Are Flu shots really good for us?



Getting a flu shot can be a very debatable topic. Many Americans thinks that getting a flu shot is acutally a bad thing and that there is no point of getting the shot. In fact, many believe that getting the flu shot can be more harmful then actually having the flu.  According to BeWellBuzz medical journals states that the vaccine can lead to serious health problems including harmful immunological responses and a host of other infections. This further increases the body's susceptibility to the diseases that the vaccine was supposed to protect against.

Which leads to my next statement, CNN states that people with a high risk in getting the disease are children ages 6 months to 5 years old, pregnant women, people older than 50, and anyone with a chronic condition like asthma, diabetes, and heart or blood disorders. It is recommended by the CDC they all get vaccinated. However, there is a lack of evidence that proves this. "51 studies involving 260,000 children age 6 to 23 months found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo. Also the shots do not protect you from the entire epidemic.  It only protect against certain strains of the virus, which means that if you come into contact with a different strain you will still get the flu." (BeWellBuzz,1)  

So are flu shots really necessary? Dont get me wrong i been getting this shot since i was little and i never had the flu. So to me, I would say that they are. Do you get the flu shot? If so, does it work for you?

Check out this video of a girl who got the flu shot and now is force to only walk backwards.  



Although I always got the flu shot when I was younger, the since minute my mom told me it was up to whether to get it or not, I have not had a flu shot since. Besides being terrified of needles, the other reason I refuse to get this shot is because it always makes me sick in some way. It always seemed like the only time I got the flu was when I got the shot. After some research I found out that I sometimes still got the flu because the flu shot does not prevent all strains of the illness. It was not the actual shot giving me the flu. Even though the shot wasn't actually making me sick, the fact that it doesn't prevent all strains of the flu makes me question its worth. What good is the shot if it can't prevent all forms of the flu? How can it be called the universal "flu shot."
Here's a link to where I did my research:

That happens to me too Daniel!! Every time I get the flu shot, I seem to come down with a cold or cough a few days later. My mom makes me get it every single year though. The one year I didn't get it, I didn't get the flu though, so I'm not sure if it really does work or not because I've never had the flu. In my opinion, it is worth getting because it can only help fight off the flu. This makes me think about other vaccinations as well. What shots are we getting now that we don't really need? There are many risks to some vaccines.. Are the risks worth getting the vaccine?

I have never gotten a flu shot before, so I am slightly biased in that I don't think they're worth it. However, I don't think doctors or whoever creates the shot would be offering a vaccine that is harmful to the population- they always have good intentions. The CNN article said that only certain people are recommended to get the flu shot. IS that because these people have weaker immune systems? I also believe that our immune systems are strong enough to fight off the diseases we encounter. Is there an experiment that could test for why people have such bad reactions to flu shots? Is there enough bad reactions that flu shots would ever be recalled?

This is an interesting topic because it relates to what we just talked about in class. Sometimes doctors think they're helping you but they're just making you sick. I personally never get flu shots for the very reason that they just make me sick. Another interesting topic about getting shots is the connection between getting vaccinations and the development of autism in young children. Some mothers swear that as soon as they received their shots, the child develops problems. Here is an article about the topic :

I normally do not get the flu shot because I do not usually get sick. However, for the past 2 weeks I have had a runny nose, a bad cough, and a overall sick feeling that just won't go away. I guess being around thousands of different people on a daily basis and sharing gym equipment, handrails, and desks with strangers pretty much makes the chances of me getting sick even greater. I am definitely considering getting a flu shot this season because of the contact I constantly have with people. Even if it does not work, it would not hurt to try to prevent a sickness that can be prevented. I think it would be smart for the majority of Penn State students to get the shot just to be safe.

I am not a fan of the flu shot. I have never recieved one and I have never had the flu. I am a big believer in the placebo effect. I think you can control your body with your mind. A personal example is headaches. When ever I get headaches, the first thing I do is go get some ibuprofen, a common over the counter pain killer. As soon as I take the pill I instantly start to feel some relief of my headache. I know there is no way that the medicine starts working that quickly but I can always trick myself into thinking that they are working. I think the same is true about flu shots, sometimes the power of the mind is more effective than using drugs.
This CDC website ( details some of the ways that they test the flu vaccines and some of their results. It is a lot of information with very few solid conclusions. Even the CDC doesnt see the flu shot as a sure-fire success. It is interesting to read what they have to say about the shot and the sucess/failure of it.

When I saw that you had posted the video of the girl who "apparently" was severely affected by getting the flu shot, I remembered when that video had first come out and taken over the news. At the time, I didn't think too much of it, as I wasn't getting flu shots and didn't completely understand the situation. However, I do remember hearing recently that it was all a hoax. Looking into it, I found an article that documents Desiree Jennings' medical visits:

In this article, I read that Desiree went to a clinic run by Dr. Rashid Buttar, who uses an "unproven, alternative treatment for almost every medical condition, from autism to cancer. It's called "chelation," the chemical removal of metals from the body." After undergoing the chelation treatment for two weeks, she was walking again and her stutter was improving. As she left the clinic, however, she seemed to "fall apart" again: she could not walk anymore, and had to be taken out in a wheelchair.

Many neurologists that were interviewed agree that Desiree's symptoms are not being faked, but are instead caused by her unconscious mind. They call is a psychogenic disorder, similar to the idea of a placebo effect: that when she was getting treated, she "thought" she was getting better, therefore she got better. When she discontinued her treatment, she immediately regressed into her previous symptoms. This topic is extremely debatable, but I thought it would be noteworthy to mention that many doctors and neurologists believe that Desiree's symptoms were not, in fact, caused by getting the flu shot.

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