To Flu Shot or Not??

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I will be starting Nursing School in Jan 09 (yay!)

I went to get my immunizations in order.

When I asked about the flu shots, the nurses in the office said not to get it, it made them all sick.

What do you think? Should we get flu shots or not?

Any nurse who advises people that the flu shot causes the flu should not be practicing. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THE FLU FROM THE FLU SHOT! (Can I shout that any more??) If someone got sick after getting the flu shot, it is coincidence. Nothing more, nothing less. Either they were already brewing something, or they happened to get a strain of the flu that wasn't part of this year's flu shot. BUT IT WAS NOT FROM THE FLU SHOT!!! :banghead:

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It is all speculation at this point right? I mean 1 in 4 boys with Autism shouldn't be called an epidemic right?

Could you please reference this statistic? I think you have some misinformation here. :confused:

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The "hoopla" about Thimerosal:

Thimerosal contains ethyl mercury, at levels which the CDC claims are safe.

Shark, Tilefish, and other fish contain methyl mercury, at levels which the EPA considers safe once a month.

Both of these institutions have the burden of protecting many, sometimes at the expense of the few, so these levels may not be safe for small infants, pregnant women, anyone with mitochondrial disorders. My education thus far has lead me to understand over and over that heavy metals are neurotoxic: lead, mercury, orificenic.

you must decide what level of poison is right for you,

as for me: I know why the mad hatter is mad.

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Personally, I think that when you are going to be around sick patients anything you can use to protect yourself from getting sick is a good idea. There are a lot of people who swear that they get sick from the flu shot, and some people do tend to get "flu-like" symptoms for about 24 hours after the vaccination, but you will not get the flu....like someone else said in their post, it's a dead virus. However, this is a personal decision. Do you have a PCP? I would suggest talking to him or her about it.

I'm certainly not an expert on anything, but know a bit about the flu vaccine and the flu mist. I have RA and so I'm autoimmune. I've had RA since I was 3 years old and have gotten the flu shot almost every year of my life to protect myself. I've never had the flu when I got the shot....I only got a true flu once (didn't get the shot that year) and trust me, you don't want it. It's not a 24 hour virus with vomiting.....it much, much worse.

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Vaccinations contain mercury, (yes mercury, they say it has been pulled out but there are still very low levels of it & mercury is not safe for the Human body on any level),
Could you let us know where you got the information that there is still thimerisol in all vaccines in spite of what the label says?

other toxins that I could go on and on naming, and the way in which we receive them is just plain silly. By putting anything alive or dead directly into our blood stream we by pass our first line of natural defense which is the mucous membranes. One's body will ask itself, " How did this toxic crap get in this way?" I guess our first line isn't working anymore so lets not use it anymore!" This can cause many auto immune disorders such as autism, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and various others.

Can you give us studies that show correlations between any of these diseases and vaccines? Have you seen the Japanese study after they stopped giving the MMR vaccines to children? Autism rates stayed the same....the only difference was that kids were getting measles, mumps and rubella.

These conditions happen later and are not present directly after vaccine injection.

So, why make the correlation between vaccines and the disease?

I have never read any history books or heard stories of anyone who had all these new diseases that we have now. Maybe because our vaccination schedules were not as rigorous as they are today. Or maybe not. This is just an opinion. When Edward Jenner protected people form smallpox in the 18th century by rubbing a cow poc into an open wound he did not use preservatives and other "stuff." Yes, more people are susceptible to death this way but how do we measure the effects, by slow onsets of various disease and eventually death or by immediate death?

At at guess I would say there are, at the very least, tens of thousands of environmental differences in our world than the 18th century, why choose vaccines as the cause of these diseases?

Maybe if we had a system where we ordered the vaccines and then they were produced and we got them locally and they were not mass made and preserved. Who really knows? It is all speculation at this point right? I mean 1 in 4 boys with Autism shouldn't be called an epidemic right? All I know is...the people who get the Flu shot and other vaccinations are doing what they feel is right and so are the ones who don't and as long as we keep pursuing health for all maybe we will come to a good conclusion. LOVE TO ALL! ESPECIALLY THE NURSES!

I would also like to see your source for the '1 in4 boys have autism' figure.

I agree with you to a point, the general public does for the most part do what they "feel" is right. However we, as health-care professionals (or health-care professionals in training), should be doing (and teaching) what the evidence is showing us.

Peace,

CuriousMe

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Specializes in emergency roomk, hospice.

I got a flu shot 5 years ago and within 2 days lost all equilibrium,developed nistigmus and my Dr initially thought that I had stroked, I was sent that day to a Neurologist - had a MRI that day. The MRI was initially read as MS, which was highly unlikely at my age of 50. The Neurologist said it was

"an adverse reaction " to the flu shot. He said all symptoms would be gone in 3 days and they were. No more flu shots for me.:no:

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Specializes in Neuro Floor, ICU, Admin.

OK-I will not rehash all that has been said here, however, I am getting more and more concerned with how some nurses do not "believe" in the flu shot. The evidence of the risk/bennefits of flu vaccine far outweigh quite a lot of the evidence for other interventions our medical colleauges recommend on daily basis and that payers and the government recommend. We still have all kinds of uses of drugs for reasons they weren't even FDA approved.

I coordinate chronic disease maintenence and prevention in a small hospital and a clinic with about 40 providers. We audit prevention hard, every month. Inicluded in these audits are flu, pneumovax and tetorifice shots. Are infection control nurse also requires any employee who refuses an annual flu shot to sign a waiver. Our facility hits about 80% employees having the flu shot every year, and during flu season, about 65% of our patients get vaccinated. We also have a protocol in our clinic so nurses can give the flu shot prior to the physician seeing the patient during the visit.

