince him of the merits, though changing people's minds has never been something I excelled at.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Ged »

Scheduled for my shot on the 23rd of this month. The nurse that does these calls the vaccine 'venom'. Sometimes it stings like it too.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Angst »

I got mine yesterday. It's a requirement of employment, not that I wouldn't have wanted to get it anyway.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by MrBachelor »

dm200 wrote: do everyone else a favor - if/when you get the slightest hint of the flu - stay the hell away from me and everyone else. In my strong opinion, getting a flu shot IS managing risk.
Indeed it is. So is wearing my seatbelt and not texting and driving. But until the flu shot becomes law (or I'm otherwise compelled to submit) I will leave you well enough alone. Last I checked they don't make enough for everyone anyway so I will kindly pass mine to the more susceptible.

According to the article linked it looks like Hep C contributes to 17-80k deaths per year. Have you been tested?
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by madbrain »

dm200 wrote:
MrBachelor wrote:No flu shot! Never have, likely never will. Not anti-vaxx crazy, just stubborn crazy. I still drive a car 20,000+ miles per year too. Manage risk or live under a rock.
do everyone else a favor - if/when you get the slightest hint of the flu - stay the hell away from me and everyone else. In my strong opinion, getting a flu shot IS managing risk.
+1
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by madbrain »

MrBachelor wrote:
dm200 wrote: do everyone else a favor - if/when you get the slightest hint of the flu - stay the hell away from me and everyone else. In my strong opinion, getting a flu shot IS managing risk.
Indeed it is. So is wearing my seatbelt and not texting and driving. But until the flu shot becomes law (or I'm otherwise compelled to submit) I will leave you well enough alone. Last I checked they don't make enough for everyone anyway so I will kindly pass mine to the more susceptible.

According to the article linked it looks like Hep C contributes to 17-80k deaths per year. Have you been tested?
Why do you change the subject ?
Just because there are other risks like driving and hep C, doesn't mean you shouldn't do what you can to protect yourself against the flu. And if not for yourself, do it to protect others.
(and for the record, I always wear my seatbelt, and was tested for Hep C)

There is no shortage of flu vaccine this year.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/shortages/
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by scotthal »

I plan to get one again this year (age 60, no respiratory problems), but every one of my friends (small sample - half_a_dozen) who's had it thus far have been sick for a couple of weeks in the aftermath. Need to schedule the possible downtime.
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steve roy
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by steve roy »

Tomorrow morning. Thanks for asking.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Trader Joe »

Absolutely not.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by jbuzolich »

Got mine today
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by GerryL »

Last week. Finished moving a book shelf in less time than I expected, so I rewarded myself with a trip to the doc. I used to just get in line at work during flu shot month, now that I'm retired I have to get in the car.

When I was in the Air Force they'd bar the doors at the end of a meeting and make you get your shots (sometimes as many as 3) before you could leave the room. They would also give you a day off if you gave blood. We'd call that "Vampire Leave."
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Christine_NM »

I got my first flu shot ever last week. Immune system doesn't work well when you get older, so I finally caved after getting my first cold in decades last spring. I used to work in a hospital so didn't catch anything in the real world.

Just a warning, the arm where it was injected lost some muscle power for a week. It seems to be getting better, but I don't know if I'll get another one next year.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by lululu »

Christine_NM wrote:I got my first flu shot ever last week. Immune system doesn't work well when you get older, so I finally caved after getting my first cold in decades last spring. I used to work in a hospital so didn't catch anything in the real world.

Just a warning, the arm where it was injected lost some muscle power for a week. It seems to be getting better, but I don't know if I'll get another one next year.
I got my first flu shot ever when I saw one of those Seniors get your flu shots things set up in a grocery store. Then I got Guillain-Barre and am under orders from my neurologist never to get various vaccinations again, as he says next time it will be worse and I could die. Every time I read this stuff about forcing vaccinations on everyone, I basically fear for my life. The first sign was muscle weakness in the arms and legs.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Pacific »

lululu wrote:
Christine_NM wrote:I got my first flu shot ever last week. Immune system doesn't work well when you get older, so I finally caved after getting my first cold in decades last spring. I used to work in a hospital so didn't catch anything in the real world.

