FLU SHOT 2020

Usually I get my flu shot in October, but with all the warnings about an early flu season (and with the coronavirus pandemic raging) I decided to get my flu shot right now. Diane got her flu shot earlier this week. Are you planning to get a flu shot? When?

26 thoughts on “FLU SHOT 2020

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    I get one every October but have been planning to get one earlier this year. The pharmacist who gives them wasn’t working today so I’ll try again this weekend.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, when I first went to get my flu shot, my pharmacist said they just ran out. But, more flu shots might arrive in the afternoon. I told my pharmacist to give me a call if they came it. A couple hours later, the phone rang and it was my pharmacist. “We have 10 flu shots,” he said. “I’ll be there in 5 minutes,” I told him. And I was.

      Reply
  2. wolf

    Of course!
    So I never had a flu in the last 30 years.
    But I have to wait – can only return to Germany for all my meds in October.
    I hope it won’t be too late …

    PS and not too much OT:
    I’ve written before about the company Curevac, started by people from the university in my hometown Tübingen to develop new kinds of vaccines.
    Five years ago Bill Gates came for a visit and was so impressed that he invested more than 100 million $!
    They hope that by the end of the year the vaccine will be ready – it’s already being tested on volunteers like or Green Mayor.
    And last week Elon Musk came to have a look – it seems he bought a German company 3 years ago that might deliver machines to produce the new vaccines. Don’t know however if he also had time to have a look at the beautiful city, the castle etc.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Wolf, I used to get the flu every year. I’m sure my students gave it to me. During flu season, my classrooms sounded like a tuberculosis wing of a hospital: coughing, sneezing, spitting, etc. Then, I started to get a flu shot every year and I never got the flu again.

      Reply
  3. Michael Padgett

    I hadn’t heard about the flu season being early and had been planning to get mine in October as I usually do. My pharmacy usually has them available in early September but this year it was mid-August. If I get it too early could the protection end before the flu season does? Decisions, decisions.

    Reply
  4. Jerry House

    If Nurse Cleavage there is administering them, I may get one a week.

    For some reason, looking at her photo reminds me to get TWO shots — one for the flu and one for pneumonia.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jerry, I highly recommend both shots. A friend of my delayed getting the pneumonia shot…and got pneumonia. He was not happy about his stay in the hospital…which could have been prevented.

      Reply
  5. Deb

    Like you, I usually get my flu shot in October. I haven’t missed a flu shot in the 17 years I’ve worked in the school system. But this year, I’m getting mine early—in fact, I’m planning to go to Walgreen’s in about an hour. I got the pneumonia shot a few months back after having pneumonia last November (not an experience I want to repeat—the pneumonia not the shot). I also got the two-dose shingles shot last year because I had chicken pox as a child and my Dad’s experience with shingles (he says it felt as if boiling oil was being poured down his back) made me very wary about getting shingles.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Deb, Diane has a friend who has suffered from shingles THREE TIMES. When Diane asked her if she was going to get the shingles shot, she told Diane, “I’m afraid of needles.”

      Reply
      1. Deb

        I just got back from getting my flu shot at Walgreens. I’m hoping that all of the measures we’re supposed to be taking to avoid covid will also help us avoid the flu, but I’m still glad I’ve got some protection from at least one of those viruses.

      2. george Post author

        Deb, I’ve viewed a couple of interviews with Harvard University epidemiologists who warn that this Fall could bring a double whammy: people could get the flu and the coronavirus AT THE SAME TIME! Prospects for survival if that happens are not good.

  6. Jeff Meyerson

    Jackie spoke to the pharmacist at Costco (where we got the two shingles shots and the pneumonia vaccine) and he said better to wait until the end of September. Otherwise, it might not last the entire flu season. There has been no reported flu outbreaks anywhere that I’ve heard of yet, and that is usually another indicator that it is time to get one. But I can understand Deb’s reasoning.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, it takes about two weeks for the flu shot to take hold. I figured that if there’s a flu outbreak later this month, supplies might be tight.

      Reply
  7. Patti Abbott

    I heard to wait until late Sept. And based on last year’s experience, when I got it early and got the flu in February, I am going to try and wait a few weeks.

    Reply
  8. Dan

    Overheard at the Grocery, next to The Little Clinic:
    “You know those vaccines are made by Jews, so we don’t really know what’s in ’em!”

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Dan, the preacher in Maine who spread coronavirus at a wedding told his parishioners: “Don’t get the coronavirus vaccine! It’s made from dead babies!”

      Reply
      1. Deb

        Well, he’s not wrong if by “dead babies” he means “dead baby chickens” since I believe most vaccines are grown in eggs!

        You know, the more I see and hear the utterly insane response of some people to covid (and to vaccines in general), the more I understand how hundreds of people willingly drank cyanide-laced kool-aid in Jonestown.

  9. Kent Morgan

    No word as yet from the provincial government or my pharmacist as to when flu shots will be available. Up until a couple of years ago, there used to be locations set up by the government where you could go for a couple of weeks. Always long lineups. Now you go to a pharmacy and can usually get in quickly even without an appointment. My pharmacy always puts a phone message on its anwering system telling people when the shots are available. I plan to go as soon as I hear.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Art Scott Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *