Why I Refuse Flu Shot

Nurses COVID

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Steve123

63 Posts

It looks like 99+% of nurses need to educate themselves about corruption in Big Pharma. Big Pharma is routinely sued for not informing the public about all side effects of medications they aggressively market, even though they know about those side effects. Evidence based practice? Imagine we live in the 50's. I say something against lobotomy. What your respond would be? And now lobotomy is considered the black page of Western medicine history.

brithoover

244 Posts

NOTHING works 100%

EmmaZ06

36 Posts

It looks like 99+% of nurses need to educate themselves about corruption in Big Pharma. Big Pharma is routinely sued for not informing the public about all side effects of medications they aggressively market, even though they know about those side effects. Evidence based practice? Imagine we live in the 50's. I say something against lobotomy. What your respond would be? And now lobotomy is considered the black page of Western medicine history.

You are comparing a flu shot to a lobotomy?

Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Every year, when i worked in a nursing home, we went down the halls passing out flu shots like Halloween candy. And every single year, at least one, usually two or three, occasionally more of the patients would get sick as a dog and die. The families would look bewildered, "But we gave Meemaw the flu shot, how did this happen??!??"

Now I may be blonde but I know what I saw. When my 84 year old grandmother was dying of emphysema she did not get the flu shot . Her doctors were horrified and tried to shame me into it. She never got the flu.

I never get the flu and I never take the shot. You can tell me that the flu shot is made with a dead germ all you want, I will not believe it. You may think Im a little on the nutty side but I do not believe everything I am told. I use my own experience to make my decision, and I am so glad my employer does not mandate flu shots.

Steve123

63 Posts

You are comparing a flu shot to a lobotomy?

I am not comparing flu shot with lobotomy. I use lobotomy as an example that standards of practice and recommendations are always changing, so there is no reason at all to believe in all current standards of practice and recomendations

elkpark

14,633 Posts

I get the flu shot (now) because my (current) employer really, really wants me to. I didn't get it for many years. I have no strong feelings about it one way or the other.

momRNmy

15 Posts

I got my first flu vaccine in fall 2009, my first flu season as a nurse. This was the second flu season of concern for the swine flu, but my employer was only mandating (minus allergies or religious objections) employees receive the seasonal flu shot but offered the swine flu vaccine separately as a voluntary opt in/out. I was stubborn and decided that I didn't need or want a second shot, never mind the fact that I was working in an emergency department.

I never got the "seasonal" flu, but ended up sick as a dog by early January 2010. Imagine my surprise when I swabbed positive for the swine flu. My stubbornness got me nowhere besides stuck at home sick for 2 weeks and in the dog house with my manager....

For those out there who still convince themselves that a flu shot is ineffective, a conspiracy, or unnecessary because they never get the flu (based on nothing more than a past lack of the flu), I feel sorry for them and their patients. I went 29 years without "getting the flu", but 5 days after a patient coughed in my face literally as I was reaching for a face mask (whose rapid flu and days later swab tested positive for the swine flu), I was sick. I worked two 12 hour shifts during that 5 day period and passed the flu onto God only knows how many patients.

Mandatory or not, it makes no difference to me; based on science, my experience, and conscience, I'll be getting a flu shot (more if needed) for as long as I encounter other people as a nurse or otherwise.

hodgieRN

643 Posts

Specializes in ER trauma, ICU - trauma, neuro surgical.
I never get the flu

You mean you've never been symptomatic.

morte, LPN, LVN

7,015 Posts

if you are asymptomatic, you don't have it. of course, doesn't mean you can't carry the virus, but that also goes for anyone that has had the vaccine.

You mean you've never been symptomatic.

momRNmy

15 Posts

if you are asymptomatic you don't have it. of course, doesn't mean you can't carry the virus, but that also goes for anyone that has had the vaccine. [/quote']

http://boston.com/news/packages/krt/flucycle/html/print.htm

The first 5 days following infection are typically symptom-free despite the infected host being extremely contagious.

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B

9 Articles; 4,800 Posts

One may be politically opposed to the vaccination. One may be against "Big Pharmacuticals" and as I am, not really into people telling me what I need to be doing to my body. Went many, many years without being vaccinated. Until I got the flu. To say it sucked out loud is a huge understatement. Oh, and then I gave it to my husband and each child. Yahoo. We needed a few more bathrooms, they sucked all of the oxygen out of the house we were all coughing so violently, and this never seemed to end. It was the winter of our discontent.

Now we are required to wear masks if we do not get vaccinated. Other nurses lose their jobs. i am all for the political activism that the "idea" of the intent behind getting vaccinated brings. And I do not disagree. But if facilities make it difficult to do your job wearing a mask for your shift, or if one loses one's job over it, each person needs to weigh benefits/risks.

Steve123

63 Posts

I had very terrible flu in 2008. I never took flu shots before 2008 or after 2008.

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