Kids who died from flu last season: Most skipped vaccine

[joeybee12]

Half of Americans are still failing to get vaccinated against influenza, even though it kills thousands every year, health experts said Thursday. But they've got plenty of scare stories to help persuade people — think perfectly healthy 8-year-old boys dying in the intensive care unit, or pregnant women gasping for breath as they deliver premature babies.

Flu killed more than 100 kids last season, and 90 percent of them had not been vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

But there’s progress: now, 90 percent of doctors and nurses have been vaccinated against the virus, which protects them and their patients from flu. Policies requiring vaccination as a condition of employment have helped get the numbers this high.

Only a third of young and middle-aged adults have been vaccinated, and that was a big mistake last year, says Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. “Flu hit young and middle-aged adults hard last year and just over 100 children died,” he told a briefing sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “There is simply no reason to take the risk.”

http://www.today.com/parents/kids-who-died-flu-last-season-most-skipped-vaccine-1D80157067

[Skittles]

1. the kids didn't skip it, their ignorant parents did

[bhikkhu]

9. My ex-wife is still convinced that it gives you the flu

I get my shot every year because I can't afford to miss work, and its free. I imagine someday my continual not-getting-sick will get through to her...

[kickysnana]

34. Last year it did. Me and my niece in another state. First time in many years but still not fun. n/t

[Skittles]

37. not sure why so many people think the flu shot can give you the flu

it is simply not possible (it's myth #1 among many)

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/opinion/flu-vaccine-caudle-opinion/

[B Calm]

42. Years ago when the shot was a live virus it did, but that was a long time ago. I always get

my flu shot in early October.

[tammywammy]

2. They bring in people to work to give out the shot.

My appointment is October 7.

[Warpy]

3. I can see having healthy adults skip it

because they're likely to survive the flu and have lifetime immunity to that specific strain and partial immunity to other strains with similar components. Kids are different and the younger they are, the more they need the protection.

Health care workers are vaccinated to protect the patients. As soon as the vaccine came in, we'd form a circle and stab each other. No one got to avoid it unless they were allergic to eggs and you'd better believe it that the hospital gave them the scratch test to confirm it.

Flu vaccine is an amazing success story considering it's based on guesswork from year to year about which strain(s) will be out there.

[HuckleB]

13. If those adults are around kids or the elderly much at all, it's not a good idea.

And most adults have regular contact with both.

[Brigid]

4. That reminds me:

I need to get one.

[Shagbark Hickory]

5. It doesn't seem to be very effective judging by the number of people still coming down with it.

I think I'll save the money.
I'm not a healthcare worker or in a sensitive group.

[bhikkhu]

11. Its not as effective as some vaccines because of the variety of flu viruses

...but if the people getting the flu (and transmitting the flu) are 90% un-vaccinated, then that's a good reason to get a shot, to not be one of those.

[Shagbark Hickory]

31. The last time I asked my doctor about getting a flu shot was in 1997

and you know what he said?

He said we take them because we're around sick patients all day but you're a healthy young man, you're not immunocompromised, you're not elderly or in a sensitive group. You don't need one.

At the time, and for many years to follow, getting a flu shot 'just because' was frowned upon because the vaccines were not in an unlimited supply and they were needed for certain people.

His advice for avoiding flu was to wash your hands before you eat or touch your face. Maintain a healthy immune system by eating right, exercise and getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. This is the strategy that I use.

I think these flu shots are just a money maker for the drug stores, supermarkets and vaccine makers. The same companies that release flu to begin with to sell tylenol. Only they want it all.

[HuckleB]

14. The perfection fallacy hurts.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/even-in-2014-influenza-kills/

[gollygee]

19. It doesn't protect against every strain of the flu

but they try to get the worst ones - the ones that will make you the sickest - and the ones most likely to be out there that given year.

[NuclearDem]

21. Epidemiologists can predict every single strain.

They can only predict which may be the most troublesome and develop a vaccine to fight those.

[A Little Weird]

6. My employer offers it free

As a result a high percentage of workers gets vaccinated.

[laundry_queen]

8. My mom's work has someone come in.

Of course, they work at a very large company. A nurse comes in for the day and people can go and get their vaccine at their convenience throughout the day. I think that's a great idea for a company - a lot less people using their sick days, that's for sure.

[A Little Weird]

16. I agree

That seems like a really good way to do it.

[Shagbark Hickory]

32. And some employers mandate it.

I guess they want to try to eliminate that as a possible excuse for why one can't come in to work.