What I have noticed is a relationship between the performance of the nurses who decline their own flu shot and the percentage of their patients recieving the vaccine. Their bias appears to be clearly affecting the vaccine rates OF THEIR PATIENTS! While some teams have over 80% of their patients vaccinated, some non-vaccinated nurses have 40%.

If you, as a nurse, don't feel vaccinations are in your best interest, then you are making a personal choice that still may affect the health of your patients if you transmit a bug to them. While you have a right to make personal choices, I am aware of some facilities beginning to mandate the flu shot for patient care employees.

However, if you let your personal biases affect how you care for patients by implicitly or explicitly not promoting the flu shot, I believe you are not practicing very professionally. Besides, the costs of an elderly person getting the flu and being hospitalized are significant. You may think the risks for you, as a healthy person outweigh the bennefits (even though science would beg to differ), the risk/bennefit ratio changes for those with chronic diseases like diabetes. Please take a step back and make sure you are not unintentionally projecting your biases on your patients.

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ok-i will not rehash all that has been said here, however, i am getting more and more concerned with how some nurses do not "believe" in the flu shot. the evidence of the risk/bennefits of flu vaccine far outweigh quite a lot of the evidence for other interventions our medical colleauges recommend on daily basis and that payers and the government recommend. we still have all kinds of uses of drugs for reasons they weren't even fda approved.

i coordinate chronic disease maintenence and prevention in a small hospital and a clinic with about 40 providers. we audit prevention hard, every month. inicluded in these audits are flu, pneumovax and tetorifice shots. are infection control nurse also requires any employee who refuses an annual flu shot to sign a waiver. our facility hits about 80% employees having the flu shot every year, and during flu season, about 65% of our patients get vaccinated. we also have a protocol in our clinic so nurses can give the flu shot prior to the physician seeing the patient during the visit.

what i have noticed is a relationship between the performance of the nurses who decline their own flu shot and the percentage of their patients recieving the vaccine. their bias appears to be clearly affecting the vaccine rates of their patients! while some teams have over 80% of their patients vaccinated, some non-vaccinated nurses have 40%.

if you, as a nurse, don't feel vaccinations are in your best interest, then you are making a personal choice that still may affect the health of your patients if you transmit a bug to them. while you have a right to make personal choices, i am aware of some facilities beginning to mandate the flu shot for patient care employees.

however, if you let your personal biases affect how you care for patients by implicitly or explicitly not promoting the flu shot, i believe you are not practicing very professionally. besides, the costs of an elderly person getting the flu and being hospitalized are significant. you may think the risks for you, as a healthy person outweigh the bennefits (even though science would beg to differ), the risk/bennefit ratio changes for those with chronic diseases like diabetes. please take a step back and make sure you are not unintentionally projecting your biases on your patients.

thank you!

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Specializes in emergency roomk, hospice.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe in protecting our patients as well as we can, however, we are still vulnerable to the vaccines that we choose or don't choose to take. I had always taken the flu shot before, and then had this adverse reaction. The Neurologist told me to never take it again. I wont. I am not advising any one else to follow me, just throwing out another reason one may not choose to do so.

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

the way I see it, the vaccine immunizes against a limited number of viruses....there are thousands of various viruses out there...

I have never had one....but that is just personal....my opiinion...I know some that do get them...and also others that don't.....

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Education.
What a touchy, touchy subject! I have never had a flu shot and I have only had the Flu once when I was 16. I am 29 now and other than migraines am fairly healthy and rarely get sick. The thing we all need to keep in mind is that everyone's body is different. Our threshold's for pain and sickness are never the same and vary from person to person. Vaccinations contain mercury, (yes mercury, they say it has been pulled out but there are still very low levels of it & mercury is not safe for the Human body on any level), other toxins that I could go on and on naming, and the way in which we receive them is just plain silly. By putting anything alive or dead directly into our blood stream we by pass our first line of natural defense which is the mucous membranes. One's body will ask itself, " How did this toxic crap get in this way?" I guess our first line isn't working anymore so lets not use it anymore!" This can cause many auto immune disorders such as autism, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and various others. These conditions happen later and are not present directly after vaccine injection. I have never read any history books or heard stories of anyone who had all these new diseases that we have now. Maybe because our vaccination schedules were not as rigorous as they are today. Or maybe not. This is just an opinion. When Edward Jenner protected people form smallpox in the 18th century by rubbing a cow poc into an open wound he did not use preservatives and other "stuff." Yes, more people are susceptible to death this way but how do we measure the effects, by slow onsets of various disease and eventually death or by immediate death? Maybe if we had a system where we ordered the vaccines and then they were produced and we got them locally and they were not mass made and preserved. Who really knows? It is all speculation at this point right? I mean 1 in 4 boys with Autism shouldn't be called an epidemic right? All I know is...the people who get the Flu shot and other vaccinations are doing what they feel is right and so are the ones who don't and as long as we keep pursuing health for all maybe we will come to a good conclusion. LOVE TO ALL! ESPECIALLY THE NURSES!

A paragraph or two would make this a lot easier to read :specs:

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Lavendarwolf...your post is full of unsubstantiated information...if you can back this up I think your post would be much more credible. A study showing a link between IM injections and a decrease in the body's immune response would be a good start.

As for the "flu like symptoms" that many experience...despite the dead virus, your body is still ramping up to make antibodies, which is the whole purpose of the flu shot, and the explanation for the short term fever and malaise.

Southtexassue, I am 100% for the flu shot and I'll argue in its defense, however if I had side effects so severe my doc thought I might have had a stroke...I'd stay away too.

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