Flu Shot Time Is Here
Thursday, October 24, 2013 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C. – It is flu shot time again.
The peak of the influenza season is traditionally November to April and the first drop in clinic in Prince George is set for tomorrow at the Northern Interior Health Unit on Edmonton Street ( across from the University Hospital of Northern B.C.) from 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Although there have been no reports of flu in the Northern Health region as this flu season starts, Public Health Nurse Carolyn Bouchard says there have already been a couple of cases reported in the lower mainland. "The strains in our current seasonal vaccine are "A" California, which is an H1N1 strain, "A" Victoria which is an H3N2 strain, and "B" Massachusetts. The two "A" strains are the same ones we used last year, and the "B" strain is a new one."
Each year, about 1,400 people in BC have died from influenza and pneumonia.
The list of those eligible for a free flu shot has been expanded this year to include:
· Children & Adults who are morbidly obese.
· Pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy during the influenza season and their household contacts.
· Visitors to health care facilities.
The additions are added to a long list of those eligible for a free flu shot:
· People 65 years and over.
· Healthy children 6 – 59 months.
· Household contacts and caregivers of healthy children 0 – 59 months of age.
· People of any age in residential care facilities.
· Children and adults (including pregnant women) with a chronic illness:
o Cardiac or pulmonary disorder.o Diabetes and other metabolic diseases.o Cancer; immunodeficiency; immunosuppression due to underlying disease or therapy.o Chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease.o Anemia and hemoglobinopathy.o Conditions that compromise the management of respiratory secretions and are associated with an increased risk of aspiration.
· Children and adolescents (age 6 months to 18 years) with conditions treated for long periods with acetylsalicylic acid.
· Household contacts (including children) of people at high risk whether or not those high-risk people have been immunized.
· Aboriginal peoples.
· Health care workers.
· People providing service in potential outbreak settings housing high risk persons.
· People working with live poultry.
· Corrections officers and inmates of provincial correctional institutions
· First responders: police, fire fighters, ambulance.
Having a flu shot and effective hand washing are the best way to protect yourself from contracting, or spreading the flu virus.
Bouchard says there are a number of ways to get your vaccine, "It’s available here at the Health Unit, we have clinics most Fridays, some other days we are out and about in the community. You can also get them at your Doctor’s office, and pharmacists as well." So even though the flu hasn’t surfaced in the Northern Health region yet this fall, Bouchard says it is coming "It’s only a plane ride away."
You can click here to find the dates and times of an influenza vaccination clinic in your area.
Comments
The efficacy of these vaccines is in serious question and potentially pose a bigger threat to your health and wellness than any potential benefits.
“During the 2012-2013 flu season, the flu vaccine’s effectiveness was found to be just 56 percent across all age groups reviewed by the CDC âin essence, the statistical equivalent of a coin toss.” In seniors (65 or older) the flu vaccines were found to be only nine percent effective.
The flu shot is just a tool to help protect you, it is not necessarily a guarantee. It never has been.
A useless statistic without context. If 56% who got the shot didn’t get the flu what % of those who didn’t get a shot got the flu. If that number is say 70% then 44% got the flu with the shot and 70% without meaning the shot is helpful. Not enough info to even know what this number means. Personal experience I’ve been getting the shot for 7 years and haven’t got the flu but I also wash my hands a lot this time of year
Having had the flu last year (and a subsequent case of pneumonia due to a compromised immune system) I for one will be getting me a flu shot this year. I was down and out for almost two months last winter. Life’s short enough as it is; I don’t want to be spending any more time in bed sick.
I agree with ski50 on this one.
Sine nomine, the flu shot is an important tool tp prevent illness. If you have verifiable proof against that you should post it.
If I enter the lobby at uhnbc do I need a mask? Does anyone know? Can I still visit my family member or friend without having the vaccine?
I believe the flu shots are like the first aid kit you carry in your vehicle. Its not going to stop you from infected, but it will make the cure easier.
Posted by: Walter198 on October 24 2013 11:27 AM
If I enter the lobby at uhnbc do I need a mask? Does anyone know? Can I still visit my family member or friend without having the vaccine?
——————-
I’m not an expert but if you’re sick, please don’t visit the hospital. If you don’t want to get sick, don’t visit the hospital. Those are my hospital visiting rules. :)
Wash your hands, use the hand sanitizer. it works.
Walter198:
As far as I know, anybody exhibiting flu-like symptoms such as a cough, runny nose, etc are supposed to mask up. However, if you have those symptoms it’s better not not go to visit.
I’ll be getting my flu shot tomorrow.