[A Little Weird]

33. The only mandates I've heard of were for people in healthcare

Those were for patient protection and I think that is very reasonable (although I can understand how some of the staff that aren't in contact with patients may feel that they shouldn't be included in the mandate).

Have you heard of mandates from non-healthcare related employers? While I think people should get the vaccine, I would stop short of saying it should be mandated - especially mandated by the employer.

[laundry_queen]

7. We also need a vaccine for norovirus

I've had to go to the ER for the flu several times when my lungs go into a severe asthma attack which seems to happen every time I get the flu. I'm considered high risk so I nearly always get it (4 out of the last 5 years - the only reason I didn't get it the 5th time is I had the flu twice that year before the vaccine for that year even came out).

My kids, however, have never had issues with the flu (but they still get the yearly shot most of the time) but norovirus has sent them to the ER far more often. My oldest even weathered H1N1 really well (an outbreak at her school right before the vaccine became available) even though she was sick, no respiratory issues. But norovirus was so nasty that my kids got dehydrated pretty quickly as toddlers and I had to bring them in. I looked it up - many people die from norovirus every year. I really wish they would hurry up and come up with a vaccine. I've never been so sick in my life as when I had that dreaded virus. A friend of mine had her baby die from it (he had an underlying undetected mild heart defect and his heart stopped while he was being rehydrated in the hospital because he had been so sick from norovirus).

Anyway, as someone who is high risk, it bothers me when people around me aren't concerned about getting it. My dad refuses too. He still thinks he's invincible. And he thinks when I get sick and can't breathe I'm being a baby.

[A Little Weird]

18. It sucks that people around you aren't getting the shot

For a long time, I never got the flu vaccine. It was just not something that was really on my radar. When my grandma was diagnosed with cancer, I decided I needed to get vaccinated just so I would be less likely to pass any sickness to her. When I took her for her treatments or doctor's appointments, I would wince every time I heard somebody sneeze or cough.

Unfortunately she lost he battle with cancer. I still get vaccinated every year (unless there's a shortage). Before her illness, it had never really occurred to me how many high risk people I might be coming into casual contact with throughout my day. So now I believe that everyone should get vaccinated if they are able to.

[laundry_queen]

20. Yeah, most people don't think about

how many 'high risk' people they come into contact with every day. My ex-FIL was on dialysis when we started getting the vaccine on a regular basis. He looked fine on the outside, but had a severely compromised immune system. In our town, there are many people I KNOW of that are high risk that we see often (a friend's child with cystic fibrosis, another friend's child with a blood disorder, my ex-MIL - who still visits us - has sarcoidosis that affects her lungs), I can't imagine how many more we don't know about.

I had been an off/on person with regards to the flu vaccine. Started getting it sometimes as a teen after I was diagnosed with asthma and started catching the flu which always developed into bronchitis. It was recommended that it would help my lungs. Then I moved away from home and started having babies and nursing them, and my asthma went into total remission. I for many years, I only needed my rescue inhaler once a year or so. So I kind of forgot that I even had an issue and I didn't get any flu vaccines. Then when I was preparing to deliver my youngest (by C-section) I came down with bronchitis again (that REALLY sucked with a C-section, omg it was hellish) and have been battling it every time I get the flu ever since. Usually when I get it, my cough lingers for months and months. I have to go into the ER or a walk in clinic for breathing treatments because the at home stuff isn't enough. It's not even that it's probably dangerous - my quality of life suffers for many months when I get sick. I'm dreading this year's season of illness, because I'm now working full time and I don't know how I'll get through it without a lot of time off.

Yep, I never used to think about it. You know when you hear, "it's only people with underlying medical conditions that are dying" and you think, "oh, I'm glad that's not me. I can relax." It REALLY sucks when you are that person with an underlying medical condition and no one around you is worried about protecting you.

[mainer]

43. Wish we had a norovirus vaccine. But there are too many varieties of it.

And no single vaccine can protect you against it. Every time I travel, I seem to come down with it, yet prior infection offers no protection against the next infection.

[TBF]

10. There are some pretty bad viruses this year too -

but sadly no vaccines for those. My kids already got their flu shots this month.

[HuckleB]

12. Our 8-year-old always gets one. He gets this year's vaccine tomorrow!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. My husband got his the day it became available. I got mine a couple of weeks ago...

We ALWAYS get them, and we have never been sick.

