Do flu shots help reduce the severity of the flu? Even on different strains? Hel!


Question: My housemate has the flu, and I also feel a bit tired, cheeks flushed before and throat was somewhat scratchy with a slight headache. By no means am I showing really bad symptoms, but I definitely feel something.

Do flu shots help so that you don't feel sick at ALL? Or do they just reduce the severity of it significantly, that is if it's designed for your particular strain.

Can the shots be effective for even different strains at ALL? Not even 1%?

Are they effective whatsoever, or is it basically a crap shoot, hit/miss, and you can't really predict it?

If the beginning of the season is october/novemberish, why then is everyone getting sick NOW in the middle of March? lol.


When is flu season over?


Also how can you tell the difference between a cold, another infection and the flu, because even if you have a SLIGHT flu it can feel like you have a cold, so you can't really ever tell.

Is it also possible that the SAME flu can make someone sicker than another?


Answers: My housemate has the flu, and I also feel a bit tired, cheeks flushed before and throat was somewhat scratchy with a slight headache. By no means am I showing really bad symptoms, but I definitely feel something.

Do flu shots help so that you don't feel sick at ALL? Or do they just reduce the severity of it significantly, that is if it's designed for your particular strain.

Can the shots be effective for even different strains at ALL? Not even 1%?

Are they effective whatsoever, or is it basically a crap shoot, hit/miss, and you can't really predict it?

If the beginning of the season is october/novemberish, why then is everyone getting sick NOW in the middle of March? lol.


When is flu season over?


Also how can you tell the difference between a cold, another infection and the flu, because even if you have a SLIGHT flu it can feel like you have a cold, so you can't really ever tell.

Is it also possible that the SAME flu can make someone sicker than another?

The goal of flu shots is to provide immunity to the strains of flu present in the shot, and not just a reduction of severity.

There are usually 4-5 strains in each shot. The problem is that they have to crapshoot which strains will hit months ahead of time to be able to produce the shots in time.

The shot will not protect you from other strains that aren't present in the shot. I saw a news report recently that said this year's flu shot only has ~40% effectiveness, because they guessed wrong. =((

There's many differences between colds and flus, but if you have a fever, then it's generally the flu.

The same strain of flu can affect different people with different severity. Some people die from strains that just make other people sick.

Hello.

Flu shots are created to make you immune to certain strains of the flu. However, a lot of the times you WILL still get the flu, just a strain that the flu shot came too late to protect!

I do not believe that the shot will lessen the effects on the strains it was not created to prevent against.

Please note, also, that the flu shot really isn't as effective as everyone says it is.

Better to deal with it than get a shot for nothing! You might even get the flu anyways.

Good luck with your decision.





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