Just a warning, the arm where it was injected lost some muscle power for a week. It seems to be getting better, but I don't know if I'll get another one next year.
I got my first flu shot ever when I saw one of those Seniors get your flu shots things set up in a grocery store. Then I got Guillain-Barre and am under orders from my neurologist never to get various vaccinations again, as he says next time it will be worse and I could die. Every time I read this stuff about forcing vaccinations on everyone, I basically fear for my life. The first sign was muscle weakness in the arms and legs.
That's unfortunate. I think the odds of getting this are like 1 in a million. With 350 million in the US (not sure if this counts the illegal aliens, or if they get flu shots), that calculates to about 350 cases per year. Those are acceptable odds, but not if you are one of the 350.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Christine_NM »

lululu wrote:
Christine_NM wrote:I got my first flu shot ever last week. Immune system doesn't work well when you get older, so I finally caved after getting my first cold in decades last spring. I used to work in a hospital so didn't catch anything in the real world.

Just a warning, the arm where it was injected lost some muscle power for a week. It seems to be getting better, but I don't know if I'll get another one next year.
I got my first flu shot ever when I saw one of those Seniors get your flu shots things set up in a grocery store. Then I got Guillain-Barre and am under orders from my neurologist never to get various vaccinations again, as he says next time it will be worse and I could die. Every time I read this stuff about forcing vaccinations on everyone, I basically fear for my life. The first sign was muscle weakness in the arms and legs.
Yep. GB can be a real horror show. As an RN in the 1970's I had one chronically ill patient die from it and another healthy young man on a ventilator for several weeks in ICU, unable to walk or breathe. That was a live injected vaccine, which is not used now. But no matter what I am told about this muscle weakness, I think I will decline future flu shots.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Compound »

I got mine a week ago. I get one every year.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by nisiprius »

Two weeks ago.

I know flu isn't polio, but... As a Polio Pioneer (wish I'd saved that little metal pin they gave me), I remember when every elementary school had a few kids in wheelchairs, I remember a friend of mine who had a bicycle-wheel exercise gadget hanging over his bed at home to strengthen his arms. It was not QUITE a "always remember where I was when I got the news" but I sure remember my parents reacting to the big headlines about the polio vaccine being 90% effective.

I am aware that there are risks--in fact, even harking back to the polio days I remember some less pleasant headlines a year or so later when it turned out that a company called Cutter had made a bad batch of polio vaccine.

Heck, even chickenpox... my dad got chickenpox in his forties... he didn't have to go to the hospital but I remember that a) my mom would not let us go in the bedroom to see him, she thought it would scare us, and b) I remember a jeweler arriving--making a house call!--to cut the wedding ring off dad's hand.

You may take it that I am not an anti-vaxer.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Yukon »

The pharmaceutical industry uses worse tactics than Merrill Lynch to deceive it's customers. The Cochran Collaboration proved the flu shot's effectiveness to be quite worthless. Eat well, sleep well and supplement some Vitamin D3 is my simplified approach.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by RobInCT »

I'm one of those unreasonably healthy people who never gets sick, and I didn't get the flu shot for years until I had a friend who had a specific medical condition that meant he couldn't get various vaccines. To top it all off, this medical condition left his immune system compromised so he was MORE susceptible to, and suffered worse from, things he would catch that the rest of us would shrug off.

So now I get my vaccine yearly. I'm still not really concerned myself, but I consider it my contribution to the health of others. I don't want to end up with some preventible virus that makes me feel bad for a few days that I then unwittingly pass on to someone else who ends up in the hospital with it (or worse).
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by likegarden »

I remember when I was a teenager I had the flu for 2 weeks, actually was in bed for 2 weeks. My wife and I are scheduled to get flu shots in 9 days. Doctors didn't get the flu vaccine until now in our area. Drug stores have vaccines for a while, but ours by waiting longer might have included vaccine against the latest flu viruses.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by jebmke »

I get one in early November every year. Haven't been sick since 1997.
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by tadamsmar »