The British Medical Journal, a few years ago, basically said it was a waste of time to the horror of the US medical industry. The flu shot is big business folks and you are their test rats!
Wash your hands yes …don’t waste your money on hand sanitizers.
@NoWay: And why should we care about what the British Medical Journal says? It’s basically a fancy blog site.
The flu shot is a guess people a guess! The science is a crap shoot! How many people get sick from the flu shot? Your are right JohnnyB why would anyone care about a bunch of doctors saying the flu shot is a waste of time and money.
Nobody gets sick from a flu shot. Its not possible.
Nobody gets sick from a flu shot. Its not possible.
Tell that to the people that get sick from the flu shot findme!
Findme,
There are literally tons of research papers available on the internet that have looked at the efficacy of the flu vaccination model. As someone else mentioned, this is big business now and lots of people are on the payroll, so you have to be fairly discerning about what you read.
I think this site dislikes it when people repost entire articles or even put in links to articles, but all you have to do is type in “flu vaccine efficacy,” into a search engine, and enough information will come up to keep you busy for an entire lifetime.
This is what I know for certain though:
– The flu vaccine manufacturers have to guess about what strains will be circulating when the season comes around. They obviously can get it wrong.
– Otherwise healthy and productive people are killed or seriously incapacitated by adverse reactions to these vaccines every year. Killed or incapacitated. The manufacturers know this and so do the health authorities. What none of them will tell you to your face though is that they think this is an acceptable risk to the general population “for the greater good.” Killed or incapacitated.
Something I ask myself, is who are we trying to protect, and who am I willing to put in harms way unnecessarily to try and circumvent the natural process of life? It’s that simple for me. We all die. Life is a crap shoot at best. I think I can say safetly, that the majority of people who die from influenza every year are already in a very weakened or sick state. To do mass vaccinations to populations annualy in an attempt to stave off (with seriously questionable efficacy I might add) the inevitable, at a huge potential risk to otherwise healthy people is madness. I believe in western medical practice in most instances, the estimated 30% of it that is actually based on empirical evidence. The rest of the quackery though, I have no use for. This is quackery and real people are getting hurt by it.
I will not vaccinate myself to protect frail people and when I become frail I will demand that people don’t do it to themselves on my behalf.
It’s true Findme, that it’s highly improbable that people get the “flu” from the flu shot. What DOES happen though is that people can and do have life threatening reactions to the vaccines.
There’s opinion, and then there is science! Vaccines for a number of different viruses have been proven extremely effective over the years.
Instances of Polio virus infections, quite common in the 50s and 60s have been virtually eliminated in all First world, and even third world, countries today.
http://www.who.int/immunization/polio_grad_opv_effectiveness.pdf
“In the United States, your child’s daycare center, preschool, or school can require you to provide proof that your child has had certain diseases or been immunized against them. All public elementary schools require proof of vaccination for children entering school, and most private schools do, too.”
http://www.babycenter.com/404_can-a-daycare-center-or-school-require-me-to-have-my-child-v_70735.bc
I think this speak to the efficacy / efficiency of vaccinations in general.
Yes People#1, there is opinion and scientific opinion. To successfully weigh in to a conversation, first you have to know what the conversation is about.
This article and subsequent discussion is about INFLUENZA vaccinations, not Polio or other non influenza infections.
No daycare that I’m aware of anywhere in the western world refuses admittance due to a lack of having an annual influenza vaccination. If they did, I predict that they would be out of business very quickly and again it would cease to be an issue.
If you knew anything about the science of influenza, you wouldn’t have compared it to polio. Poliomyelitis cannot live very long outside of a human host, and there are only a few strains that I know of and this has made the near eradication of the infection possible. Influenza viruses continually mutate and evolve from year to year, and they have other viable hosts too, like birds, pigs and horses. This is why the drug companies are so focused on influenza, because they can keep tweaking the formula to try and keep up with nature and provide their shareholders with an endless supply of profits. This is only possible though if the populations continues to remain uneducated about influenza and the real risks they pose to the general populace.
Your links to those articles do nothing to exemplify the efficacy of the influenza vaccines, not only because they have nothing to do with influenza, but because the scientific evidence doesn’t exist. If you find IT, please let me know.
The problem is that we haven’t had a pandemic like the Spanish Flu in ur lifetimes, which killed 50 to 100 million people about 100 years ago.
Do you think if they were offering flu shots back then, people wouldn’t have lined up around the block for them?
I certainly would rather have vaccines, and people developing them, than not.
