Is it selfish not to get a Flu Shot?

Nurses General Nursing

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I've never gotten the flu shot, mainly because I've only had the flu once.

On another BB at school (maybe she reads this bb too!) I was told that I may have gotten the virus, brushed it off without getting sick and infected other people without realizing it. Her arguement was if I didn't do it for myself think of my patients and coworkers and do it for them.

Made me wonder how many people I might have infected all these years and am I selfish.

Is there any documentation of this?

I already acknowledge that the CDC recommends all health care providers get the flu shot. I didn't realize it was so we don't infect others and perhaps I should change my thinking.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I do not think it is selfish to defer from getting a shot. I do think it is selfish to bring it to work or have to make others endure numerous call-outs because one is always sick. That gets to me more than anything else. The rest of us who stay healthy (or reasonably so) are then expected to take up the slack. THAT really sticks in my caw.

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Specializes in CCRN, CNRN, Flight Nurse.
Maybe the reason they get the flu shot is because they tend to be vulnerable to it. It is faulty logic to assume that the flu shot caused them to get the flu. (-- not that you actually said that it did.) Maybe, if they didn't get the shot, they would be getting more severe cases.

llg

I don't think it was coincidence that my dad got the flu every year (he was a very active middle aged farmer) until he STOPPED taking the flu shot (is still farming). Since then, he might only get some minor sniffles each winter (which he'd get even with the shot).

BTW... anyone can have my flu shot if they want it. Have never had one and don't plan to anytime in the future.

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Specializes in Psych, M/S, Ortho, Float..

OK, my :twocents: worth!!

I have done flu shot clinics. The drag about them is that you get a whole bunch of people that don't usually work together in the same place waiting for their shot. Lots of people and flu season has already started, right? Guess what? Somebody in that pile of people has the flu. So instead of just having a little outbreak, you get a bunch of health care workers milling around talking to others. You finally get in to get your shot and you are back to work. A week later, you feel like crap. Go to the Doctor or employee health and they tell you you have the flu. Was it the shot? Nope!!

It was all those people standing around in the same place breathing in the air and the one sicky who maybe didn't know they were sick till 2 days later.

That is why people who live in isolated places rarely get sick until they do something unusual, like got to the Dr's for a flu shot.

I lived in the country for a while and never got sick till I moved back to civilization. Worked in a small hospital that was mostly medical & surgical. Agravated COPD and broken hips. Not many with the flu or other contagious buggies.

That's my theory!

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I started getting flu shots when I had kids 8 years ago. My kids get flu shots. We have all gotten the flu/pneumonia and I'd rather protect my kids and myself from unnecessarily being sick and spreading it around school/office.

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I dont know if anyone else has mentioned this...flu shots are still made with thimersol, a mercury based preservative, i for one will never get one until this stops!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
OK, my :twocents: worth!!

I have done flu shot clinics. The drag about them is that you get a whole bunch of people that don't usually work together in the same place waiting for their shot. Lots of people and flu season has already started, right? Guess what? Somebody in that pile of people has the flu. So instead of just having a little outbreak, you get a bunch of health care workers milling around talking to others. You finally get in to get your shot and you are back to work. A week later, you feel like crap. Go to the Doctor or employee health and they tell you you have the flu. Was it the shot? Nope!!

It was all those people standing around in the same place breathing in the air and the one sicky who maybe didn't know they were sick till 2 days later.

That is why people who live in isolated places rarely get sick until they do something unusual, like got to the Dr's for a flu shot.

I lived in the country for a while and never got sick till I moved back to civilization. Worked in a small hospital that was mostly medical & surgical. Agravated COPD and broken hips. Not many with the flu or other contagious buggies.

That's my theory!

So what you're saying is getting a flu shot is hazardous to your health. :rotfl:

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.
I dont know if anyone else has mentioned this...flu shots are still made with thimersol, a mercury based preservative, i for one will never get one until this stops!