MrBachelor wrote:
dm200 wrote: Indeed it is. So is wearing my seatbelt and not texting and driving. But until the flu shot becomes law (or I'm otherwise compelled to submit) I will leave you well enough alone. Last I checked they don't make enough for everyone anyway so I will kindly pass mine to the more susceptible.
The shot you don't get will likely be discarded. If the CDC is recommending it for everyone (as they are now) then they are statistically projecting more than enough vaccine.
Last edited by tadamsmar on Thu Oct 16, 2014 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Call_Me_Op »

jebmke wrote:I get one in early November every year. Haven't been sick since 1997.
Never get one. Haven't been sick (with suspected flu) since circa 1975.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by bcjb »

I got my flu shot yesterday.
RobInCT wrote:I'm one of those unreasonably healthy people who never gets sick, and I didn't get the flu shot for years until I had a friend who had a specific medical condition that meant he couldn't get various vaccines. To top it all off, this medical condition left his immune system compromised so he was MORE susceptible to, and suffered worse from, things he would catch that the rest of us would shrug off.

So now I get my vaccine yearly. I'm still not really concerned myself, but I consider it my contribution to the health of others. I don't want to end up with some preventible virus that makes me feel bad for a few days that I then unwittingly pass on to someone else who ends up in the hospital with it (or worse).
That's a very good reason to get a flu shot. Even if you don't know anyone personally, some people you come into contact with in the supermarket, on public transport, in restaurants,... will have compromised immune systems.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by mudfud »

Leeraar wrote:Influenza routinely kills 30,000 - 40,000 people per year in the USA. Traffic crashes, about the same.

The Ebola outbreak has, this year, killed about 4,500 people worldwide.

The number of people dying from West Nile Virus in the USA varies from less than a hundred up to a few hundred per year.

Get that flu shot, plan your car trips to drive less. Vaccinate your children. Ignore the noise.

L.


Yes, I did get a flu shot (mandatory at my workplace). Thanks for being a voice for reason and sanity.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by flyingaway »

I get flu shot every year since they had H1N1. Basically it reduced (not eliminated) the number of times I got flu every year. I usually have cough for a few weeks after flu, so I think getting flu shot each year helps me.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by ThankYouJack »

Leeraar wrote:Influenza routinely kills 30,000 - 40,000 people per year in the USA. Traffic crashes, about the same.

The Ebola outbreak has, this year, killed about 4,500 people worldwide.

The number of people dying from West Nile Virus in the USA varies from less than a hundred up to a few hundred per year.

Get that flu shot, plan your car trips to drive less. Vaccinate your children. Ignore the noise.

L.
Great post. I get one every year now that I have a child.

How does the CDC determine those numbers and what are the age ranges?

I figure the chance of me dying from the flu is less than 0.01%. Even if I get the flu shot, that doesn't mean I won't get the flu. So the chance of the flu shot saving my life is far less than 1/100th of 1%.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by tadamsmar »

ThankYouJack wrote:
Leeraar wrote:Influenza routinely kills 30,000 - 40,000 people per year in the USA. Traffic crashes, about the same.

The Ebola outbreak has, this year, killed about 4,500 people worldwide.

The number of people dying from West Nile Virus in the USA varies from less than a hundred up to a few hundred per year.

Get that flu shot, plan your car trips to drive less. Vaccinate your children. Ignore the noise.

L.
Great post. I get one every year now that I have a child.

How does the CDC determine those numbers and what are the age ranges?

I figure the chance of me dying from the flu is less than 0.01%. Even if I get the flu shot, that doesn't mean I won't get the flu. So the chance of the flu shot saving my life is far less than 1/100th of 1%.
There is a discussion of how CDC estimates the numbers here:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us ... act-number

About 2% of deaths were due to the flu in 2010:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

And, none of this includes preliminary evidence that flow shots prevent lots of heart attacks and strokes:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/flu- ... 1310236795
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by drawpoker »

Going to local health dept for mine this morning. Expect a hassle, though. Don't want the high-dose version for elderly. Even the CDC admits it is only 25% more effective than regular dose. Yet because it is made of heavy-duty stuff that funky feeling you get after a flu shot for a few days will be 100% worse.
Knowing how things are done am afraid that when they see my Medicare card they will tell me I have to have the high dose shot.
If so, I will say my goodbyes and take my business elsewhere.
The regular shot has worked fine for me for around 30 years or so.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by gerrym51 »

I'm a pharmacist and i give flu shots. I never get one myself. what can i say :oops:
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Drew777 »

No. Last time I got a flu shot I got Bells Palsy. Haven't got one since. I've only had the flu once, and I did get a flu shot that year.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by Chan_va »

I am a giant wuss when it comes to needles. But now that they have a nasal spray version, I have no excuse.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by ThankYouJack »

tadamsmar wrote:
ThankYouJack wrote:
Leeraar wrote:Influenza routinely kills 30,000 - 40,000 people per year in the USA. Traffic crashes, about the same.

