I got an “over-65” 2019-2020 flu shot a month ago. The most severe reaction to a flu shot I’ve ever had. My arm was really sore for three days. Somewhat sore for a week.

“Flu season arrived early, the virus is now active across the country and 2.6 million people have already fallen ill, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  said Friday. 

The CDC now expects that the season will peak in late December - unusually early for the annual pandemic.

But National Foundation for Infectious Diseases director Dr William Schaffner told NBC News that he is 'a little concerned that we'll have a prolonged influenza season.'

So far, 23,000 have been hospitalized and 1,300 people have died of the flu this year. Six of those were children.

And this season has surprised experts in another way. The less common B strain of the virus is more common than usual this year, and for it to be 'prominent is weird,' at this point in the season, said Dr Schaffner…”

https://mol.im/a/7790443

My flu vaccine shot affected me this year. Last Sunday, two days after I was given the shot I went through what I would describe as a mini flu event, fever, slight nausea, chills, etc.

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But National Foundation for Infectious Diseases director Dr William Schaffner told NBC News that he is 'a little concerned that we'll have a prolonged influenza season.'
And this season has surprised experts in another way. The less common B strain of the virus is more common than usual this year, and for it to be 'prominent is weird,' at this point in the season, said Dr Schaffner…”

I wonder if... the prevalence of the vaccine just causes another strain of the virus to spread.

I get a yearly flu shot, and this year I received a shingles vaccine along with a pneumonia shot.

It never ceases to amaze me that some people are afraid of basic immunization. Sure, one can still get the flu, shingles, and pneumonia after being vaccinated, but it does lower the odds of catching any of these diseases.

It's interesting that they change flu shots based on age. I have never heard of that. Is that something new?

I also found it interesting that I was least affected by any flu shot I have ever gotten in my life this year. No sore arm, no sore throat, nothing. It was the first year I had zero reaction to it.

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It's interesting that they change flu shots based on age. I have never heard of that. Is that something new?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As you age your immune system weakens. That is why there is a different vaccine for people over 65.

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Originally posted by Warhorse:
I get a yearly flu shot, and this year I received a shingles vaccine along with a pneumonia shot.

It never ceases to amaze me that some people are afraid of basic immunization. Sure, one can still get the flu, shingles, and pneumonia after being vaccinated, but it does lower the odds of catching any of these diseases.

I have never gotten a flu vaccine and haven’t gotten the flu any more than anyone I know that has gotten one. I’ve had it twice that I can say was for sure the flu in the last 20 years and I’m not a hand sanitizing, crowd avoiding, surface-not-touching introvert recluse. The flu vaccine is only as good as the strains they were developed from up to about 6 months prior. If it gives people piece of mind, good on them.

As to influenza killing people, it is tied to approximately 12,000 and 61,000 annually in the US alone since 2010. Worldwide the figure is in the neighborhood of 650,000. The flu evolved right along with us and will be with our species as long as we exist. I’m more worried about a super strain that will inevitably pop up for which no vaccine will exist until manufactured after the outbreak virus is isolated. That could take months to develop, mass produce, and distribute.

I have never had a reaction to flu shots and for several years I have been given the geezers shot.
No idea why, as I used to have quite strong reactions to the multitudinous shots that I needed during my work travels in the sixties and seventies...

Hmmm... One in every 217 people. Oh, the drama!

Be sure to get a flu shot, Pharmacies everywhere are depending on you.

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Originally posted by .38supersig:
Hmmm... One in every 217 people. Oh, the drama!

Be sure to get a flu shot, Pharmacies everywhere are depending on you.

Bingo. Amd it gives some people the flu and it's a wild ass guess.

I've had exactly 'one' flu shot in the past ~25 years. Guess which year I got the only horrible case of the flu I've had? Coincidence? Who knows, but since I haven't ever really suffered with the flu, I feel no compelling need to get vaccinated for it.