I just read in my recent RN (maybe it was Nursing '05) magazine that there is now a mercury-free flu vaccine you can ask for if your child is under age 4. With all the controversy about mercury in children's vaccines why should we have to ask? Personally haven't gotten the flu vaccine in several years and have had no difference in personal illness. I'm not allowed to be at work with a fever per unit policy so that helps protect the infants though I know you can have a pre-illness sick time.

I have never refused mandatory vaccinations but have my personal reservations about their cumulative effect on our immune systems. Of note also; my step-son is diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome (form of autism) and I follow that research and news closely though I am not convinced one way or the other yet.

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The Air Force mandates that everyone get the Flu shot...I think it's the right thing to do overall...even if it causes you some mild symptoms. Since the flu can be transmitted BEFORE symptoms arise...then you may be transmitting without realizing to those with much weaker immune systems than your own....this may be a life or death situation for the frail elderly or small babies...It takes a second, a moment of pain (or not if you meet the criteria for the FLUMIST) and can save lives....VACCINATION is the way to go :)

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

I have to say I have a lot of reservations about the flu shot. I worked in LTC for about ten years and every year every resident got a flu shot. And every year one or two of them got severely ill IMMEDIATELY afterward and at least one of them would die!

I don't believe in getting flu shots. As some other poster said, they are a lottery, hoping they get the right strain of flu in there. I don't take it and probably never will. Many of my co-workers get the flu shot and several of them are always sniffly snuffly afterwards and usually one of them gets sick, with guess what, the flu!!! Not me.

Tweety, I don't think you're selfish. I don't think there is much likelihood of you being a "Typhoid Tweety" with the flu if you don't have it yourself and do your handwashing. And if you're selfish, so am I!!!:)

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

I have a few thoughts about this. Number one is that it is very hard to evaluate anecdotal evidence either for or against. Too many variables, and just one is a pet peeve of mine.

I hear people over and over with a nasty URI and low grade fever stating they had the "flu". That is not the flu. A fever of 102 degrees, feeling like you have been run over by a truck, not physically being able to get off the couch, vomiting, shaking chills......these ares signs of the flu.

Fever of 100 degrees, coughing, snorting, feeling like crap, but able to go to work or school or whatever is probably a URI.

Just my thoughts and opinions. I personally beleive that no one should be required to get the shot. It is an individual choice, and anyone can have an individual reaction to any vaccine or medication. 100 people may do great with the shot, and 1 out of 100 may feel sick from it so it should be there choice. If someone is already exposed , and hasn't gotten sick yet, and then get's the flu shot you will never convinve them it was not from the vaccine.

For me the choice is easy. I have had the flu shot for 15 years (until last year that is). I missed one year and that year was working in a family practice clinic. I got the flu, and I am talking the real thing. If you have never had the real thing you just cannot understand. I can always function, but I was actually willing to die I felt so bad. You couldn't get me off that couch without dragging me. I go year's without taking a sick day, but was actually out 3 day's for it. I really hope I can get the shot this year because I skated last year and do not have confidence I will be so lucky 2 years in a row.

Ok, I have gone on way too long.:rotfl:

Bottom line: it should be every individual's personal choice.

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Specializes in Home care, assisted living.

I've never gotten a flu shot and don't intend to get one, either. Like you, Tweety, I rarely get sick. In fact, when everyone else at our facility was coming down with the flu a few years ago, I came down with a URI instead. I seem to get all the respiratory stuff while other people get the stomach bugs. (Suits me--I'd rather die than throw up.)

When the flu shot first came out, my dad thought the vaccine was, at best, a shot in the dark. After all, there are several strains of the flu, so how do they know which one to make the vaccine for? I don't know how he feels now, but he just didn't see the logic in getting a flu shot.

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I only have received one flu shot in my whole life and I was in the bed for 2 weeks. I pass every year and have yet to have more than your common seasonal allergies.

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