My flu vaccination and subsequent flu-like symptoms.

[tongodeon]

Last week I got a flu shot. On Friday I started exhibiting flu-like symptoms, leaving me in the unenviable position of being a vaccinated vaccine proponent with the symptoms of the disease I was attempting to avoid. I appreciate the irony, but I'd like to equivocate

Comments

[tongodeon]

It's a figure I've seen pop up in a number of places such as here:

Inactivated parenteral vaccines were 30% effective (95% CI 17% to 41%) against influenza-like illness.

That was a surprise to me. The influenza vaccine is 30% effective against stuff that isn't even influenza.

[tongodeon]

Some conditions respond well to placebo - perception of pain is a biggie. Other conditions like HIV or tapeworm respond far less well to placebo. Even the biggest homeopathy proponent won't use homeopathic remedies for birth control - because placeboes don't work well to prevent pregnancy. My non-research-based opinion/guess is that influenza is one of the latter conditions that doesn't respond well to placebo medicine. I've got two non-research-based opinions/guesses as to why this might be the case

[matrygg]

silversunshadow also experienced a similar effect after we got our flu shots, but it was enough for her to miss a day of work. I also wonder if you might have a low-grade alergic reaction to eggs? since the vaccine is general made with eggs, maybe something in there caused the problem.

[tongodeon]

I am not allergic to eggs.

[pr1ss]

Feeling unwell after a vaccination could be unrelated to the shot, you could have cold or allergy or other health problems that caused it.

Feeling unwell after a vaccination could be your body mounting an immune response. This and not getting the disease, and not mercury or aluminum exposure, is the one thing that worries me about vaccines. Arthritis and other auto-immune diseases occur when the body over-reacts to a series of what should be easy to overcome perceived threatening proteins.

Feeling unwell after a vaccination could be a somatic reaction that is psychological in origin. A surprising number of people feel nauseated, light-headed, may even pass out after not only receiving injections, but also after having a few drops of blood drawn for a test.

[tongodeon]

It's been a week since my vaccination. I actually *did* react to the shot - three hours after the shot, for about six hours, very minor symptoms. Then I was fine for 48 hours. Then I got hit with this thing which seems much stronger. I've also been coughing, sneezing, and running a mucus surplus - reactions which are not typical of my vaccination reactions. For this and other reasons I'm pretty convinced that there are living active pathogens inside me, even though I haven't submitted myself for a viral culture. I'm sure that these are not the same viruses that were delivered via injection and it's likely coincidence, but I think the odds are very slim that this is either a week-long vaccine immune response or a 48-hour delayed psychosomatic reaction.

[pr1ss]

What you conclude about your own reaction makes sense to me. I was trying to address how vaccines are looked at and experienced in a larger sense. The risks of vaccination are extremely low. The benefit is low too, but may be worthwhile.

[mcfnord]

a link to your last post was in my notes where i wrote "get a flu shot." i guess they make me uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as the flu. i guess.

[tongodeon]

This is the hard part about risk analysis. It would be better to live in a world without the flu, where we didn't need flu shots. But we don't, so we have to decide whether to get the flu or get flu shots. There is no third "just don't get the flu" option.

Fortunately we don't live in the kind of universe with viruses that cause our heads to fly off, so we don't have to decide whether the risks of the anti-head-flying-off vaccine are worth it.

Flu--like symptoms

[epileptikitty]

There is a difference in magnitude between "flu-like symptoms" and real honest-2-god influenza. The really nasty modern pandemics, '59 and '67, made you lay in bed for 3 days trying not to move, because muscle inflammation made it hurt like hell.

Re: Flu--like symptoms

[tongodeon]

Yeah, I'm intentionally not claiming to have "the flu" because I haven't had the sort of lab tests that definitively indicate whether the virus in my system is proper influenza or not.