slothrop Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Anyone get a flu shot? I'm young and healthy, so I don't feel the need to get one, but check out the people lining up in Wilmington, NC: Looks like a perfect way to spread disease to me... get a bunch of people who either: a) are hypochondriacs, b) have weak immune systems, or c) are possible germ-carrying terrrrists (anyone could be, ya know) to line up in close quarters for hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b-rock Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 And around here they're lining up outside, in the rain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisT Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 last time I got a flu shot - in 1997 - I ended up with walking pnemonia. Flu shots are a bad idea if you don't need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 lemmings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 They have the flu-mist vaccine at the bartels-univ village for 35 bucks. i got mine , last year sucked when I didnt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 If you are young and healthy you should pass on the shot and leave it for someone who really needs it like the elderly and the sick. Whenever I've gotten a shot, I've had soreness and malaise for three days afterwards. I'm curious about whether the nasal mist is free of these effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryland_moore Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Ol' Willy Frist should just keep his mouth shut sometimes. I think that his heart isn't getting enough oxygen to his brain in his old age! As reported in today's Washington Post, in the true spirit of bipartisanship, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have decided that they will not follow the CDC guidelines, but will instead go ahead and receive their flu shots, free of charge. Your elected representatives still urge you to decline to get flu shots so that others more in need, like themselves, will have an adequate supply. When pressed for an explanation, Senator (and Dr.) Bill Frist, the leader of the Senate pointed out that, during the flu season, Congressional representatives frequently receive large amounts of cash from any number of lobbyists and that it is well-known that money often serves as a medium for the transmission of germs and viruses. As Dr. Frist explained, "There is simply no doubt that members of Congress are, in fact, a high risk group, unlike your kids who come in contact with dozens of other kids at school everyday." In order to further reduce the risk to Congress, Washington lobbyists apparently will also be receiving the shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelle Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Flu shots are a good idea for people who need them, elderly, little kids, health care workers and anyone with a chronic illness. The thing is not fool proof and some people get sick from the shot. On average 36,000 people die every year from the flu. That is pretty sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Also many flu shots are made from killed virus where they kill the virus with mercury. Hmm, do you really need the mercury? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisT Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Don't really recommend the flu shots for children either. My children never had them and no child I know has ever had one (I work in a school). If anyone would be at risk, it's the elderly and many of them are robust enough to forgo it as well. In general, I think the flu shot is over-hyped and over-used. my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 go to canada eh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camilo Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 go to canada eh. Already happening. Stay tuned for busloads of old folks crossing the border. cnn story BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) -- With a shortage of flu vaccine across the country, Margaret Holmen and others from the Powers Lake Senior Citizens Center have been talking about going to Canada for their shots. Clinics and pharmacies across the border are offering to inoculate U.S. residents, and Holmen said she planned to call clinics in Estevan, Saskatchewan, if she cannot get a flu shot in North Dakota this week. "Everybody here is thinking about it," said Holmen, the senior center's manager. "We hear on the news that we should be patient, but we don't know what to do." Word of Canada's vaccine availability is spreading quickly. Eighty Americans showed up for flu shots Tuesday at Henders Drug in Estevan -- located about nine miles north of the North Dakota border -- although the store's newspaper advertisement hadn't even run yet. "I suspect there will be a lot more," said Larry Preddy, pharmacist and co-owner of the store. He charges Americans the same price as Canadians -- $15 Canadian or about $12 U.S. The U.S. vaccine shortage was caused when British regulators shut down U.S.-bound shipments from Chiron Corp., after some batches of the vaccine were found to be contaminated with bacteria. The decision cut the U.S. supply of flu shots almost in half. Canada does not have a shortage because it doesn't get vaccine from the British supplier. Urgent Care Niagara's Fort Erie clinic, just across the border from Buffalo, said it would vaccinate 100 Americans a day, for around $40 U.S. each, squeezing them in among Canadian patients who got first priority. Virginia Matysiak was No. 100. She and her son Kenneth picked up the number after waiting in line then killed time at the nearby Fort Erie Race Track and Slots. "We ate lunch and played and came back" -- $100 richer, she said. "So they're paying us to get a flu shot," Kenneth Matysiak said. Several cars with New York license plates were parked outside the Urgent Care clinic Tuesday and the waiting room was filled with Americans holding the coveted numbers. Urgent Care's Niagara Falls clinic also was vaccinating 100 non-Canadians a day. Officials at the Canadian clinic said vaccine provided by the provincial government was being given only to Canadian citizens, but that the clinic had purchased surplus doses for sale to non-Canadians in high-risk categories. Perry Kendall, British Columbia's chief health officer, said there has been some interest at a walk-in flu-shot