CatchFlightsNotFeelings

Pardon me if I missed something, but what do Holiday Inn Express have to do with ones propensity to catch the flu?

RandomNobody

It's a US pop-culture reference based on an advertising campaign from Holiday Inn Express. It implied that their customers were smarter for choosing them to stay at.


There was a whole series of them.

SeamusSA

The general - and prudent - recommendation is that you space immunizations out by a month or so. Thus, if you received both flu and Shingrix2 at the same time, you were in a set up for enhanced side effects.

ajGoes

I didn't. That pharmacy can't bill my insurance company, so I decided to get the flu shot elsewhere. I'm going to get that today or tomorrow, as my 94-year-old father is going to be visiting in mid November and I want my vaccine to have taken effect by then. The muscle spasm side effect of Shingrix is finally subsiding today. I belatedly started treating it yesterday by wearing a neck pillow, which seemed to work like magic -- or maybe it finally ran its course.

The CDC says "Shingrix is an inactive vaccine so you can administer it with other inactive or live vaccines." Where have you seen a research-supported recommendation to space them out?

stan1162

DH and I got our 1st dose of Shingrix, and then the 2nd dose, 2 months later. The dosing for the 2nd is 2-6 months after 1st.

He had bad reaction. Flu like symtoms. Fever, chills for a couple of days. I didn't have any of that. We BOTH had "chicken pox" type itchy bumps. On our lower side of back. That lasted about a week and a half. I wonder if we should have spaced the 2 doses farther apart??

I'm glad we got the vaccine. My Dad had shingles and he's very tough. He said it was one of the most painful things he's ever had.

As an interesting side note. We just had our titer tests ( to see what immunizations we had as children). We were born in late 1961 and late 1962 and in the "gray area" of Measles immunizations. I had the anti bodies. He did not. So he got his immunizations recently. Wonder if there is a connnection??

KRSW

While I think many vaccines are beneficial, I've never quite understood the hype around the flu vaccines. Generally, the flu vaccine is less than 50% effective. In some years it was shown to actually increase your chances of getting the flu. So far, this year's flu vaccine is less than 12% (11.72%) effective in adults. I'm not sure which medical school the CDC guys went to, but even in an Honors/Pass/Fail system, <50% usually would be considered a failure.

Sources:
CDC - US Flu VE Data for 2018-2019 (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/2018-2019.html)
CDC - Past Seasons Vaccine Effectiveness Estimates (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-wor...estimates.html)

muji

I agree with you, with this caveat: certain groups of people, e.g. those over 65, should get the flu vaccine since they are at greater risk of serious complications from the flu due to the fact that immune defenses become weaker with age.

ajGoes

The vaccine is much less effective in older people. It's more important for everyone else to get it in order to reduce the risk to the elderly.

GeezerCouple

At least there is now a stronger version of the flu vaccine for the elderly.

But having "herd immunity" (meaning most individuals are vaccinated, reducing the chance of the disease taking hold, etc.) also helps infants too young for <whichever vaccine is at issue> or those with compromised immune systems such that they cannot be vaccinated at all (or must minimize such exposures), etc.

DH and I just got our "Geezer level" flu vaccines on Saturday.

He felt nothing. About an hour or two later, my upper arm started to ache something fierce, something that has not happened in the past with flu shots. I was concerned that it was an indication that I'd have some kind of nasty systemic reaction. However, that was "it". Sunday, there was no hint that any vaccination had ever occurred.

I'd search now for Shingrix, but we leave in three weeks to NZ/Australia, so it's no doubt prudent to wait until we return. At least I did get the older version of the Shingles vaccine, so hopefully I have some sort of protection (?).

GC

ajGoes

I just realized I was still feeling the side effects yesterday, eight days after my second Shingrix shot. They're pretty much gone now. Your mileage will almost certainly vary, but it could be worse ….

The old vaccine is said to be about 50% effective, which is much better than nothing, but far inferior to the 90%+ effectiveness of Shingrix.

muji

Nevertheless some protection is better than none. I know of elderly people who died from the flu. They were in the same hospital ward where I was when I had the flu.

The vast majority of flu-related deaths occur in people 65 years and older.

GeezerCouple

Did you have a reaction to the first Shingrix shot? If so, was it less or worse than with the second shot?
Too many people have nasty reactions to that, so even though any such should be over long before 3 weeks, I'd like to be able to do those last minute errands and packing without being miserable, etc., and also... without risking being someone who just has a worse reaction that lasts longer.
And yes, at least with that older shingles vaccine, there's at least some protection.
(I only know one person who had shingles, and he's someone who generally doesn't complain. But he certainly had a lot of complaints about that episode!)

Given the measles that seems to have been putting in appearances recently, I had a test for that, and I do still have immunity from when I had it as a child. Measles wasn't really on our radar until relatively recently, of course.

GC

ajGoes

That's true, and older people should always get the vaccine. But because of the lower effectiveness of the vaccine in the old, the mortality rate would be reduced more by vaccinating every person under 65.

ajGoes

I don't remember any significant reaction to the first Shingrix shot beyond a sore arm for a couple of days. However, the CDC says that reactions can occur with either or both shots.

I actually had a very small shingles outbreak a week or so before a trip to France twenty years ago. I had one patch about the size of the back of my thumb and a couple of other blisters on my back. I was somewhat uncomfortable from that tiny outbreak for the whole trip and six months after. I don't want to experience a full attack.

synthkeys

I had a flu shot and first dose of Shingrix given at the same time about a month ago, different arms for each. The Shingrix arm hurt for days along with a general cloudy feeling for a day or two. Have had flu shots consistently for the last 15 years, never any reaction.