Hawk13

Interesting philosophy. For me, I think we get more than enough chemicals into our system through the food and water chains without conciously putting something into my body that I don't need. That to me is enough of a downside.

ultrarunner

It's not so often you see the Govt offering anything for free. They can easily have put a $ charge on it, but they opted not to

Good news (to the general public) on Tues though from the Ont Govt, Pharmacists will now be able to write repeat prescriptions as well as dispense the drugs.

Hawk13....how do you know your body doesn't need it? Unless you are a physician and can self-diagnose, then I don't know how you can conclude at that

iaink

You mean like all the floride in the water and the vitamins and minerals they add to our food supply because science has proven time and again that, on balance, they make us more healthy

Ive no problem with chemically supplementing what my body is capable of naturally , cold meds, alcohol, caffeine, its all good with me in moderation, so if scientists have developed a shot that might save me suffering the flu and it has little in the way of side effect, then sign me up, especially if it may help stop it spreading to the old or the very young who might really suffer the consequences of exposure to the virus.

dbd33

Steady on, it's flu we're talking about here, not TB. How many people in Guelph died of the flu last winter?

iaink

Statistically probably between 2 and 4. Death rates in Canada from influenza are typically 500-1500 in an average year. In a pandemic year, who knows.

20 to 50 Million died in the worst pandemic (1918), thats 3% of the global population at the time, far more than the carnage of WW1 accounted for!

1958 and 1968 were not as bad, it was only about a million each time, and generally it was the elderly.

Steve_

I get it, but I think it's pretty much worthless.

I often hear these stories from people that it helps protect against x or makes "flu" (i.e. the common cold) not as bad. Bollocks, I've had really bad colds during the winter and I've been having the flu shot for 20 years.

When you actually read the bottle a lot of the strains it protects against are often really obscure, I've seen New Caledonia and PNG mentioned more than once. Yes of course someone can get on a plane and spread it, blah, blah, blah but when I checked the specific strain one year for exposure rates it had never actually been reported outside of Asia and Oceania.

Personally I think it's all a con so that drug companies can make money, I have a cousin who works at a high level in a major pharmaceutical company and she tells me that the real benefit of it is that it keeps them making the vaccines, which is a tricky operation, so if there is a pandemic they can then ramp up production more quickly.

Which is what happened with H1N1, imo.

dbd33

And what is my chance of having met a random member of the public and shared my germs with him or her?

iaink

You are probably sharing random germs with random members of the public all the time, but as far a flu goes in a pandemic year something like 1 in 4 show symptoms and more will be carriers.

caretaker

I got one.

Cookie

I only started getting the flu shot when I moved to Nova Scotia almost 6 years ago. I have had flu twice in my lifetime and it's nasty. I get no side effects from the flu shot.

Once the weather gets cooler and I start to cover up, I take a daily Vitamin D pill (the sunshine vitamin) and coast right through the winter without even a cold and feelings of S.A.D. Even though we get lots of blue skies and sunshine you just can't expose yourself to -20C so it's fairly common to take it here in NS. It's a shame it's not promoted more in the UK. The dark, grey weather can really drag you down and make you miserable and lethargic.

Both my teenage sons refused the shots during H1N1 and both got flu. My Older son was at Uni in Newfoundland where the student residence blocks had a lockdown. My younger son collapsed at home in front of me

dbd33

I remember the pandemic. It was a bother because I was working in the UK, the client wouldn't allow anyone visiting from Toronto on site so I had to drive to Montreal and fly from there. I don't believe I killed anyone, I didn't hear that I did.

iaink

Not that pandemic, the proper one that killed 3% of the global population. We are about due another one, 1918, 1958, 1968, 20??

dbd33

Shouldn't it have been along in late 1970?

iaink

In which case we are even more overdue right? Like Vancouver and a major earthquake. except there are no shots for that though that I know of...

dbd33

Pah! I sneeze at your numerology.