Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do to get your coworkers on the same page as you. So as with most things that involve others, do what you can do to make the situation better and don’t worry about what you can’t control (which really is a lot of stuff!) So, eat well, sleep well, exercise well and wash your hands! Did I say wash your hands?! Hands are everything. I am not a big fan of sterilizing everything, it can just make some worse. Having germs around has kept us as a human race alive for a very long time. But our hands are the biggest reason for the spread of most contagious diseases. So smile, knowing that you are probably healthier than any of your coworkers due to how well us people with diabetes care for ourselves.
How was that post?! No mention of vaccinate or not to vaccinate!
LOL! It’s fine with me. 
Ahaha. Just because you get a vaccine doesnt mean your wearing an all magic suit. Lol. You still get the disease and its still able to be transmitted to the rest of the population. How did you all think it works? The disease just evaporated on contact with you like superman. Why do you think they put people in quarantine who have vaccines? Just because your body knows how to beat a bug doesnt mean you don’t still get that bug if you run into it, and it sure as sally doesnt mean you wont transmit the disease either once you have it. I’m blown away at the total lack of understanding.
If you are concerned you might one of the few for which the flu shot didn’t give immunity, you might inquire about antibody testing. Antibody test may be impractical or cost ineffective, but no harm to asking.
My other thought is that many illnesses are referred to as flu even though the illness isn’t influenza. The flu shot won’t be effective for those.
I get the flu shot every year. My senior year of college, I had a professor walk in to a very small class(about 15 students) on a mandatory presentation day and announce she had the flu, “so sorry, do stay away from me…” ?! I did wind up getting sick, but it was the barest touch of my BGs spiking, nausea and respiratory distress and, knowing I had been exposed, I went to the doctor the day after I started feeling ill and got antibiotics and was never really sick. Just keep an eye out, if someone comes in sick and you start to feel bad, be proactive about it.
Antibiotics don’t work on colds or flu. Absolutely they don’t work on either. Many doctors Rx them simply because it keeps many of their patients happy but it is poor doctoring.
I agree. Saw my Dr. A couple of weeks ago. He told me to get my flu shot in October. Told me if I do get the flu to come right away for tamiflu.
Someone should talk to that professor and offer a new idea … If you have the flu, STAY HOME.
If the professor is an adjunct, they probably have no sick time allotted and no substitute teachers available, and no ability to postpone something like a mandatory presentation class. So often it’s just not an option.
You’re right, in that colds and flu are both caused by viruses. However, secondary infections are a very serious issue for some of us with compromised immune systems. That is one of the reasons why the flu is “no big deal” to some people, and a really big deal to others. I’m one of those people who gets a secondary bacterial infection in my lungs every single time I get the flu. Unfortunately, I almost always get the flu even though I get my flu shot religiously 
Bad luck and a bad location (with lots of international travelers).
@cardamom, You are totally right. I was an adjunct faculty member for several years, and I had no benefits at all (no paid leave, no sick leave, no health insurance, etc.). Fortunately, I found that we could get Skype or Zoom or other video conferencing software to work in our fairly-well-connected university campus, so when I got sick I’d just do class from home. But that wouldn’t be possible at every institution.
Presumably YOU are protected. They are not.
I taught pre-school for 20 years and have type I diabetes. Yes, I get my flu shot every year and I have had my shingles and pneumonia vaccines. After that good had washing and changing your clothing after you get home from work will keep you amazingly healthy. Good luck.
Yes, getting a vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t get the disease but it will usually, yes I said usually not always, will be a milder version. So call me crazy but a milder flu, pneumonia, shingles etc is much better than a full blown case!
My wife just got her second shingles shot and she felt far worse than with the first one. She felt achy and miserable for about 36 to 48 hours. I’ve had just the first shot and it didn’t bother me much. I hope the next one which I’ll get in about a month doesn’t lay me as low as it did her.
Flu shots don’t make me ill at all and I don’t ever get the seasonal flu. I’ve been getting flu shots for decades. Back in the 70’s before I got the shots, I’d get the flu most years.
I believe in shots! Pneumonia, shingles, flu and the usual like tetanus/dipth and I forget what all the others are but I get them. If I had a kid, they would be getting the HPV shot.
Anyone who has had shingles would love to have avoided getting it!
I agree completely! And I think some of the problems we have with these discussions is that many people didn’t live through the devastation these diseases caused many. I had a neighborhood friend who lost his hearing after having the measles or it might have been the mumps. That was back before all these vaccinations. And my mother-in-law had polio and they thought she would never walk again. Thankfully she did recover but much later in her life that disease reared it’s very ugly face. And went through many of the same scary symptoms again.
I think videos of those iron lungs, crutches, what a persons body looks like when suffering from one of these diseases.
And if we could only remember how many people died in the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic. Over 500 million people were infected and estimated some 50 million people died. And surprisingly many in the 20-30 age group.
Just not something to take lightly! History repeats if we don’t learn from our mistakes.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why otherwise intelligent people would forgo the many vaccines we have available today. It’s truly mind-boggling. All of their talk about how dangerous the vaccines are is even worse than those afraid to fly but will gladly get in their car every day and risk being killed by a drunk/impaired driver. Their fears, like anti-vaxers’ fears, are misplaced.
I again can’t get in the middle of this because it frustrates me so very much. And again I will say, history will repeat itself if we don’t learn from it. I remember vividly standing in line at school! At school! To get our polio vaccination. There was no maybes, we all stood in line and got our vaccination. I still have the tiny little scar from it and thankfully I got it and don’t have to worry about polio. I just think many people don’t remember how scary the times were early on. And just think now with air travel how quickly things can spread like Ebola. Hopefully that vaccination is coming for that very scary disease!
Do you remember when we were given sugar cubes for polio? IIRC, they were doused in pink medication. Big shout-out to Salk.
I remember the sugar cubes, but not the pink medication. I thought it was a couple of drops of some colourless liquid. This was in the UK so may well have been different.
I believe the sugar cubes had a pink splotch on them!