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Originally posted by ruger357:

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Originally posted by .38supersig:
Hmmm... One in every 217 people. Oh, the drama!

Be sure to get a flu shot, Pharmacies everywhere are depending on you.

Amd it gives some people the flu.

Actually, no, it does not GIVE you the flu. You may have an elevated immune response, which can give flu like symptoms, much like clubleaf mentioned earlier in this thread. Happened to me as well a few years back. Few days, I felt like crap, but it wasn’t the full blown flu. If someone gets the flu after getting the flu shot, they were either exposed shortly before or shortly after getting the shot.

I went to urgent care last Wednesday afternoon with the flu. First time I've ever had it. Was feeling much better by Friday and took my last dose of tamaflu this morning.

I stopped getting the flu shot when I retired from the Navy 16 years ago because of side effects from the shot. Last year my wife, who gets the flu shot every year, got a bad case of the flu and even though I stayed home to take care of her I did not get it.

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Originally posted by chellim1:
I wonder if... the prevalence of the vaccine just causes another strain of the virus to spread.

And just how would that happen? Is the fact that smallpox was wiped out as a disease in the wild make it more likely we’ll catch dengue?

Influenza exists in many different strains and it mutates continually and very rapidly. That’s why developing an effective vaccine every year involves so much guesswork. There is evidence, however, that immunity to one strain of the flu, either natural or via vaccination, provides at least some protection against other strains. That is believed to have been the reason why the so-called Spanish flu of 1919 was much more deadly for people in their 20s than for oldsters. Older people are usually more likely to die, but many of them at the time were exposed to an earlier flu strain that probably boosted their immune systems against the 1919 version.

I gave up commenting further in these threads long ago, but I open them because the demonstrated ignorance and rationalizations that people have for not taking advantage of a basic disease prevention measure are … enlightening.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigfreund,

At 50 years old I’ve never had the flu and I never get the shot. A couple years ago the spousal unit had the flu but I didn’t get it. Maybe when the age creeps up some more and getting the flu seems more detrimental I’ll get the shot.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:
I've had exactly 'one' flu shot in the past ~25 years. Guess which year I got the only horrible case of the flu I've had? Coincidence? Who knows, but since I haven't ever really suffered with the flu, I feel no compelling need to get vaccinated for it.

Careful. You’ll be labeled for having experience that contradicts what others think...

Seems like every year they tell us this is the worst year for flu. I don't doubt the importance of protecting oneself, but I do doubt the level or urgency and alarm that we are supposed to feel every season.

My oldest son tested positive for flu B yesterday


My wife (a pediatrician) has seen a ton of flu this year already. Probably how it got home.

We all got flu shots


I will now eject out of this thread as I can already feel my blood pressure going up reading some of the responses. And unlike the whole “I got the flu from the flu shot” nonsense, there is a direct correlation to reading crap like that and my blood pressure elevating

*shrug* My wife reacts very badly to flu shots. Has happened every single time. So she doesn't get them. I tolerate them fine, but I rarely catch what's going around. Even when I do, I usually fight it off in two-three days. So I don't bother, either.

For the last several flu seasons we've escalated the precautions we take and have dodged whatever was going around that season. Heck, with the proper precautions we've even avoided infecting one another on the rare occasions one or the other of us catches something.

When I was still working I'd see people all over the office get sick. Dodged it. Again: Precautions. Just imagine how less severe the annual flu season would be if people who got sick removed themselves from the population until they were no longer contagious? That's what I always did in the rare instances I got sick.

Personally, I regard the annual flu shot hysteria the way I do the vast majority of modern western medicine: Unnecessary, at best, and possibly downright unhealthy.

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Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Personally, I regard the annual flu shot hysteria the way I do the vast majority of modern western medicine: Unnecessary, at best, and possibly downright unhealthy.

Come on, you know the reason the government pushes flu shots is so they can continually inject us with all sorts of narcotics to control the way the population behaves and thinks. Is Kevbo still here?