Viruses are an interesting “thing”. Everything that is alive and living on this planet is made of of DNA. Viruses on the other hand are mad up of RNA, so technically they are neither alive nor dead.
The flu virus’s ability to mutate and form different strains is also fascinating. Usually pandemic flus are Influenza based, originating from birds (avian flu) or pigs (swine flu). People often get flu from birds or pigs, not a big deal, it’s when that flu is a new virus strain that adapts and modifies itself with in a human host to be transmissible from person to person… that is when a pandemic occurs.
These Influenza pandemics can be mild, moderate or severe based upon the epidemiology of the virus and it’s mortality (death) rates. The last pandemic was a mild to moderate one.
However, lets be perfectly clear here; science’s best response to a pandemic is a flu strain specific vaccine, and that vaccine is mankind’s best defence against a Influenza Flu pandemic!
Because Influenza viruses mutate and change so rapidly, yes it is difficult to predict which new strain(s) will be the dominant one(s) during the coming flu season, yet that vaccine is the best defence against flu virus infection and it’s common complications of bacterial pneumonia.
Hmm… guess my work on a Pandemic Plan a few years back is still paying off, public education wise :-)
You may call it “education,” but I prefer the term indoctrination. What makes you think influenza vaccines “is the best defense against flu virus infections?” You do have proof of that right? No? Oh, that must be and opinion then. Right.
Thanks for coming out and sharing your opinion. Glad you’ve shaken off the scientific rhetoric.
“The problem is we haven’t had a pandemic like the Spanish flu in our lifetimes.” Really, you see that as a problem do you? Levels of sanitation, and the worlds ability to mobilize very quickly and effectively in the face of new contagions makes another event like the Spanish flu unlikely, though not impossible. We’ve had several epidemics since, but the effects have been quite muted compared to that one. This doesn’t mean that it won’t happen again, but there is world wide monitoring of flu outbreaks now and measures to reduce the potential threat, like the 1.5 million chickens that were killed in the 1997 and 1999 Asian appearance of H5N1, which quickly brought the transmission to humans under control. That strain too seemed to affect mostly healthy young adults. Some of the reasons some of the epidemics in the 50’s 60’s and 70’s were so muted is because some older members of the populations had exposure to previous outbreaks and thus had built up some immunity to them.
The human body is the best defense against infections, the key being in most instances to be strong enough and healthy enough to survive the attack long enough for your body to build up the antibodies to attack the invaders, a process that requires much energy. Some people will succumb, that is the nature of life. Sad, yes, but nonetheless the reality of life.
The following is an estimate of the number clinical cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that were prevented among persons who received the A(H1N1)pdm09 virus vaccine during the most recent 2009-10 H1N1 Pandemic.
“We estimated that â1 million clinical cases, 6,000 hospitalizations, and 300 deaths were prevented among persons who received the monovalent A(H1N1)pdm09 virus vaccine. Approximately 60% of clinical cases prevented were among persons 6 monthsâ24 years of age and among those 25â64 years, including pregnant women, who were considered at high risk for influenza-related complications. We found that the effects of the vaccination program were greatly influenced by the timing of vaccine administration and by vaccine effectiveness.”
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/3/12-0394_article.htm#discussion
Hmm… seems like vaccines are very effective at, not only reducing illness, but also reducing load demand on local hospitals and health clinics.
I am glad that your “opinion” on vaccines are neither popular nor prevalent in a modern and progressive society.
H1N1 vaccine actually weakened your immune system so that you were more susceptible to getting regular flu. Flu shots season is nothing more than fear mongering by the vaccine makers. Now they suggest children to get the shot twice! All they want is money. My immune system will never be weakened by their so called vaccine!
Sine: “The problem is we haven’t had a pandemic like the Spanish flu in our lifetimes.” Really, you see that as a problem do you? “
The reason I say it’s a problem is that people forget how bad things could be. Then they start to think they’re somewhat invincible.
Sine: “I will not vaccinate myself to protect frail people and when I become frail I will demand that people don’t do it to themselves on my behalf.”
In other words… Sorry, Grandma… I’m not getting the flu shot. Nice knowing you.
NoWay: “H1N1 vaccine actually weakened your immune system so that you were more susceptible to getting regular flu.”
Where did you get this BS from? I wonder who the real fear mongers are…
Its scary, the misinformation some of the anti-flu shot people will spread. You’re not doing anyone any favours.
” Its scary, the misinformation some of the anti-flu shot people will spread. You’re not doing anyone any favours.”
Ok, I won’t remind you all that the Spanish Flu wasn’t really a flu but a military biological warfare experiment then. Carry on.
Comments for this article are closed.