Did You Get the Flu ? Did You Have a Flu Shot?

No shot, no flu.

I don't even step up my handwashing this time of year and I don't go out of my way to avoid touching my face or stay away from sick people. I have been blessed with a really good immune system.

WHAT?!??!?!? NO judgment from you?? No shame on you for NOT getting the flu shot???? WOW!!!

No, no flu shots in this house.

No, no one has had the flu yet.

We have had sniffles and headaches, but no flu.

No shot, no flu. I've never had the flu, or the shot. I will never have the shot, and hopefully won't have the flu.

No shot, no flu. Lots of hand washing and keeping hands/fingers away from face, mouth, eyes, nose.

What I really want to know is if they have shots that repel judgmental people from me. Now, that's a shot I could get on board with!!

The timing of your question is ironic because I just got done telling my husband that it is ironic that he is the only one in the house that got the flu shot and he is the one not feeling well. (Although that is not unusual.)

I have actually heard the exact opposite of you, that this year the shot is a pretty good match for the virus?

No shot. No flu.
Knock on some serious wood!!!

Never had the shot, never had the flu. Knock on wood:)

we do not get flu shots and we have not had the flu. We just wash our hands :)

We do not do flu shots. We've never had the flu. So far we are still healthy which is normal for us because a DR visit around here us rare unless its a preventative visit.

We eat properly, drink a lot of water, wash our hands a lot, don't touch our faces, and are simply proactive on our approach. I substitute teach and have at the same school over 10 yrs and I've yet to get anything other than a stomach virus.

It's a personal decision.

The CDC says that this years vaccine matches well to 90% of the strains that are out there and that it is 62% effective. My family has had the shot and we have not gotten the flu. Several children from my kids school have been out with the flu, and they have not had the shot.

I never get the shot and have never gotten the flu, same for my 6 year old daughter. We keep our immune systems healthy with proper nutrition to avoid getting sick.

The virus that is in the shot is NEVER the same strain (usually last years or a guess of which ones to use) which is why the flu shot is only about 40% effective.

Actually I have heard from doc that this years match is a good one. It will never be 100%. This year they say 63%. In say that is pretty good. Have not gotten the flu. Bad cold, cough yes, but not flu. Yes I did get flu shot, always do.

We have all had the shot this year, and have not had the flu!

I read the opposite. That one of the major strains going around IS included in the shot. All of our family of 4 got the shot this year. None of us has had the flu.
Husband and I both got a cold (NOT influenza) a few days after recovering from a stomach virus though. I don't think it is that uncommon, given that your immune system is worn down from fighting off the virus for the stomach thing... Neither of the kids got colds. And only one of them got the stomach virus (though he didn't have it nearly as severely as husband and I did.... so maybe that is why he didn't end up with a cold).
Both our kids are older (not in elementary school) and ride the bus to school every morning, and home most days.... so they have gotten plenty of "exposure" to anything going around.
So far, no flu in our house. My son's friend next door has it though. :(

hub had the shot. he had the flu for 48 hours he laid there on the couch and did nothing.. It was a weekend.. so on monday he went to work with a cough..got better in a few days.. my son and I did not have the shot.. we got the flu and ti went to pneumonia. my duaghter did not have the shot.. did not get the flu..

so ... 1 no shot no flu..

2 no shot flu turned into pneumonia

1 shot.. flu bettter in 3 or so days..

I don't know who your sources are, but news programs and the CDC say the match is very good this year. I got the shot because I have chronic asthma and am diabetic. I've been very sick in the past from flu; have never gotten it since I've been getting the shot regularly.

My daughter usually gets the shot, but didn't get around to it this year. About 2 weeks ago she got a truly terrible case of it while traveling on business. She was almost too sick to get out of bed and take care of basic needs. An un-vaccinated best friend of a 40-ish woman in my church died about 2 weeks ago of the flu – one day she was healthy, two days later she went into shock, her organs shut down, and she simply died.

Isolated facts about individuals who get the shot or not, and get sick or not, are not really useful. People are so variable that some who get the vaccine will get great protection, others not so much. And some people who never get vaccinated have natural genetic resistance to the flu virus and are not likely to ever get ill.

So it really takes the statistics gathered from huge groups to begin to make sense of whether the vaccine helps or not. Statistics show that it does, indeed, give millions of people significant resistance.

I have also heard that the vaccine this year IS a pretty good match for the flu viruses circulating.

From the CDC website:

"As of the first week in January 2013, most (91%) of the influenza viruses that have been analyzed at CDC are like the viruses included in the 2012-2013 influenza vaccine. The match between the vaccine virus and circulating viruses is one factor that impacts how well the vaccine works."

My family of four got shots and no flu, at least so far.

Actually this years vaccine is a match for this year string of the virus.
Kids have had the vaccine, have not gotten the flu.
I have not gotten the vaccine YET. I have not had the flu yet either.

My monkey in the middle is lying on the couch dead asleep for what will be day two of this year's flu.

He woke up yesterday morning burning up. the fever went down on its own and he slept all day long.

The fever comes and goes...I have been letting it run it's course.

I had thought about flu shot's this year....but they go against everything I believe in. so the thought quickly left my mind.

