Anonymous sources are a necessity. The NYT runs/ran a series on tech their reporters use, and many are concerned with maintaining the safety of their sources, so heavy on apps with encryption, and sometimes no tech as the safest. If there were no inhumanity, crime, retaliation, corruption, or subterfuge, it wouldn’t matter.
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Get one every year. I’ve been working for the State of Oregon’s public health for years, and they always sponsored flu shot clinics for months in the season. I haven’t worked in the office for almost half a year, so I just queried Kaiser about when they’re going to start offering the shots, since I have an appointment in mid-October: beginning of the month. Good, I’ll make only one trip to the halls of illness.
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Really? That’s so interesting.
Perhaps this is the general distrust of the medical system coming back to bite us.
Perhaps the field has no credibility or trust anymore. You should see how much trouble I’m having getting people to go to the ER.
Although, polls (here in the US) don’t have a ton of credibility either anymore.
But, I have long heard objections/paranoia to the seasonal flu vaccine, so 30% might be accurate, but it will come down over time.
When is seasonal flu vaccine ready for us to get?
LOL, machiya.
If we can only get one seasonal flu per year and its only good for 3 months, is it best to wait until the end of the month to carry us through January??? I think that means it wont be fully effective until Nov. Seasonal will take hold here by mid-Oct.
How are you guys handling this?
ouch! My husband and I already got our shot … the third week in August! That means we’re only protected until the third week in November. Not good.
I’ve gotten one every year for the past 5 years. Before that I guess I discounted how serious the flu could be. I’ve never had it. I’m making an appointment this week to have my whole family inoculated.
The vaccine has been available here for a little over a month. It’s a big push this year to get people vaccinated. Signs at every pharmacy, grocery store and medical building for free vaccinations. The vaccine manufacturers are making more doses than they have historically in hopes more people will jump on the vaccination bandwagon. Hope that happens. I have my doubts.
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Better early than late, I think. It will still be somewhat effective at 6 months, I think. Its just that the effectiveness decreases overtime. I’m worried they might run out of vaccine. Go early. In a bad flu season, here, everybodys sick in October.
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We got our shots at our pharmacy, so I’ll check when we pick up our prescriptions next and see what they say.
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I am one of the most pro-vaccine people ever. I love vaccines, I’ve taken all of them I can. I even was vaccinated against rabies for a while, thanks to working with wild animals as a young person, which felt like a cool superpower in a way (I can hug all the cute raccoons wooo! oh wait still a bad idea).
That said, the politicizing of this vaccine’s development, as well as the concerning effects political pressures exerted on the FDA (see the hydroxycholorquine mess), make me concerned. I read stats that opposition to this vaccine is much, much higher than for typical vaccines, and those higher numbers are largely driven by distrust of the current administration and concerns of how they may be rushing this. When there is such clear political benefit for this admin to release a vaccine before the election, it has serious impacts on public trust and public health. I realize I’m bringing up political issues, but there’s no way to discuss the realities of why as many as half of all people currently say they won’t take this vaccine without mentioning politics.
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I just do it in the fall. But I think they are believed to last 6 months.
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I’ll go today. I called CVS. Thanks you guys. The weather has turned. That means its time.
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And it is a mistrust of the system. I work at what is considered to be one of the best cancer institutes in the country (#2 in US News) and get most of my care at a hospital that is ranked ninth (#9) in the country. I trust my doctors, and I trust the institutions that I use, but the problem seems to be the corruption caused by a profit motive.
It drives pharmaceuticals to bias their studies, roll patents with trivial changes, and to spend one-third (1/3) of their budget on marketing. It allows hospitals to bill excessively, partially because big institutions know how to milk the system. Government capture, where the metaphorical fox guards the henhouse, enables and promotes destructive behavior by industry.
In most cultures, there is some balance of private and public enterprise that delivers high-quality outcomes, but no rational analysis could decide that the US does an excellent job of proving healthcare, and it seems to be a result of powerful profit-driven interests (doctors, hospitals, insurers, device manufacturers, and pharma) combined with lax oversight and a powerless populace.
