Why is it whenever I get a flu shot I get sick?

Question

It happens to everyone I know. Everytime anybody I know gets a flu shot, they get sick. And we never get sick when we don't get the shot. What's the point?

Answer 1

A flu shot is a small dose of the flu which gives you a very very mild case of it. This prevents you getting full blown flu which can keep you in bed a week or more. Anyone who has had the full flu says its worth it. Its a gamble, if you don't get a shot you don't get sick at all but are vulnerable to a full blown case which I've had and you feel like your gonna die. Its sort of like insurance. Do you pay the monthly amount to cover you if you get in a bad accident and get sued for 500,000 dollars? or take your chances?

Answer 2

Put it this way: I'm smart, I'm educated, I'm scientific. Back in the President Ford days, I got a swine flu shot cuz I was going to school full time and holding down two full-time jobs to cover expenses. So I got the flu shot so I wouldn't get sick.

I lost three days in delirium, didn't know what my name was, and was sicker than any time in my life.

I'm OK with the science that it's a "dead sample." But I'm not OK with the idea that I nearly died. I have avoided influenza shots ever since. I have had stomach "flu" and colds and coughs, but I have not had influenza in the real medical sense since then.

In other words, I have personally experienced everything you talked about, and agree.

Some people, especially those with weakened immune systems, might benefit from a long consultation with a doctor and go for the shot, however.

In the mean time, eat properly and exercise and you'll probably be OK until the next really killer comes along. I might do that shot...(especially if it's a good single malt!).

Answer 3

You don't get SICK. It's impossible. You can get brief, flu like symptoms for a couple of days, but you really do not have the flu.

For more information: http://familydoctor.org/x2084.xml?printxml

If you really do get the full blown flu, then you have the virus before you got the flu shot and would have gotten it anyway.

Answer 4

Don't get the shot. Just get the flu on your own and be done with it.

BTW - I have not had the flu for over 20 years and have NEVER gotten a flu shot.

Go figure.

Answer 5

this is supposedly an old wives tale and i have asked doctors about it. they claim it has nothing to do with the shot. but the same thing happens to me, i get sick whenever i get the flu shot also. i will still get the shot though, because i am afraid that if i dont, i will get the real flu and it will be worse

Answer 6

The point is if you do get the flu you will have a lighter case or may avoid getting the flu at all. People forget that in the '20's thousands of people died of influenza. The flu was a pandemic then.

Answer 7

Some people do get a reaction from the shot. The CDC causes it "side effects".

Previous years I always got a fever. Last year I only had a sore arm because I found out about something that lessens the side effects or prevents them altogether.

Taking a dose of Ibuprophen or Tylenol helps lesson the side effects (they are fever reducers) and even prevents people from getting sick or having a fever. It worked for me last year.

This year take a dose of Ibuprophen or Tylenol a few hours before you go and, perhaps you won't get sick.

Good luck. :)

Answer 8

The flu shot contains the actually virus that causes us to get sick. What they do is weaken the strain of virus and inject it to you. This helps the body build up antigens to help fight off the virus when it enters your body next time.

Answer 9

because you actually get the flu injected in you! but in so little quantities that your body can build atibodies... and so when the real thing comes you already have them ready...

Antybody building is tiresome so you feel a little sick