I just got mine because my PCP strongly recommended it.

In addition, I occasionally visit an assisted living facility and believe this will minimize the chances of what I bring in there.

I heard on the radio this morning that NIH is really concerned, they don't think we have reached peak but we are already at 1000 deaths due to the flu? I know so many people who have been sick.

1000 deaths? Where'd you hear that? I had only heard of just over 20, total, throughout the country.

I haven't heard the 1,000 number but from this article, it seems they only officially track pediatric deaths nationally (and the number of pediatric deaths is 20). However, based on some of the individual state reports, the number of total deaths is far more than 20:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/health...son/index.html

I guess I get to test the shot's efficacy on me personally, as one co-worker has confirmed influenza and another, suspected. Definitely glad I got the shot. Apparently they are thinking it's 62% effective. Hey, that's WAY better than nothing.

The radio, which was supposedly quoting NIH. I haven't read any news about it but I'm wondering if that is the projected deaths for this season because they were trying to say we still have a while to go.

And according to this article, appparently the CDC only lists deaths of children, which is at around 20. The number is higher, I'm not sure if it is enough difference to get to 1000 though:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/health...son/index.html

Minnesota alone says they have had 27 deaths, South Carolina 22, Pennsylvania 22, etc.

3 so far in VT

I don't get the flu shot. I've worked in child care for the last 30 years and the last 15 I've visited multiple programs every day. I have really great immunity and don't get much, maybe a sniffle or a small cough once a year most years.

I do think people with serious auto-immune illnesses should really look closely at the pros and cons before getting the shot. I won't go into my personal bias about this but people should weigh it all out very carefully from all sides. It seems most doctors won't say a word against it but there's more information out there to consider.

I got the flu shot ONCE and I was so deathly ill for almost a week and said NEVER again!

Get a shot that makes me sick to prevent being sick? That makes no sense at all to me.

With the flu being in the news, this debate is raging all over. Someone posted up a rather interesting article today that basically says the flu shot is not effective and is over hyped. I still believe it's 100% up to the individual, but the article is interesting: http://chriskresser.com/the-truth-ab...-to-do-instead
It was a radio interview, so you can listen to it, or just read the transcript.

According to the web page of the CDC, the number of pediatric (child) deaths in the current flu season stands at 20. They do not keep a running tally of adult deaths but they estimate that the flu kills about 24,000 people in an average year.

Our local health department has run out of the flu vaccine, but my DH and I, being senior citizens, have already gotten our flu shots for the current season.

One thing that I find kind of odd is the hysteria from the media. They did it during SARS, they did it during Bird Flu, they did it for Swine Flu aka H1N1, and now for this one. And yesterday things were so dire that it sounded like it was going to be a 1918 Spanish Flu type death toll, today CNN and MSNBC are both reporting that the flu is on the wane. It's part of that which makes me cynical. So far it's never been the pandemic that they say it will be, and it seems almost like it's designed to use all of the flu vaccine and line somebody's pockets with profit. Now that the flu vaccine has run out in many places all over the country, the virus is on the decline. Crisis averted.

Does anyone else find that a little too coincidental?

Where are CNN and MSNBC getting their info because both NIH/CDC are saying that the flu is starting to kick into high gear, not waning. Here is an article from 2 days ago:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/n...ry_132926.html

And I may have figured it out, it seems that the numbers reported this week were lower than last week but that really doesn't mean much because week to week, it can vary. This article seems to state it pretty well.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/flu-let...ry?id=18190530

MSNBC is citing the CDC.
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-wane-cdc-says

Yeah, you are too quick, basically it seems like normal activity for the flu, it ebbs and flows.

Arg. This is why I mostly try to stay away from the news. They make things...newsworthy that aren't necessarily so.

I get one every year. The one year I didn't I wound up in the hospital for a week with H1N1. So did my brother. My brother was so ill from H1N1 that he spend 3 weeks in ICU and nearly died more than once. The flu also destroyed his pancreas and he is now a type 1 diabetic.

I will never miss a flu shot again.