We've made the family decision to NOT get flu vaccines.

[pstall]

Not all flu vaccines are cultured in egg. I know the nasal spray vaccine is, but some of the injectable ones aren't, I'd go check it out.

In response to a few of the other claims on here:

You can't get sick from injections of flu vaccine. While vaccine's aren't "living" so they can never technically be "dead," what you are injected with is "dead" virus. The only situation where people do get sick from the flu vaccine is in certain cases with the nasal spray vaccine, because that is actually "live" virus. But it is also highly improbable to get the flu in those cases, because it is a cold attenuated live virus. Meaning that the virus has been raised to survive in cold temperatures, so when it is exposed to the 98 degree temperature of your body, it is pretty much completely shocked and inactive. The payoff of having a live virus is that you have a longer-termed immunity, and good immunogens that your body may not develop when confronted with the defanged virus in inacvtivated vaccines.

Yes the influenza virus is constantly changing, but it's not going to change in a couple weeks. So saying "the flu is constantly changing so the vaccine may not even work on it," is BS. Generally speaking, it changes from year-to-year, not day-to-day

My family works in the Biotech industry, and not the Marketing or PR side; the science side. So when something goes bad I know about it, if there is nothing to be concerned about, I know about it. And I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is next to no risk involved in getting a flu shot. Will you get sick if you don't get one? Probably not. But you shouldn't avoid them because of what you've heard on your local news.

And on a completely unrelated note, if you have a daughter, for goodness sake get her the cervical cancer (more accurately HPV) vaccine. I know some real nuts that refuse to get that for their kids.

I cam across this article.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-flu-vaccine25-2009oct25,0,850972.story

This H1N1 vaccine is made just like all the flu vaccines we have been making for 60 years, which have an extraordinary record for safety," he said. "The only difference between this one and the seasonal flu shots is the virus it is made from, so we have no reason to believe this one will be any less safe."

Although pharmaceutical researchers worldwide are trying to find newer and speedier ways to make flu vaccines, in the U.S., the only FDA-approved method is from the 1940s: injecting the virus into chicken eggs to be grown into larger quantities.

For the arm-shot vaccine, the virus eventually is harvested from the eggs, killed and chopped into segments. When injected into the recipient, it activates the body's immune system to produce antibodies that kill the actual flu virus if the recipient is exposed.

The alternative, nasal-spray vaccine is made using a live virus. It too is grown in eggs, but at lower temperatures, weakening or "attenuating" it so that it can survive only in the nose, not at greater body heats in the lungs.

Interesting that it's the same method for over 60 years now.

[charlottenian]

I know plenty of my colleagues that have issues with certain vaccines, specifically flu and chickenpox, since they believe (correctly) that for the vast majority of people that get these conditions, the result is inconsequential and FAR from fatal.

However, the danger here is to extrapolate this in to the realm of disease that has been safely and successfully controlled in the modern world.

The last thing we need is a bunch of people getting nutty and then seeing a return to such gems as polio and measles.

These two most often are annoyances, but they CAN be debilitating and even fatal.

Hell, flu kills 10s if not 100s of thousands every year, which is why the vaccine is available.

I just get nervous when people start down the path of not listening to medical advice because they "heard from a guy" or "had a neighbor that" or whatever.

Again, it is your choice, and any physician's choice (a surgeon is hardly a doctor btw, we all admit this fact:)) to not be vaccinated against whatever. All I know is flu, REAL honest to goodness flu, not something misinterpreted like a bad common cold, will knock you on your ass.

I don't have time for that, and I am well aware of the mutational characteristics of viruses and the difficulty in staying one step ahead of these buggers.

But when we have some that we KNOW work well and are amazingly safe, why would anyone risk ANYTHING for their kids when the "links" to conditions such as autism are complete crap?

Just educate yourself on the risks and benefits and accept the consequences.

Do you know who you are trying to enlighten? Personally I am fine with everyone not wanting vaccination and end up getting flu, to me it means job security at the hospital.

[guigrrl]

yeah, i know, but dont they give some of these very soon after birth? Why not wait till they are older and about to go to school?

Yup, im onto the mercury free ones too.

I don't know if someone has answered but -- yeah they do give some early. For us, We felt that protecting was best to protect and the risk was low. One of my thoughts was that we have people from all over the world living right near here and no telling what kind of germs they are bringing over.

The autism thing scared me with my first, but I did some research before my second and it was a no brainer to immunize.

[TheSaint]

Do you know who you are trying to enlighten?

well, by all means enlighten us to who WE are.. What are you a 3rd year resident? You know just enough to kill someone.

[charlottenian]

well, by all means enlighten us to who WE are.. What are you a 3rd year resident? You know just enough to kill someone.

I knew enough to get the seasonal trivalent vaccine and the H1N1 live attenuated so that I would not be a vector of transmission to patients and people I encounter. By all means, soon enough there will be a post about how someone went to the urgent care to get tamiflu and could not find it in their local pharmacy.

[charlottenian]

I cam across this article.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-flu-vaccine25-2009oct25,0,850972.story

Interesting that it's the same method for over 60 years now.

They are working on a DNA based vaccination but that is still in research / development phase

[TheSaint]

You still didnt answer the question about who Epi was trying to enlighten. Come on, tell us how you really feel?

Thats very noble of you for not vectoring. I bet the handicap people wish you had the same attitude when you vectored their parking spaces.