[cwydro]

28. And my 88 year old mom and I have NEVER gotten a flu shot,

and we've never had the flu either. (I'm over 50)

You know I love you Peg, but I'm not a huge believer in the flu vaccine.

Smallpox etc...all the childhood things of course. Not an anti-vaccine peep.

But flu, no.

[seabeyond]

29. i never had the flu either. neither boys. husband gets it regularly and in the 19 yrs has had it

twice.

and even then, we did not get it. finding some wood to knock on.

[gollygee]

17. Most people think if their kids (or they) are healthy, it's no big deal to skip

and I've made that mistake and won't again. My older kid in particular almost never gets sick, and even if she's sick something that makes someone else sick for a week makes her sick for part of a day. We were really busy one fall and just didn't seem to get her in for the vaccine, and she got the flu and it was HORRIBLE. She was sicker than I've ever seen anyone get from the flu, and it took a long time for her lungs to recover. The flu is funny that sometimes, the people with the strongest immune systems get hit the hardest by it. Everyone who can should get the vaccine for themselves and their kids! Being strong and healthy doesn't make it OK to skip.

[NuclearDem]

22. Anyone who is medically eligible and can afford a vaccine

and still doesn't get one is a fucking moron.

[cwydro]

23. It doesn't protect you from ALL flu

You know that, right?

It's not like the vaccines for smallpox etc. You can get a flu shot and still get sick from the flu.

[aikoaiko]

24. I wonder what the base rate is for children and flu vaccine

[seabeyond]

25. there are about 95 million kids in the u.s. and about 100 died from the flu.

reading some of the comments, i would suggest that many parents do not see it as high risk. nor a mediocre risk. not much of a risk at all. if your child is one of the 100, then THAT is the big deal.

just saying.

[Art_from_Ark]

26. And 10% of those kids who died had gotten the flu shot

In all, about 1/1,000,000 kids, or 0.000001% of the child population, died from the flu. And 10% of those kids had been vaccinated.
I can certainly see why a lot of parents would not view not getting a flu shot as high-risk, medium-risk, or even much of a risk at all.

[Logical]

27. Waiting for the "I never get a flu shot and never had the flu" posts! nt

[seabeyond]

30. so? never had the flu. never had the shot. so?

damn, gotta knock on wood again.

[Art_from_Ark]

35. If it ain't broke, it don't need fixin'

How hard is that to understand?

[SheilaT]

36. I don't get a flu shot.

over the years -- I'm 66 -- I've gotten the flu any number of times. although I probably last got it a good 40 years ago. I have a very healthy immune system, and given that I've gotten flu and been exposed to flu, I do not think I'm at any particular risk. And please do not tell me that I'm a terrible danger to those who don't have my immunity because I could easily be a non-symptomatic carrier, as I've been accused of in the past on this very board.

If others think it's a good idea to get the shot then they should go ahead and get it. But please do not accuse me of being the reason others get the flu.

Several years ago, during the H1N1 outbreak, I politely refused to get a flu shot at work because, as I explained to the clueless 22 year old trying to get me to get it, I was in the very precise category of people -- over 60 -- who were last on the list to get the shot.

I'm not a total anti-vaxxer. A year ago I got the shingles shot. About five years ago I got my DPT shot. I do think that I'm at incredibly low risk of getting the flu and so I do not get the shot.

As more and more of the population get their immunity from the flu vaccine, it will become the only way to get immunity from the flu. In my case I've gotten flu enough times that I feel confident in my immunity.

[LittleBlue]

38. I never get the vaccine. Never get the flu either, knock on wood

Plus I'm easily healthy and young enough to survive it. Meh

[Orrex]

39. The vaccine is offered for free at my office

Free for employees, their spouses & children.

Of the dozen people I talked to who didn't take advantage of this service, 11 said "well, I never get the flu," and the 12th said "I don't trust vaccinations."

[MH1]

40. I always get the flu shot. It's stupid not to, unless you are in one of the groups that

has been identified as at risk for complications from the shot.

[GOLGO 13]

41. Job gives them for free.

9/10 that tell me they don't I guess their politics correctly. Every now and then I run into a moron that should know better.

[In_The_Wind]

44. My doctor's office strongly suggested I come in for a free shot.

They said it's extremely important for a someone with diabetes to be vaccinated.

[xchrom]

45. du rec.

[leftyladyfrommo]

46. Was true here.

One of my customers is an ICU nurse. They had big problems with that flu and several people died. She said they were all people in their late 30's or 40's who had not gotten the shot.

I get one every year. I don't want the flu.