AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

A place to talk about serious "real life" stuff without having to place it in between a demand by Blankie for food and Logue's latest almost-pr0n thread.

Getting shot against AH1N1?

Yes, absolutely
4
33%
No way
6
50%
Don't know
1
8%
Already got it!
1
8%
 
Total votes: 12

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Oxygen
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AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Oxygen » Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:56 pm

It still hasn't arrived here in cold canada, but I'm still pondering wether or not I should get shot against the flu. On one hand, I really believe that there's been alot of hype about it, but then again, it's not like I'm scared of needles, so why not get it? Are there downsides to it, ie, something uncool running in your bloodstream? I'd like to see what everybody else thinks, but most importantly, if you're going to assert something (such as the government putting a microchip inside you to track your very movements), please use a reliable source!

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Rising_Dusk
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Rising_Dusk » Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:58 pm

Vaccinations are a waste of money, especially for the flu. If your immune system is weak enough for you to get it, a shot isn't going to change that. It is really just a ploy to make money off of fear for disease.
"I'll come to Florida one day and make you look like a damn princess." ~Hep

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Kaome Sky Deathand
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Kaome Sky Deathand » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:02 pm

What he said.
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VZhitogoroshi
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by VZhitogoroshi » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:03 pm

Vaccinations are very normally the absolute opposites of a waste of money, but yeah, in the case of the flu they don't matter so much. There are simply so many variants that the odds of the flu antigen matching yours are pretty small. At least such is my understanding.

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TheDeathstalker
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by TheDeathstalker » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:04 pm

Well, theoretically, if you get the proper vaccination, your chances of contracting the disease plummets, because your body now has the same antibodies as if you already had it. So long as the strain doesn't mutate significantly, you should be fine.

There are those who do need vaccinations, such as pregnant women, young children, and the elderly. For us in the prime of life, yeah, no need for vaccinations, but to say they do no good, or are a ploy is largely inaccurate, or so I feel.
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try—it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

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Psiclone
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Psiclone » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:12 pm

I'm counting on not getting vaccinated simply because Washington's a pretty germophobic state :D
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VZhitogoroshi
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by VZhitogoroshi » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:13 pm

Yeah but the flu's entire thing is mutating significantly! Kind of the same reason we can't vaccinate for HIV or cancer.

I agree in that I wouldn't call it a ploy as much as a pressure. There are a lot of people who can't accept the idea that there is an epidemic disease that's going to spread, infect/kill significant numbers of people, and the best defense is hygiene, rest, and fluids. As soon as h1n1 started getting famous we needed to start on some sort of defense, ineffective though it may be, because if the government stood up and said "SWINE FLUS COMIN, GET YA FORTY WINKS" people would give them no end of shit. (Of course, they make the vaccine, and now the far right is starting to raise retarded suspicions about the vaccine. Sometimes you just can't win.)

tl;dr no reason not to get it if it's free, but it's unlikely to have an impact and there are many people who will get more healthy off of the placebo effect so you should probably save it for them.

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Oxygen
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Oxygen » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:16 pm

It's free in canada btw, though =p

and yeah @ hito

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TheDeathstalker
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by TheDeathstalker » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:17 pm

VZhitogoroshi wrote:Yeah but the flu's entire thing is mutating significantly! Kind of the same reason we can't vaccinate for HIV or cancer.
Side note, doesn't add anything to the discussion, but you can't be vaccinated against HIV or cancer because cancer isn't a virus, and giving someone crippled HIV virus bits stands a much higher chance of infecting them than it does immunizing them. I'm not even sure if traditional immunities would work on HIV, as it's whole ploy is outsmarting the immune system...
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and beaten and scarred,
Just have one more try—it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

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VZhitogoroshi
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by VZhitogoroshi » Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:04 pm

Don't worry, I know what cancer is. :p What I'm saying is that cancer is something breaking more than a real disease, and HIV mutates so much that the immune system is basicially worthless. The flu can't really be vaccinated against for much the same reason. It mutates a lot, and it doesn't target a specific system that can benefit from learning how to fight "flus kind of like this one".

