Do you get a flu shot?
 

Every year I read about how important it is to get a flu shot. I've never gotten one (I've had the flu only once in my life, so I've never felt the need), but I re-evaluate that decision every year. Who here gets the shot? And who makes it a point not to? Any medical field people here want to chime in on why it is/isn't important?

It's important if you're old or if you're young; but, if you're in between it's not so much important as it is convienient to avoid the actual flu. I never get one. I'm so rarely sick and I'm so practically OCD with the hand washing that if I were to get the flu I'd be more distraught over the "OMG, when did I mess up on the hand washing?" than over actually being sick.

I don't because I feel as a non-necessary worker (non police/emt/MD, etc) I don't need one. I'm 22 and about as healthy as I"m going to get. I've heard it suggested that the real priorities need to be necessary workers, followed by kids, then the average american, then the elderly. Mostly because the elderly get sick from the rest of us, and from a heartless cost-benefit analysis, society loses less if a retired person gets sick. But I figure there's no point in taking shots away from people more at risk for the flu and complications from it than I am. There always seems to be a shortage...

I get a flu shot every year, mainly becuase I have two small kids (1yr & 4yrs) and I don't want them to get sick any more than they already do! So we usually go as a "family" and all get shots (although I would rather get the FluMist stuff, but then what kind of example would that be for the 4yr old?).

Plus, the FluMist means you're contagious (shed the virus) for about 2 weeks. Health care workers are usually prohibitted from getting it. Unless things have changed in the past few years.

I'm supposed to as I'm high risk (EMT with bad asthma) but I never do. I've managed to avoid the flu completely for quite some time now without the shot.

I am high risk too (asthma). last time I got the flu shot, I got the flu twice that winter :mad:

I am asthamtic...that is my primary reason for getting it, plus i have a child who brings everything home from school and being a single parent it sure isn't wise to be sick as a dog with a 6 yr old.

I get both the flu & pneumonia shots. Being both in geriatrics AND the ability to catch just about anything that comes down the pike, it only seems prudent.

I had the same experience. My mother was on my case to get the shot my freshman year of college. I finally gave in, and the shot gave me the flu. :(

I had never had the flu before I had the shot, and I haven't had it since. Unless I think I'm going to be at high risk, I don't think I'll ever get it again.

I got one this year. I work with kids (between the ages 3 and 6) who have behavioral health disorders, such as autism and ADHD. Those kids come down with everything during the winter and I wanted to protect myself.

I have to get one because I'm ashtamatic and because I've had pneumonia I have to get that one too.

I don't. I'm 21, and I've never had the flu, and so I've never really felt the "urge" to get a flu shot.

Plus everytime i have gotten the shot i've gotten sick (but not with the flu---just "flu like" symptoms).

I always get one and so do my kids. I'm on meds that suppress my immune system and both of the kids have asthma. They've never gotten the flu in a year where they got the shot.

I get the flu vaccine because I have asthma. And for what its worth, although I'm going to get a million responses that I'm worng, you can't get the flu from a flu shot. It uses a dead virus. You may have been exposed before the shot or you may have gotten a nasty cold, or you may be the 1 in million people who get Guillain-Barré (a disease in which the body damages its own nerve cells, resulting in muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis).The nasal spray, yes, cause that is a live virus. But the regular ol' flu shot. No.

Sorry, its one of my pet peeves.