Universal Flu Vacc

The Garage
#1

G’day,

Some clever, educated people in the UK are beginning a 2 year trial of a new vaccine that targets the “core” of the influenza virus, which unlike current vaccines does not alter strain-by-strain, and as such can be administered to treat all flus.

Sounds like some really hopeful news considering the numbers of people who die each year from this virus, including the horrid outbreaks here in Vic/TAS this past month.

Still, my mind can’t help but think it all sounds like a great zombie movie catalyst… :open_mouth: Not trying to spread alarm (!) - I’m totally pro-vaccine. Just also a zombiefile. :slight_smile:

#2

Been enjoying binging on The Last Ship on Stan recently… :thinking:

#3

Been binging on I am Legend lately? Great movie, but hey yeah things can happen. If I can get a vaccine so I never get the flu again in my life it will be happy days and when it does come I’ll be lining up in the street for it rather than this nonsense once a year thing.

I would rather be sick than deal with the once a year shot.

#4

I’m one of those people that “should” get the flu vacc… (bad asthma etc). But… well, there’s lots of things I should do… like say, have worried more about my osteoporosis back when I was diagnosed at 15, long before falling down 3 stairs a few months ago and fracturing a few bones…

Yes, a once-off jab would be great! :slight_smile: But a lot of us tend to think of other vaccines as a once-off thing - whereas in reality boosters are required to ensure they are actually effective. The flu vacc mentioned above may well become something that lasts for a period of time longer than 12 months - given that it will not be dependent on each seasonal variation.

#5

I hope you stop going to work or travelling on public transport as soon as you get sick. I get the flu shot every year but because I fit into several of the at-risk categories, I can still get it from people who dont bother and it really pisses me off, because they take their sniffles and coughing into public places. Why should I have to be sick (and I’m talking hospitalisation sick) because others think its OK not to bother being vaccinated.

The vax doesnt fix you for this year’s strain, but it does protect you from the others. If you’re healthy, great. It doesnt stop you from being a carrier.

#6

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-vac I’m anti-flu vac, because its pretty well useless. I’m not a fan of injecting myself with multiple virus strains every year to solve your issues either. That’s a bit selfish actually.

Most doctors don’t bother immunising the young or the middle aged either. Don’t get uppity at me about your life problems please. Yeah its shit but its not my fault either. You need to take ownership of your problems. Infecting myself with random strains of viruses each year just to keep you happy is not what I am here to do.

Sorry if life offends about an ineffective “vaccine.” Make one that actually works. I see lots of long bows and assumptions about myself… so anyway:

  • If I’m properly sick I don’t go to work.
  • Having been properly sick with infectious bacterial salmonella poisoning I was actually in isolation from everyone else and people basically walked in and out of my room with a breathing apparatus on gloves and a full body suit.
  • In that instance I had a case where I developed dysentery as a result, and was told I had a one in ten shot of being dead if I ended up with salmonella sepsis.
  • In that instance not even a typhoid shot would have protected me. I had salmonella montevideo, not salmonella typhi, so vaccines themselves aren’t always effective either.
  • Yes I know what it means to be “fully sick” no pun intended it sucks.
  • My gut bacteria is all sorts of out of order right now and I am still sick as a result almost every other day.
  • I know what sick is and when/when not to socialise with other people.
  • If you had have told me you were at risk right now I would have told you not to come near me right now actually as I have a nice case of strep throat.

I don’t take kindly to being called an anti-vax nut job, I live in a community which has one of the highest anti-vax proliferations per capita than anywhere else in Australia. I am not anti-vax. I am anti-flu vax, because its pithily worthless.

Until they work out a proper jab for it I’m not interested. If it weren’t a Sunday I’d be in a doctors office with a breathing mask on right now attending to this matter, but what do you know it’s Sunday and I don’t want people who are actually sick in hospital dealing with my sore throat. I feel like I’m digesting razor blades right now, if this offends turn away.

I’m not exactly a happy camper right now.

#7

Perhaps if you had had the jab… oh never mind. i never called you a nut job. thats you reading incorrectly between the lines. Bye.

#8

OK facts:

  • The flu jab doesn’t protect against strep throat
  • Neither does sardonic patronising comments about other peoples life choices (you should reflect on that point and think about it for next time you want to patronise someone for that matter).
  • I’m hardly in the head space to actually have a civil conversation with you so you get whatever energy I have left to deal with the matter.
  • I won’t be rude but I will tell you there is no logic in your reasoning.
  • Our worldviews don’t align.
  • Injecting myself with a practically worthless vaccine that changes every year for your sake is not my idea of positive community behavior.
  • You wish that the community would bend to your whim because your sick.
  • I’ve shown you a number of case point examples such as strep throat and salmonella montevideo where no amount of vaccine would have helped me.
  • Medicine isn’t the wonderful cure all for everything.

This post is no longer hidden. You’re being incredibly disrespectful and I don’t like the tone of this conversation in the slightest and no I don’t have to bend my worldview and lifestyle to suit you on this matter. I get that your sick but so am I.

It’s not a competition but

I live every day of my life now wondering whether something I’ve eaten will give me stomach cramps and intestinal distress or not. I live with major unipolar depression and anxiety almost every other day. Yeah I get people are sick join the club.

You have two options in life:

  1. Do something about it and change something in your life for the better.
  2. Have a cry to all an sundry about the poor me situation you find yourself in, in life.

The choice is yours. I am incredibly sick most of the time, yeah some times I’m human I get fed up (especially around insensitive people). But I go out there and interact, I throw myself in the middle of respite groups for people with severe mental health issues, and handicaps relating to either there physical or mental state. I go out in the community, I do my thing, I get by well enough to have had some minor successes in life.

The question is what you are going to do about your own life rather than telling all and sundry they need to take a jab that even doctors question the efficacy of when the actual efficacy as studied by the CDC is 60% at best (meaning 4 our of 10 people will still get the seasonal flu anyway).