djwitz40 wrote:1) It is a "best guess" as to which strains will be most effective.

Yes. This is because they have to predict which strains will be prevalent in the coming flu season in order to produce a vaccine. It is hard to predict the future.

djwitz40 wrote:2) Although ethyl mercury is less toxic than methyl, there is a BIG difference from injecting it into your body versus ingesting it (as in methyl mercury from tuna, you only absorb a percentage).

What about, say, putting it directly into your eyes? Eye drops have a similar dosage of thiomersal. No one with contact lenses is keeling over from mercury poisoning.

djwitz40 wrote:Same goes for aluminum. The flu shot exceeds workplace standards for exposure to aluminum when inhaled, let alone injected.

The OSHA standard you're referring to is to prevent damage to your lungs from inhaling ultrafine shards of metal in dust. It has nothing to do with a risk of poisoning.

djwitz40 wrote:3) Aluminum is used as an adjuvant

--it provokes a chronic unrelenting immune response designed to increase antibody production against the injected antigens. This allows greater immune response for less injected antigens (read: can make more vaccines with less virus--monetary motivation).[/quote]

Actually, adjuvants are used because scientists figured out when they stopped using them, the vaccines were not as effective. The "monetary motivation" is making sure the product works.

djwitz40 wrote:4) Aluminum in flu vaccines has been linked to Alzheimer's due to neurotoxic effects and is found in high concentrations in the temporal lobe of deceased Alzheimer's patients. Some estimates are that 3-5 consecutive years of use can increase risk of Alzheimer's up to 8x.

This...this is just a flat out lie. The "link" between aluminum and Alzheimer's has been disproven since the '70s.

djwitz40 wrote:5) Most "flu related" deaths are actually due to pneumonia and other "complications." The "CDC estimated that only 8.5% of all pneumonia and influenza deaths and only 2.1% of all respiratory and circulatory deaths were influenza-related."

So? Why take a chance on being one of the 1.5%?

djwitz40 wrote:And yes, I am a doctor.

Yikes.

homeopathic

ಠ_ಠ

spacemart wrote:As a logical person, I don't understand why homeopathy works, but it seems to do the trick.

As a logical and informed person, I understand why homeopathy cannot actually work, plus I also understand why people seem to think it does. This last part is mostly cognitive biases in our minds.

You are all children! The flu vaccine isn't so you don't feel icky, it's so you don't kill the old lady, infant or AIDS patient across from you on the subway. Get it.

You are all children! The flu vaccine isn't so you don't feel icky, it's so you don't kill the old lady, infant or AIDS patient across from you on the subway. Get it.

Need a 'mandatory to work at hospital' category. First flu shot i've ever taken. Bet this is first year I get the flu too.

I answered the poll "yes" but I don't actually get the shot. I get the flu vaccine, but I choose FluMist, which has been shown to provide better protection.

Not to mention, fewer side effects.

Consider this, please. My father is one of those old school, hard core, "I don't get sick and I don't go to the doctor" types. He got really, really sick back at the end of March- but never went to the doctor because he "could tough it out". He eventually got so sick we called 911- and it's a good thing we did. He was diagnosed with swine flu, sepsis, and pneumonia. He fell into a coma, had a heart attack when they intubated him, and was deceased for 30 minutes. They were able to resuscitate him- but nearly a million dollars in hospital bills later, this all could've been prevented if he'd had a flu shot that included the H1N1 vaccine. (thank god for insurance, but he never should've endured this in the first place) Guess who got a flu shot for the first time in his life? My dad. Please, at least consider it- if not for you, so your family doesn't have to go through what I suffered through for six weeks.

CurtCameron wrote:As a logical and informed person, I understand why homeopathy cannot actually work, plus I also understand why people seem to think it does. This last part is mostly cognitive biases in our minds.

here is a possible explanation why it could work.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3817-icy-claim-that-water-has-memory.html

I avoid human contact, and therefore never catch the flu.

But when I do get a bug, I drown it in Irish Hot Whiskey (or a Scotch Hot Toddy - currently, I only have an expensive Scotch on hand).

I don't get the flu shot, and I don't think there is anything wrong with the vaccine. You can NOT get the flu from a flu shot. It can take a week or two for the shot to boost your immune system, and it does not cover every variation, just the most prominent.

