Flu Shots

[RiceGuy]

Has anyone been able to get preservative free vaccines for their children?

I doubt there is any such thing as a vaccine without toxic stuff in it.

However, it is my understanding that the theory behind vaccines is to get a "mild" exposure, allowing the immune system to develop a defense before the bug takes hold. IMO, just being around other people can do that. Bad habits are often what leads to getting really sick from communicable illnesses. Hand washing is the number one most effective way to limit exposure (anti-bacterial soaps are essentially useless against viruses). The spread of flu is mostly because people who know they are sick refuse to stay in bed. They go to work/school and spread it all over the place. They cough into their hands, touch doorknobs, faucet fixtures, telephones, keyboards, etc, etc. Then the unsuspecting come along and pick up the bugs unknowingly.

When a family member gets sick, keep them in bed. Don't let them walk about, especially in the kitchen. Everything they touch will become contaminated. Keep them in bed and serve them food and drink. This is NOT waiting on them hand and foot. It is to protect the rest of the family! It's called quarantine!

[home-based-mom]

I doubt there is any such thing as a vaccine without toxic stuff in it.

However, it is my understanding that the theory behind vaccines is to get a "mild" exposure, allowing the immune system to develop a defense before the bug takes hold. IMO, just being around other people can do that. Bad habits are often what leads to getting really sick from communicable illnesses. Hand washing is the number one most effective way to limit exposure (anti-bacterial soaps are essentially useless against viruses). The spread of flu is mostly because people who know they are sick refuse to stay in bed. They go to work/school and spread it all over the place. They cough into their hands, touch doorknobs, faucet fixtures, telephones, keyboards, etc, etc. Then the unsuspecting come along and pick up the bugs unknowingly.

When a family member gets sick, keep them in bed. Don't let them walk about, especially in the kitchen. Everything they touch will become contaminated. Keep them in bed and serve them food and drink. This is NOT waiting on them hand and foot. It is to protect the rest of the family! It's called quarantine!

Many diseases which are vaccinated against are spread through the air. Worse, with some diseases people are contagious days before knowing they have the disease because they do not yet have symptoms.

All the precautions you mention are good ideas, but they won't stop everything.

Many vaccines are made from snippets of DNA - enough to trigger your immune system (and maybe even make you feel a bit crummy in the process) but not enough of the whole organism to possibly give you the actual disease because there isn't DNA enough to reproduce itself, nor to commandeer your cells for reproduction as viruses do.

If you choose not to get vaccinated, then your best bet is to bolster your immune system to the best of your ability to do so.

[lovegrov]

" Go back and read my post again, I never said the flu virus was made from viruses from the year before in the United State. Please do not put words in my mouth, I said no such thing!"

I reread your original statement and there's just no question whatsoever that it could be read as if the people who put together the vaccine simply use last year's strain in the U.S. as their guide. If you were being completely accurate in your post you would have made it VERY clear that the choices are based on past flu in other countries and that research definitely shows that those are the strains that are most likely to show up here.

Yeah, it's a crapshoot, but in 16 of 19 years before last year, they got it right. And in the years they didn't, the vaccine still protected against some of the strains going around. Even in those years it wasn't completely useless.

I'm delighted you haven't gotten the flu without the shot. I got the flu several times in the 30 years I didn't get the vaccination; none in the 21-22 years since.

richard