I ordered 300 doses for several Doctors but didn´t get my shot...and got the Flu. Two weeks of fever, terrible cough, malaise, lost voice sore throat. The full gamut. Lasted nearly a month. Two MORE strains are out there. as soon as I´m asymptomatic
I get the shot.

I call BS. I heard last night that the strain that is getting all you townies isn´t in the flu shot. My SIL is a RN and she said never, never get that flu shot, it is a huge scam. The one year my hubby and I got one, was the only time I have had the flu in 20 years. Huge scam, I will never get another one.

You can´t fool me, I read The Stand.

I´ve had it twice. Once at Halloween and then over Christmas school break. I am finally feeling better but still have lingering "cold" symptoms. High fever (103) uncontrollable chills, cough, head full of gunk, lost voice, sore throat, body aches and oh so tired. The problem with the flu shot is that it is just an educated guess. No one really know what formula will work and which flu strain you will be exposed to. It´s hit or miss at best but to be safe I guess you should get one. When I am truly feeling better I guess I will go down to CVS and get a shot. I had a niece who died from swine flu three years ago so don´t laugh and think you might not be affected. You never know.

I am a nurse practitioner and never get a flu shot because (as I was telling everyone), I am immune to everything. However, I did get sick this year, though not super sick. I caught it from my husband, who did get the flu shot. He was fairly sick for a day or two and a little sick for about 3 additional days.

Symptoms are not really typical with fever and body aches being less prominent than cough and fatigue.

My early information suggests that this season´s vaccine is a pretty good match for the circulating strains.

#6: I´ve heard the opposite, that they missed the boat on this one.

Women and minorities hardest hit.

I got the shot. Never been so sick in my life. I am pregnant and this crud turned into pneumonia on me since in the beginning the nurse practicioners I went to insisted I took nothing but Tylenol (even though I told them I am asthmatic).

I thought a couple times I was in the clear and then it got so much worse (usually at night).

I am only now starting to get to 100%.

Don´t know what to say other than the shot didn´t work for me.

We got our flu shots early - in October. A good thing, it appears.

Whooping Cough has been making the rounds too. My SIL is a pediatric nurse (oncology); she also supervises a field course for a college. She wasdesperately sick - out of work for 6 weeks. She didn´t get the antibiotics in time. One of my nephews, living in a college dorm, also got it but not quite as bad. The 2 youngest kids and my brother took the antibiotics as a prophylactic and they were ok.

I have a bias against the flu shots, too. But 2 years ago I did get sick - and then ended up in the hospital with Bell´s Palsy shortly after. I am very torn about whether or not to get vaccinated as I am in schools.

Ramona (the Pest)

I´m mildly in favor of you getting the shot, but I don´t go for it myself.

I seem to get the flu variants about five years before they make it into the shot, or not at all.

The flu shot is the flu.

I had to take Tamaflu and the headaches were terrible. Not a fan of the flu shot, but rethinking the issue.

I wish sick people would stay home and not hack and cough all over the rest of us. What is so hard about covering your mouth ?

I dont get the shot. My choice...
Wash hands.
Clean off computer key boards.
Dont share iphones... Or carry lyesol wipes
Dont eat at salad bars
Limit hand shaking-
Take vitamins
Get rest
Drink water

Cant prevent the flu, but can take precautions!

No, I dont wear a mask! Silly! I just think like Monk during the cold/flu season. I do work with kids too!
Germy bunch- and that is high school!

According to http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/summary.htm, two A strains (H1N1 and H3N2) are covered by the shot. 69% of the B strain cases seen this year are covered by the shot; 31% aren´t.

This means that the people getting the flu either didn´t get the shot (and have caught either an A or B strain), got the shot but caught the uncovered B strain...or...(as two doctors have told me this week) caught a mutation of one of the A strains.

My son ~must~ get the flu shot because he is extremely vulnerable to flu complications. He´s had the shot for 15 years and gotten the flu four times (hospitalized once, another time he was so sick they thought he had cancer). The rest of us get the shot to help shield him. None of us has gotten the flu in all these years (knock on wood). At least two of the four times he´s had the flu, he caught strains not covered in that year´s shot...it may be that that was the case all four times (I just can´t remember!).

Bottom line - the flu shot does reduce your risk of getting the flu. You may react to the flu shot with flu-like symptoms for several days (I did once and my son has twice), but that is NOT the flu. Also, I am highly skeptical of people who claim to have the flu but did not get tested to confirm it. Unless you´ve had the nose swab done, you don´t know that you have the flu - it could be any number of viruses. Wash you hands, stay healthy, and stay away from my boy!

Heading into my second week with this crap, not pretty

I began taking the flu shot when I was 50. I´ve had it once I began the shots, and that was because I worked in retail then. I felt like death. I have the shot because I am around a lot of college students and because I take care of my 91 year old father. I do not want him to get the flu - it would probably kill him.

If you got a flu shot, you were loaded up with aluminum and formeldehyde. You´re already pre-primed for the undertaker.

I don´t believe in flu shots either. Whenever I feel myself getting sick,I blast it with echinacea and zinc and I feel better in 2-3 days.

Well, I usually get the flu shot, and this year I did not. I got the flu the day after Christmas; it lasted at least five days, achiness, chest cough, tiredness. My brother in NYC has been very sick with the flu. But I also heard that this year´s flu vaccine would not be effective against this current strain of flu.