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I expect to get a second, a top-up, next year…
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If you guys want to watch the videos from the covid conference (there are 2 days worth)…
The videos from the conference speakers are posted, but its a little confusing how to access:
1.) Click the blue button
2.) Click the red links to the videos.
Do you think that they will allow that? I think that they will be able to see it in the insurance record. You might try paying out of pocket at the pharmacy to keep it out of the record.
The general rule of thumb with flu shots is that it is recommended to get them between Halloween and Thanksgiving. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to elicit a strong antibody response in the recipient. Flu season is in full swing December through March, so a November vaccination nails it.
Pharmacies start getting doses in August and they want you to get your shot with them instead of somewhere else, so they push it hard early. If you are in a pharmacy in August/September and are the type of person who won’t make an effort (or will forget) to get the flu shot at the ideal time, then the CDC recommends that you get it early because early is better than not at all. Personally, I prefer to get it when it will best protect me rather than when it will help CVS make money.
One more thing to take into consideration… People who are young and not immunocompromised have more leeway when it comes to getting the flu shot early — their protection lasts longer so they will likely still be protected at the end of flu season. People who are older or immunocompromised do not mount as strong an immune response to the vaccine and their protection wanes after a few months. So this group should pay closer attention to being vaccinated in the ideal time range.
Everything I’ve written above is for a ‘normal’ year and, of course, 2020 is anything but normal. So right now there is a greater push to just get vaccinated and less emphasis on getting it at the best time.
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Alright, here we go with this. Gotta address it because its an issue every year.
So, I got vaccinated 2 days ago. The weather has turned. Its cold. We are getting first frosts. Its an early frost, but that that means the flu will be starting up.
I also encouraged my dad and his wife to go in. Now she is sick and thinks she has the flu. She thinks she has the flu and she thinks she got it from the vaccine.
Now, this is the primary reason that people cite for not getting vaccinated. I always kinda say to myself, “Well, sure, you got the flu, but you might have gotten the flu anyway and it might be just a coincidence.”
But, people ALWAYS cite this as a reason to not get the flu shot. This argument is the prevailing reason people don’t get the shot and it is gonna carry thru as a reason to not get the corona vaccine.
Flu is not circulating here yet. Its unreasonable to think that she contacted it from anything other than the vaccine. So, how are you going to address this with people?
It will need to be addressed.
It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference this year, if you contract the seasonal flu from the vaccine, right? You still need seasonal flu vacc to protect from corona. Maybe that is an argument to get the vaccine now? Like, get seasonal flu & establish immunity before covid starts ramping up? IDK.
What are thoughts on this? What do we say to people?
In today’s social and political climate people believe what they want to. Facts don’t matter. And if you throw in just a little bit of complexity involving science, it only makes matters worse.
This is the simple truth taken from the CDC website about the seasonal flu vaccination and whether it triggers an episode of the flu:
Any illness that randomly coincides with a flu vaccination can persuade someone that they got the illness from the vaccination. This is a classic error of logic, a fallacy. Just because event A happened before event B does not conclusively mean that event A caused event B. There’s even a Latin name for this error in thinking: the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. This cloudy thinking has been plaguing humanity for a long time.
Your father’s wife may be experiencing a bad cold or even a flu from a virus not included in the current vaccination but she is definitely not suffering from a virus caused by the vaccination. This is a tough sell and may not be worth your effort to disabuse her of this illogical belief.
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People are gonna say it, Terry. They say it every year. They will say it with regard to Covid vaccine. I think that we gotta be ready for this. If others aren’t vaccinated, we won’t be safe for a long time.
If you come up with some kinda something to say back, it would help. I’ve never come up with anything that was really effective. Its really hard to argue with peoples personal experience (or, perception of their experience). Really, really tough. This could bite us real bad. I’m worried.
BTW, she’s crazy like a loon. But, that doesn’t make things any easier.
it’s pretty captivating to read this article and then people thoughts… hm
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