Reason I don't get one is because I am a 27 year old in decent health. I'm overweight, and drink a bit too much(happy to say I no longer have to add smoker to that list). However I have no underlying medical issues, and believe getting sick once or twice a year is a good thing. Makes you stronger imho.

Shicken684 wrote:Reason I don't get one is because I am a 27 year old in decent health. I'm overweight, and drink a bit too much(happy to say I no longer have to add smoker to that list).

As we said previously, the flu shot is not just for you - it's for the society you're living in. People who don't get vaccinated against contagious diseases are leeching off the immunity provided by those who do.

However I have no underlying medical issues, and believe getting sick once or twice a year is a good thing. Makes you stronger imho.

Getting vaccinated makes your immune system stronger. Getting the flu, and recovering, will as well, but that's only if you get it, plus it has the downside of making you really sick, and probably infecting others around you.

There's just no defensible reason not to get the flu shot.

spacemart wrote:here is a possible explanation why it could work.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3817-icy-claim-that-water-has-memory.html

A lone foreign chemist has defied the entire scientific medicine community by demonstrating that water has memory using an unblinded test that has yet to be reproduced? And his research can only be found on homeopathic websites?

Sigh...

OK. I give up.

I'm guess I'm just getting tired of promoting skeptical thought. Too much of an uphill battle.

So, please clarify, as this always confused me. If I wanted to end my life via an overdose on homeopathic meds, how do I go about doing so?

Goodbye, cruel unskeptical world!

not yet it's too early if i get it a little latter,i'm protectected later in the Flu season.

wouldyoulikesometinychicken wrote:So, please clarify, as this always confused me. If I wanted to end my life via an overdose on homeopathic meds, how do I go about doing so?

Since one of the two fundamental principles of homeopathy is that the more a substance is diluted, the more powerful its effect are, then the way to kill yourself would be to buy some homeopathic sleeping pills. Take one pill, and break off the tiniest piece you can. Dissolve that in a glass of water and shake it around. Pour out 99% of the water, then refill the glass with more fresh water, and shake it.

Again, pour out 99% of the water in the glass and refill it with fresh water, and shake. Repeat and repeat and repeat.

Each time you go through this step, it's one "C" in homeopathy-speak. Some of the common homeopathic treatments are 200C (like is typical with oscillococcinum that they give for the flu), so going through that process 200 times is not going to be enough. I'd suggest doing the 100:1 dilution thing at least 500 or 600 times to make the sleeping pill as powerful as possible.

Then at the last step, drink the result and you're sure to die immediately. Assuming that the principles of homeopathy are valid.

rbeards wrote:not yet it's too early if i get it a little latter,i'm protectected later in the Flu season.

Not true. You'll still be protected against the three strains in the flu shot even late in the season.

There is a reason, though, that the flu shot offers less protection later in the season, and that's because the kind of flu going around then may not be one of those strains that you're vaccinated against with the shot. There are multiple strains of flu, and the shot offers protection against whichever three the scientists thought were most likely to be problems, a few months before the flu season hits.

So the bottom line is that later in the flu season, you're going to be somewhat more vulnerable no matter when you got the shot, you can't do anything about that. But if you delay, you risk getting an early case of the flu, and the early ones are most likely to be one of the strains that you would have been vaccinated against.

So get your flu shot, and get it now. It's your civic duty.

CurtCameron wrote:Since one of the two fundamental principles of homeopathy is that the more a substance is diluted, the more powerful its effect are, then the way to kill yourself would be to buy some homeopathic sleeping pills. Take one pill, and break off the tiniest piece you can. Dissolve that in a glass of water and shake it around. Pour out 99% of the water, then refill the glass with more fresh water, and shake it.

Again, pour out 99% of the water in the glass and refill it with fresh water, and shake. Repeat and repeat and repeat.

Each time you go through this step, it's one "C" in homeopathy-speak. Some of the common homeopathic treatments are 200C (like is typical with oscillococcinum that they give for the flu), so going through that process 200 times is not going to be enough. I'd suggest doing the 100:1 dilution thing at least 500 or 600 times to make the sleeping pill as powerful as possible.

Then at the last step, drink the result and you're sure to die immediately. Assuming that the principles of homeopathy are valid.

Dammit... that is way too much work

Is there some placebo I can take instead? I've heard those work. The more expensive the better.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/03/06/more-expense-less-pain/