The Ebola outbreak has, this year, killed about 4,500 people worldwide.

The number of people dying from West Nile Virus in the USA varies from less than a hundred up to a few hundred per year.

Get that flu shot, plan your car trips to drive less. Vaccinate your children. Ignore the noise.

L.
Great post. I get one every year now that I have a child.

How does the CDC determine those numbers and what are the age ranges?

I figure the chance of me dying from the flu is less than 0.01%. Even if I get the flu shot, that doesn't mean I won't get the flu. So the chance of the flu shot saving my life is far less than 1/100th of 1%.
There is a discussion of how CDC estimates the numbers here:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us ... act-number

About 2% of deaths were due to the flu in 2010:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

And, none of this includes preliminary evidence that flow shots prevent lots of heart attacks and strokes:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/flu- ... 1310236795
Thanks for the links. I still don't see the age ranges but I assume children and the elderly are more likely to die from the flu than a healthy, say 20 year old. I'd also be interested in seeing the number per year -- not a range of 3,000 to 49,000.

For the 2010 that includes both pneumonia and the flu correct?
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by sport »

jsl11 wrote:We had a niece die from the flu last year. She was only in her thirties. Get your shot!
My niece did not get her shot, and this is what happened. If you have a medical condition that keeps you from getting a shot, that is a different situation. Otherwise, it is just foolish not to get one. Sure, the chances of dying are small, but why take that chance? Even if the flu does not kill you, it can make you very sick, and the person you give it to may die from it.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by gkaplan »

I got mine last Thursday at the VA hospital.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by tadamsmar »

ThankYouJack wrote:
tadamsmar wrote:
Thanks for the links. I still don't see the age ranges but I assume children and the elderly are more likely to die from the flu than a healthy, say 20 year old. I'd also be interested in seeing the number per year -- not a range of 3,000 to 49,000.

For the 2010 that includes both pneumonia and the flu correct?
Opps, 2% is probably too big for the flu alone. A good many pneumonia deaths are caused by the flu, but I don't know what percent of the pneumonia deaths are attributed to the flu by the CDC estimation process.

I don't know where to find the yearly historical death tabulation.
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Re: Your personal risk level: Got your flu shot yet?

Post by supertreat »

Yukon wrote:The pharmaceutical industry uses worse tactics than Merrill Lynch to deceive it's customers. The Cochran Collaboration proved the flu shot's effectiveness to be quite worthless. Eat well, sleep well and supplement some Vitamin D3 is my simplified approach.
I'm wondering what study you're referring to? A modest benefit in overall prevention for sure but "quite worthless" is a stretch.
In a 2014 meta-analysis of randomized trials and observational studies of healthy adults, the overall efficacy of inactivated vaccines in preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza was 60 percent (53 to 66 percent), corresponding to a number needed to vaccinate (NNV) of 71. The overall effectiveness of inactivated vaccine against influenza-like illness was 16 percent (95% CI 5 to 25 percent), corresponding to a NNV of 40.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=24623315

The above meta-analysis also DOESN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT illness severity. This benefit has been shown to be quite high. Because inactivated influenza vaccines are thought to provide nonsterilizing immunity, influenza vaccination might have a greater effect on reducing illness severity than on preventing infection . In a case-control study in which hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza infection were matched against outpatients with laboratory-confirmed influenza and outpatient controls, vaccine effectiveness was 75 percent for preventing outpatient influenza cases, 60 percent for preventing influenza-associated hospitalizations, and 89 percent for preventing severe influenza. Among hospitalized patients with influenza, those who had been vaccinated against influenza were less likely to have severe influenza than those who had not been vaccinated (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.42, 95% CI 0.22-0.80).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=23532475
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