Whatever did we do before the flu vaccine?

[tjdee]

It's funny how I'm hearing all this stuff about there being lines of people waiting for the flu vaccine, and how OMG, there's a SHORTAGE!

The sky is falling!! Oh no!!

Uh--
Of course "at risk" people should be protected, but isn't the flu vaccine less than 20 years old? Were slews of people dying? Is the flu more deadly than I realize?
Is this big stink due to the media sensationalizing everything as usual?
I've never gotten the flu vaccine. :shrug:

[Fenris]

1. We died in droves, like real men!

No girlie-man flu vaccine for us!

[trotsky]

2. Well, there was the epidemic of 1917-18

Millions died.

Modern sanitation & quarantine makes the flu less dangerous, but it also has costs in terms of lost productivity, etc.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

19. more like 10's of millions... probably close to

60million, since the 40 million-media-favorite number does not count India and China.

[RaleighNCDUer]

24. Or Africa.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

25. Well, actually, maybe not the interior, but there is not any

evidence that it got there.
Most all of the population of Africa in those days was on the coasts, and they had a pretty good count of casualties there. This was still the days of coaling stations, so there were lots of Naval Facilities up, down, and around the African coast.
I thought that too, but one paper I read said that it appeared the interior of Africa was largely spared, due to extreme isolation.

[bif]

3. We spent a couple days being "knighted"

Then we went back to work.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

20. That is not flu.... that is a flu-like syndrome

Very few Americans living have had flu.

Flu puts you OOC for at least a week to 3 weeks.

I am talking not being able to lift your head weakness. Most people with flu now are in ICU on ventilators.

I know it is a nit, but an important one that most people miss.

[redqueen]

23. You are so right

I thought I was going to DIE.

[lil-petunia]

4. millions died. More died after WWI from flu than from bullets

or shells.

I am going to shut myself in my home until the season is over. Or at least drink alcohol to kill off any germs.

[tjdee]

6. Have you always done that?

Before the flu vaccine, did you shut yourself in your house?

Did something change?

[lil-petunia]

9. never have. But

the alcohol should still work.

Ever read some of the accounts of the bodies in the US after the pandemics? Scary shit. Europe was worse. To this day, no one got a good count from China and India.

[Inland]

5. Died.

Like the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, that killed an estimated 675,000 Americans and infected a quarter of the population.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/

I live in the Chicago area, and the flu is a big deal. Any metro area is, when you ride public transportation and work in public buildings.

[liontamer]

7. not everybody needs a flu vaccine

most people today are healthy enough to recover from most flus, but the flu is potentially deadly. And for people at high risk, or who have compromised immune systems, influenza is not a risk to be ignored.

[Demit]

8. we washed our hands and took other common sense precautions

I'm with you. Twenty years ago we didn't rely on drugs for every little thing.

[calico1]

10. The flu can be deadly

for people that are in the high risk groups. I am a very healthy person and I remember getting the flu about 10 or so years ago. It really knocked me down. Every muscle and bone in my body hurt. It even hurt to move my eyes. And I had chills, fever and couldn't keep anything down. A lot of people think a bad cold = flu, same thing. It isn't. The flu is nothing to kid around about. I never get sick and this thing had me out for the count for a week. I have been lucky that my company offers the flu vaccine each year to all employees. But this year we already got the notice--no flu vaccine until further notice, which to me means forget about getting one this year. I am going to be washing my hands often this Winter. Also being careful what I touch and trying not to rub my eyes, rub my nose or touch my mouth too much. Washing hands a lot is the best thing we can do. And of course, avoid too much contact with sick people.

[amandae]

11. We're doing without it this year

Last year the kids and I got the shot because my youngest was only 16 months when flu season started and my oldest had just started Kindergarten (THE WORST YEAR for illness! We were sick soooooo much last year!). This year my son is over 2 and my kids are all healthy so it's not necessary. I chose to get it last year because I cannot afford to be sick for an entire week. I'm in charge of everything in my house as well as my school, work, etc. I'm scared of getting the flu, not being able to rest enough and ending up in the hospital (like some other moms I've known).

Oh well ... if I'm sick this year I'll just call some of you healthy beings to take care of me and my household ;)

[Maddy McCall]

12. Gosh, what did we ever do without radiation and chemotherapy?

People died. Don't make light of the medical advance that saves millions of lives each year. My father, who just beat cancer, will have to go it without the vaccine this winter. It scares me to death.

[redqueen]

13. Well before I'd had the flu I didn't care

but after I got it, and missed four days of work, I started getting flu shots. I just don't like being so sick. I can handle colds, but geesh!

[Wilber_Stool]

14. In 1999

20,000 died from the flu. Before the vaccine it was more like 40 to 45,000. Not small potatoes.

1957 Asin flu 70,000

[Bridget Burke]

15. The flu kills approximately 36,000 people a year.

5 to 20% of the population gets the flu & 200,000 are hospitalized. This is from the CDC.

www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm

Apparently, even in the best of years, the at-risk population is not sufficiently protected. Of course, most of the people who die are very young, very old, or have other health problems. So they might not qualify for your "we".

The flu is NOT that bad cold that usually circulates every winter. Even for healthy people, it can mean being really sick for a couple of weeks.

[htuttle]

18. That's 36,000 Americans dying each year.

Worldwide, the figure is much higher.

[BigMcLargehuge]

16. every annual flu strain is different

the 1918 flu jumped from pigs to men in the US, then went to the Europe with the doughboys, then came back with them. Like it's origin, the flu mutated through human contact to become significantly less deadly which brought and end to the pandemic.

What separated the 1918 flu from what we know as the flu now, is that it infected and killed healthy young adults very, very quickly. The main cause of death was fluid in the lungs caused by an opportunistic bacterial infection that came on the heels of the influenza virus. Modern antibiotics would "probably" prevent an epidemic of the same scale today, but cross species infection is always a worry. Consider the Asian bird flu from a couple of years ago.

[Amaya]

17. There was this little thing called

the Spanish Flu it killed about 40 million people in the span of a year.

So... Flu vaccinations are a good thing.:)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

21. Actually, less than a year... more like 4 months, and

no one ever bothered to count India, China, and most of Africa, so a better guess is at least 60 million.

[flamingyouth]

22. Well, I never used to take it

But this year my doctor is making me get one because I have asthma and I have a nasty tendency to get pneumonia every year. I'd prefer not to die, thank you.

[tjdee]

26. Thank you everybody....

I really didn't know how many people were killed by the flu, and I learned a lot in this thread.

But then my question is why isn't the flu vaccine required, as is the tetanus, etc.?

[skygazer]

28. Because not everyone is at risk

It is recommended for the elderly, for small children, for health care workers and for people with chronic asthma or other lung problems.

It is not like the childhood vaccines which, after a series, protect you for life. It is something that has to be repeated yearly.

I used to get one every year when I lived in Vermont and got pneumonia twice a year whether I needed it or not. Flu can and does kill a good many people. The vaccine is an important addition to public health.

[LeftyMom]

29. None are required

They're all just recomended. Even for school admission "requirements" (the primary enforcement tool for shot requirements) there are exemptions because of liabliity and because some people have religious exemptions or medical contraindications.

The flu vaccine has no blanket reccomendation because healthy adults and children have no need for it. They are capable of fighting off the flu so the side effects and mercury exposure are probably a worse choice for healthy people, especially in light of the low effectiveness of the shot. I expect this to change eventually, as we certainly have plenty of other stupid shot recomendations on the schedule, so what's one more?

[JVS]

27. Die