We will make it through. This I am sure.

It would have to be literally Pandemic and killing off mass populations before I think I would truly consider getting a shot or vaccination.

Hang in there everyone living through, with or around the yuck:) Better days too come!

No shot, but I got the flu. While I had the flu, everyone else in the family had the shot. None of them got sick from me. Must have been good for something.

no shot....yes flu, and sinus infection, and pneumonia :(

i make sure my boys get the flu shot every year. but i am hit or miss with getting a flu shot for me. this is the first time i came down with the flu. it was no fun.

I got the shot and believe it worked. Last week I had an afternoon where my throat hurt and I was really ache. I woke the next morning and felt fine.

none of us got the flu shot. my husband and younger son got a pretty harsh bout of the flu. older son had a cold that we thought might morph into the flu. i've been illness-free thus far :::::::::knocks on wood:::::::::::
last year my husband got the flu shot and got an even worse bout of flu.
i honestly think it's a crapshoot either way, and with that in mind, choose not to inject my system with more crud.
khairete
S.

no i did not get the shot and no i did not get the flu

Got the flu, did not have shot. H had flu. And had flu shot.

We 3 got the shot, my father and wife got the shot, inlaws got the shot, my mom and her husband got the shot....none of us have gotten the flu.....knocking on wood...

We all got our shots early in the fall and so far (knock on wood) we have not come down with the flu.
Burt Reynolds is in ICU with the flu.

Everyone in my house got the flu shot this year.

The flu shot covers the handful of virus strains that are predicted to be the most common in a given year. There was a strain in the Boston area that is not in this year's shot, which is why many people became ill despite having been vaccinated. There are many strains out there, and the flu virus is quite good at mutation.

People misunderstand how the vaccine works, and the effectiveness statistics. They read "it is 60-70% effective" and think it means per individual. On an individual level, it is higher. What the 60-70% means is for the herd. The more people that get it, the more effective it becomes because the fewer people get sick or become asymptomatic carriers. This protects others who did not or can not be vaccinated.

Another issue is people often think they have 'the flu' but they really have another flu-like illness. If you're well enough to be up and about for most of the day, you probably don't have influenza.

During the H1N1 outbreak year, my kids had Flu Mist but I didn't get a shot. I caught it (tested, confirmed) and was bedridden for a week. My husband had to take time off from work to care for me and handle the kids. I was barely capable of using the bathroom without help, let alone anything else. After I started to feel better, it took a couple more weeks just to regain my strength. Real influenza is nasty.

My husband and older daughter refuse the shot. My younger daughter and I have always gotten the shot. This is the first year we did not get the shot.

My husband and older daughter were sick for 3 weeks. I got sick for 1 week but nothing compared to what they had. All I had was a bit of dried mucus in my sinuses. My younger daughter has not been sick yet.

My husband ice skates about 3 times a week and my younger daughter ice skates about 4 times a week.

This is the healthiest year for both myself and the younger one, but she was in preschool and then kindergarten, which I still consider pretty snotty and dirty at that age.

We do wash our hands often.

The only times I have gotten the flu (twice) were the years I got the flu shot. And I use to actively try to get it in high school (I had the viewpoint of it leading to a 1 week vacation from school where you lie in bed and do nothing). Those times when I did get the flu and had the shot it only lasted 3-4 days, so I think it helped with the severity. Logically, I know the shot doesn't cause the flu and that I didn't get the flu because of the shot but I figure I'll avoide the vaccine until that coincidence is out of my head.

In my family we all got the flu shot and none of us has gotten the flu. We never get the flu...or have not yet anyway. Actually we hardly ever get sick in our family, knock on wood!

We stopped getting the flu shots over 10yrs ago, and coincidentally we haven't had the flu since (where we'd gotten the flu every year with the vax). Our 4-1/2yo son had the flu once at 11mos, and it was gone in 3 days, while the pediatrician warned us that everyone else in their practice had it for 10-14 days.

My family of 4 got the flu shot and have not gotten the flu.

You've gotten some great answers, but don't forget that it takes about 2 weeks for your flu shot to be effective. Lots of people get it once they hear that it's going around at work or whatever, but by then it's too late.

All of us have gotten the flu shot at my house. My 7 month old gets his second shot in a few days, so then he'll be fully covered. So far we've had no flu. Actually, with my 3 year old in preschool this winter, today is our first day without colds, ear infections, or other viruses since November!

Speaking as someone who vowed I would not vaccinate my children, yep we all got the flu shot. Personal experience of my daughter being hospitalized twice from the flu changed my mind. It appears it is a good match this year, doesn't mean it is perfect tho, some people will still get a different strain. We do get it every year now, and we have not had the flu this year, tho we also avoid sick people and do tons of hand-washing. Hoping we avoid it because she almost died from the flu and I would rather poison our bodies some and take that risk over the risk of possible death. I only had the flu once and wouldn't want it again, but my main reason for getting myself vaccinated is to protect my children. Even if they get the shot, if I should get sick, they can still get it from me, tho likely it would be milder, I do not want to risk it after what we went thru. This year, yes to the flu shot, no flu here and hope it stays away!