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icarusAnd this would be why I don't get a flu shot:
Resistance to flu drug widespread in US: study
Viruses are highly adaptive. We've overused antibiotics. Many antibiotics are now ineffective. Now three flu drugs are ineffective: rimantadine and amantadine and Tamiflu. It's obvious to me that we've overused flu vaccines. Those should be for small children, the sick, and the elderly. Not pushed by companies that don't want to pay for sick days.
In other news: looking at a mountain of work for school.
Starting. That's the hard part. Starting.
ETA: Folks keep thinking that I'm mixing up vaccines with the drugs used to treat influenza. No. I'm not.
Doctors will still say get the flu vaccine, the same way they used to prescribe antibiotics like candy.
I was leery back in the 80s when everyone was prescribed an antibiotic for everything.
I evaded the antibiotics then. I'm not a bit surprised to find they were overused to the point of uselessness. People argued with me then, too.
Now I'm not buying it on the flu vaccines.
This is just one person's anecdotal observation, but I've noticed the flu season has been getting worse and worse. That spike began in the mid-to-late 90s when flu vaccines started being used to inoculate everyone who'd take it, and not just the vulnerable. (Actually, the spike started when flu vaccine makers began marketing to businesses that they'd have less loss of productivity if they got their employees to take it.)
Mark my words. In three to five years we'll start seeing studies that show an increase in the severity and number of flu viruses. In ten, we'll see a link between overuse of flu vaccines and the sheer variety and severity of flus.
Flu vaccines just aren't the same as your typical mumps, rubella, etc. vaccine. Viruses mutate. That constant mutation is why the flu vaccine has to be different each year, and why it only includes an immunization for the top seven or eight viruses the CDC guesses will be the "bad ones" for the season.
Resistance to flu drug widespread in US: study
Viruses are highly adaptive. We've overused antibiotics. Many antibiotics are now ineffective. Now three flu drugs are ineffective: rimantadine and amantadine and Tamiflu. It's obvious to me that we've overused flu vaccines. Those should be for small children, the sick, and the elderly. Not pushed by companies that don't want to pay for sick days.
In other news: looking at a mountain of work for school.
Starting. That's the hard part. Starting.
ETA: Folks keep thinking that I'm mixing up vaccines with the drugs used to treat influenza. No. I'm not.
Doctors will still say get the flu vaccine, the same way they used to prescribe antibiotics like candy.
I was leery back in the 80s when everyone was prescribed an antibiotic for everything.
I evaded the antibiotics then. I'm not a bit surprised to find they were overused to the point of uselessness. People argued with me then, too.
Now I'm not buying it on the flu vaccines.
This is just one person's anecdotal observation, but I've noticed the flu season has been getting worse and worse. That spike began in the mid-to-late 90s when flu vaccines started being used to inoculate everyone who'd take it, and not just the vulnerable. (Actually, the spike started when flu vaccine makers began marketing to businesses that they'd have less loss of productivity if they got their employees to take it.)
Mark my words. In three to five years we'll start seeing studies that show an increase in the severity and number of flu viruses. In ten, we'll see a link between overuse of flu vaccines and the sheer variety and severity of flus.
Flu vaccines just aren't the same as your typical mumps, rubella, etc. vaccine. Viruses mutate. That constant mutation is why the flu vaccine has to be different each year, and why it only includes an immunization for the top seven or eight viruses the CDC guesses will be the "bad ones" for the season.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 04:00 am (UTC)I haven't gotten that sick since about 2nd grade, nearly ten years ago. The closest to actually sick (instead of just blech-y) I've gotten between then was a day when I woke up really dizzy and realized that if I couldn't safely get out of my loft bed it was a bad idea to go to school.
I also got a significantly annoying cold that took longer than usual to go away, and I lost my voice for teh first time ever (whic hwas bad because I = singer). My conclusion? Flu shot lowers immune system in general.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-04 12:49 am (UTC)You're trading in your long-term health for your short-term health... and you still get the flu symptoms? Screw that.
My conclusion? Flu shot lowers immune system in general.
That's my feeling.
Now I've heard from one microbiologist who tells me the flu shot doesn't give you the long-term antibodies you'd get if you just got the flu and recovered.
I've heard advice passed along from an immunologist: get the vaccines you need for school, and the Gardasil vaccine if your family has a history of cervical cancer. Both the anti-flu vaccine and pro-flu vaccine people say to get the kind of vaccine you take by nose (the point of entry for virusii).
What's telling is the push to get the flu shot came not from my doctor, but from my employer, who had a vested interested in cutting down on sick days. Whether it's best for me or not. And from peer pressure which started at work as well.