Fever broke?

[icarus]

I think the fever's broken, not sure. Either that or I'm having a brief respite, which -- hey -- I'll take it. My throat hurts like you wouldn't believe but even that's an improvement.

I have a theory.

I think these flus are the fault of flu shots.

I never used to get sick, or else which I did, it wasn't very serious. I got a very bad virus back in 1987, then the next one (other than a sniffly week or two) was in the late 90s, once flu shots started to gain popularity. Once my office (from 2000 onward) started pushing flu shots on the entire staff (and you were strongly advised to get one, it was provided for free, in-house -- seems someone examined the stats on on the costs of missed work days) I caught a severe virus every year.

So here's my working theory: flu shots are great for those who get them, terrible for those who don't. By combining the worst flu viruses into one vaccine, people are being exposed to a greater variety of brutal viruses. Most of which they would never face without the shot. Those who have the shot become carriers because viruses aren't the same as polio, measles, etc. Viruses mutate. The whole flu shot theory is founded upon everyone getting the shot.

Now here's where I get cynical. There are only a couple companies allowed to produce flu shots in the U.S. This is a very profitable business, increasingly so with corporations on board with the flu shot theory, sponsoring flu shots for their employees. There may be good intentions involved, but I bet someone at these businesses knows there's a risk of increasing flu epidemics if not everyone gets the shot.

God, I'm so sick of the U.S.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

To continue, the flu vaccine is a 'dead' (deactivated) vaccine. There is no 'live' virus around to multiply and spread to other people.

Supposedly dead. However, there are only a couple of companies that make the flu vaccine in the U.S. and they can't keep up with the demand. They have a problem with quality control: note the shortage -- I think it was last year -- of the flu vaccine due to an entire production of eggs being destroyed. That's not just a little boo-boo. It only takes a tiny percentage of live viruses to get through such lax protocols to trigger a flu outbreak, although there's a good chance that those exposed will be able to fight it off. In my experience, when you have time constraints coupled with too much demand, quality control deteriorates. Every. Single. Time.

The flu vaccine was not meant for mass production use. It was supposed to protect the elderly, the very young, people with cancer, and those with auto-immune deficiency. Corporations just want to reduce sick time so are pushing it at a rate production was never intended to meet.

Meanwhile, ask any biomedical firm and they'll tell you that they guard the rights to their vaccines ferociously, milking as much profit out of them as they can. We will not see more than those couple companies making the vaccine. Because for every "hit" in the biomedical industry there are a thousand and failures, and the profits from that hit get sunk right back in R&D.

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

I agree that the flu vaccine should be a targeted vaccine, not one that everyone gets every year. I personally have never had a flu shot (1/3 20-something, 1/3 miser, 1/3 perfectly healthy). I agree that any sort of system/corporation that profits from healthcare has quite a few bugs.

However.

Those who have the shot become carriers because viruses aren't the same as polio, measles, etc.

Completely untrue. As I stated above, measles and polio ARE viruses, but nobody seems to care that they are combated with 'dead' AND 'live' virus vaccines as well. People who have had the flu vaccine DO NOT become carriers of the flu. I cannot stress this enough. You are stating a medical fallacy.

Supposedly dead.

It would matter less than you might think. The MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shot is a live virus vaccine, as is the chicken pox vaccine, and the one they used for smallpox(though it didn't actually contain smallpox). The polio vaccine was a live virus vaccine. The fact is, the amount of virus that is given in a live virus vaccine is so miniscule that the chances of passing the virus on are beyond remote. The amount of live virus that might make it into a dose intended to be a dead virus vaccine? Unimaginably small.

Vaccines have their problems, in their composition and how they are produced and distributed. But they do not turn people in disease carriers.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Moot point, apparently. Based on the symptoms, this is not the flu the flu vaccine was designed to cover. I neither got it from the flu vaccine nor would any vaccination have helped.

No vaccine should be treated as a panacea and, while I'm not against vaccines in general, the "offer" to "give" us (push-push-push) the flu shot from the corporation has rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm with you on the fact that the flu vaccine should be targeted to high-risk populations, but I differ in that there are reasons that the flu vaccine is not given in live form.

But they do not turn people in disease carriers.

I note your italics and online "shouting" and will now follow through on my threat: *coughs all over you*

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

*hides behind the shield of the internets*

[mkcs.livejournal.com]

"I'm with you on the fact that the flu vaccine should be targeted to high-risk populations"

I just wish 'people who get the damn flu every year unless they're immunised' counted as a high-risk population. It's free in New Zealand if you're high-risk, but not if you're just a nice low-risk person like me who happens to get the disease every year there is no immunisation jab.

[mkcs.livejournal.com]

The fact is, the amount of virus that is given in a live virus vaccine is so miniscule that the chances of passing the virus on are beyond remote.

Not always true. The literature given to parents who are having their kids immunised for some things (I think mumps is one of them) seems to say that adults who are unimmunised and have never had the disease might be at risk from close contact with their recently immunised kid for a day or so.

We'll be being very careful of my husband for a few days when my daughter gets her MMR. He may go away on a trip for the weekend.

Your main point, that being immunised doesn't make you into a carrier of the disease, is largely correct, of course.