clinic at the Vancouver airport. Ross Findlater, Saskatchewan's chief health officer, said Americans are welcome to get flu shots in the province, as long as they do not come in droves. "A couple hundred or a thousand, overall, from a provincial point of view wouldn't be a problem," he said. Saskatchewan will track the number of people coming north through shot clinics offered by public health offices. Those shots are free to Canadians considered at high risk from the flu, but Americans would be charged about $16 U.S., Findlater said. "Most of (the public health units) have some sort of capacity in flu clinics to immunize healthy people who are willing to pay," he said. Independent doctors and pharmacies in the province get their vaccine from a separate pool, and will not be tracked, Findlater said. Some health officials in Canadian provinces are concerned about the effect a massive influx of American patients could have. British Columbia's Health Minister, Colin Hansen, said recently that the drug supply situation was too much for the provinces to deal with individually and that it should be tackled by the federal government. "When we hear both candidates for the presidency of the U.S.A. talk about allowing Americans easier access to medicines purchased from Canada, there has to be a federal government response," and not just each province keeping an eye on the impacts of cross-border shopping, Hansen said. Also Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration was investigating how unlicensed vaccine ended up being shipped to Florida. The vaccine was to be given starting Wednesday at clinics in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties. The vaccine came from Shire Pharmaceuticals Group, a British company that sold its vaccine division in September to a Canadian company, ID Biomedical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 that was the implication i was trying to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camilo Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Oh. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott_harpell Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 no problem my quasi-queer brotha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camilo Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Nice abs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken4ord Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Well I probably don't need to, I am exposed enough to virus strains used in the flu vaccine forulation enough where I have probably already developed antibodies to the three strains that are predicted to be responsible for most flu cases this year. Just because you get a flu vaccine doesn't mean you can't get the flu. Flu vaccines are formulated with 2-4 (usually 3) of the most likely strains that will be most prevalent. There are several other strains that could be present in any population. Some people do have a reaction to the flu vaccine, from injection site soreness to flu like symtoms, hardly ever does someone contract one of the strains that they are vaccinated for. The vaccination can either be a subunit of the virus or can be "killed" virus. There are several techniques that are used to do this, Dru the use of mercury is one that I have not heard of, and if it was I am sure that the amount of mercury that one is exposed to is so minute it is pointless to even think about it. I'll to look into that, though. Most deaths from the flu are because of people who have a compromised immune system, or they either ignore the symtoms in hopes that they will get better soon. Most of the hype is created by the media, just to have something to scare people with. Americans who watch the news are entertained by threats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Also many flu shots are made from killed virus where they kill the virus with mercury. Hmm, do you really need the mercury? Everything is a trade-off, Dru. The thimerosal is added to keep bacteria from running wild in the vial, in the unlikely event that the seal were to leak or the sterilization was imperfect. If you got a shot of contaminated vaccine you could easily die. Apparently, they are updating processes to do without thimerosal. Article Article 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Chiron President and CEO Howard Pien was quoted in BioWorld Today (Oct 22, 2004) as saying "we believe the water supply could be to blame". This is the first possible explanation I've heard for the contamination that caused 48 million doses of vaccine to be withdrawn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Also many flu shots are made from killed virus where they kill the virus with mercury. Hmm, do you really need the mercury? Everything is a trade-off, Dru. The thimerosal is added to keep bacteria from running wild in the vial, in the unlikely event that the seal were to leak or the sterilization was imperfect. If you got a shot of contaminated vaccine you could easily die. Apparently, they are updating processes to do without thimerosal. Article Article 2 they claim the mercury is not bad for you, but they try to come up with a low-mercury and no-mercury version anyways. sounds like the "low-tar" cigarette anyways now SEattleites can even get the floating flu shot VANCOUVER (CBC) - Due to a shortage of flu vaccine in the U.S., Americans have been flooding across the border in search of flu shots. And now there are some who are combining it with a bit of a vacation. An official with a Victoria-based passenger ferry system says phones have been ringing off the hook. Clipper Navigation began distributing flyers about a round-trip anti- flu cruise from Seattle yesterday. Spokesperson Daryl Bryan says passengers will be able to get their shot, then head out for a day of sightseeing. "We will have them go into a separate hallway, to the departure lounge where the nurse will be and she will immediately innoculate them. And then they'll exit the building ... so the process should be very quick." Tickets for the $105 US package go on sale on Monday. Get flu shot and score BC Bud all in one trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Oh Canada, to the rescue. What what we do without her? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 George Bush says Canadian medicine is unsafe and might kill you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.