Comments

1
Edit: Lower your chances
2
@1

Yup.

Part of the reason H3 flue strains are so scary is the ineffectiveness of Flu Shots.

Having said that they can help reduce the severity if you do get it..
3
I've talked to people I know, none of whom ever get the flu shot, and they all seem to think it's like some kind of lottery, and they'll be lucky and not get the flu. They have insurance, they could just drop by a pharmacy and get a flu shot in less than ten minutes, but the the thing they really have in spades is apathy. They just can't be bothered. I almost want them to get flu so I can say, "I told you so" :-( Herd immunity people, herd immunity. Don't do it for yourselves, do it for the immuno-compromised, the very young, the elderly, who are likely to suffer a whole lot more from the flu you give them than you will yourself. Don't be Typhoid Mary.
4
@3 Seriously, the flu is nothing to fuck with.
5
Ms. Fu -- Could you provide more info about the flu shots? It's known that flu shots --as they are prepared months in advance-- represent the medical community's 'best guess' at which strain will be in force during the flu season.

1. Did they get their guess right this time? Is the flu shot vaccine for the same variant that is going around now?

2. If I got my flu shot in October, was it for the same strain that is going around now? Or should I get an updated one? (Are the currently available shots even updated?)

Thanks!
6
@3++
7
@5 - it's not a guess. The vaccines are tested against the strains that are present. Only those which show efficacy are approved. Although the flu does change from year to year and it is likely that viruses around today differ a bit from mid 2016, the vaccines are designed against parts of the virus that don't vary much. Still, it is formally possibly that you could get infected by a newly mutated virus that your particular vaccine is not effective against, but the chances are very slim. Anyway, there are now 13 different flu vaccines available for the 2016-2017 flu season, all injected vaccines; only one nasal route vaccine was approved for this year (a quadrivalent vaccine made by MedImmune). The dominant strain of virus this year is not effectively treated with the nasal vaccines (except for one of MedImmune's). The vaccines are updated on a yearly basis depending on the influenza strain(s). The U.S. CDC and the equivalent in every other country have in place surveillance and monitoring protocols that are geared to identifying yearly emerging strains. Often the newly emergent strains are effectively targeted by existing vaccines, but occasionally new vaccines have to be developed. For more details see https://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts…

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