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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by paper tree » Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:21 pm

well getting the H1N1 vaccine is worth it. mainly because at this moment only 1 strand is going around, and even if it mutates a little the vaccine is going to give you partial immunity.(that's why elderly aren't being as badly effected by it due to exposure to a similar flu in the past). the normal flu vaccine is hard a bit harder to say "go get it" mainly because their is a average of 4-6 different strains that go around each year and the companies basically take a educated guess on which strain is going to hit U.S/Canada. in fact the past 2 years they were wrong and the vaccine was useless.

Cancer is now on the verge of being cured(i mean all forms of cancer). very recently(like in the past 6 months) they found that almost all cancers have cancer stem cells in them. these like normal stem cells have biological immortality(meaning the will constantly reproduce) can form specialized cells(in this case the cells that make up the bulk of the tumor), and can repair DNA. that last part is why its impossible to fully cure cancer without surgically removing the entire mass. chemo and radiation attack the DNA of the cells. even though it kills the bulk of the cells, the stems cells just regenerate and reform the cancer later. also these stems cells are why it spreads through the body. in short these cells have a "don't eat me" receptor on them with prevents the immune system from destroying them(we get leukemia every 10 mins, but these mutations don't have the "don't eat me" on them so immune system takes care of it). the cure is simple, bind those receptors and the stem cells are destroyed allowing chemo n radiation to finish off the rest without allowing the cancer to come back.

HIV/AIDS also is on the verge of a cure. simply put they found the gene in the special group of humans that are 100% immune to the disease. these people have a disorder with prevents a certain receptor to form on the cells, thus preventing HIV to attack itself to the cell. the drugs they use now just bind themselves to these receptors and prevent the HIV virus from attaching, now the cure involves turning off the gene within these cells, once again in the past year they discovered how to do this(long very long process to explain) and this technique is attempting to get FDA approval for testing. this technique has already been proven that it works by curing inherited red-green colour blindness. and they have begone testing this on inherited blindness with major success.

in short Genetics = FTW and its in its infancy right now so in 10-20 years no more genetic disorders and cures for all forms of cancer.

edit in
later when i feel like it i will post these some links so you can read it yourself
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/colortherapy/(Also its in Nature(very renowned science magazine) but i don't subscribe to it so i can not post access that article, but this is the gist of it )

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Rising_Dusk
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Rising_Dusk » Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:30 pm

VZhitogoroshi wrote:Vaccinations are very normally the absolute opposites of a waste of money
TheDeathStalker wrote:but to say they do no good, or are a ploy is largely inaccurate, or so I feel.
Except for the trace mercury poisoning they give you that stunts your intellectual and physical growth, sure. Did you know that women who get vaccinations during pregnancy are much more likely to have birth complications and have a child that is mentally handicapped? I'm sure you didn't, the pharmaceutical companies go to extreme lengths to silence those studies.
"I'll come to Florida one day and make you look like a damn princess." ~Hep

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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by paper tree » Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:50 pm

getting a vaccine is worth it though. its 10 mins and 10-25$
Id rather pay the 25$ and not become infected than have to waste a week out of the year to recover.

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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Rising_Dusk » Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:06 pm

I'd rather take care of my body so that I don't have to worry about it in the first place than spend 25$ on a vaccine that can't even guarantee immunity.
"I'll come to Florida one day and make you look like a damn princess." ~Hep

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Psiclone
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Re: AH1N1: Getting shot or not?

Post by Psiclone » Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:08 am

Rising_Dusk wrote:
VZhitogoroshi wrote:Vaccinations are very normally the absolute opposites of a waste of money
TheDeathStalker wrote:but to say they do no good, or are a ploy is largely inaccurate, or so I feel.
Except for the trace mercury poisoning they give you that stunts your intellectual and physical growth, sure. Did you know that women who get vaccinations during pregnancy are much more likely to have birth complications and have a child that is mentally handicapped? I'm sure you didn't, the pharmaceutical companies go to extreme lengths to silence those studies.
On the flip side of that, I'm sure the people who say that are exaggerating to prove a point about the healthcare system.

Moral of the story: Wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, and throw away your tissues and you probably won't die :D
Intellectuals are like the Mafia; they only kill their own.
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