Will anti-vaxxers decline the coronavirus vaccine (when it's eventually available)?

[BLAZEY]

We get every vaccine except the flu shot. We finally gave it up after our 5 year old got the flu (again) in 2017 (she got the shot in September 2016). Every year that any of us have gotten the flu shot, we have gotten the flu. And I mean EVERY year.

We did not get the shot in 2017, 2018 or 2019 and none of us have gotten the flu.

We used to get the flu mist when it was available and we didn't get the flu those years either.

We will get the coronavirus though because it seems, so far, like they are making it to battle a specific strain.



No.

Watching my youngest (she was 5) vomit repeatedly for almost 6 hours before the emergency room could give her a stronger medication to stop it and then bawl her eyes out because they had to push fluids through the IV so quickly that she could feel it (painfully) moving into her vein means she will never get a flu shot again.

Every doctor we have ever had, has recommended we get the flu shot, but given our medical histories, do not FORCE us to do so.

We are not considered medically compromised when it comes to vaccines, and we wouldn't be covered under your bolded statement so we would be made to watch out children suffer just so they could get the coronavirus vaccine.

The flu shot, as it doesn't cover every strain of the flu that it is possible to get in a given year, should NEVER be mandatory. And you wouldn't say someone shouldn't be able to get the polio vaccine unless they get the flu shot, so what makes the coronavirus vaccine different?

Have you done research into the different TYPES of flu shots offered? It's possible to have reactions to one type and not the other. Do the rest of your family get the flu shot TO protect the one person in your family that has the negative reaction to the shot? You said you used to get the mist version, it's still available so that is an option still.

 

[barkley]

My Grampa had polio as a child and suffered the effects until he passed at age 93. HE would tell us of how he was sick and in pain for months and never fully able to keep up with his brothers after he recovered. Mom and my uncle (his kids) got the Salk vaccine as soon a it was available so they would never have to suffer like he did.

allot of polio survivors now suffer from post polio syndrome so they are suffering as they did during their initial illness (my brother suffered from it). polio is very real and still exists-cases in under vaccinated regions were at a higher level in 2019 vs. the same time period in 2018.

 

[Katie Dawn]

If Covid-19 vax is grown in eggs, I am out, too. They wouldn’t even give flu shot to me when I was pregnant or in chemo. I expect this will be the same.

3threebabies, it's ok, because the rest of us will get vaccinated that will protect you too. At least that's how this is supposed to work.

To the OPs original question: Anti-vaxxers do come in different varieties, but I think the majority won't get it. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. Sigh.

 

[VandVsmama]

I worked with a woman once who didn't get any of her kids vaccinated. One of her kids joined the military and she was upset about it because it meant that the kid would have to get vaccinated for everything.

 

[DisneyBabies]

So you have a medical reason to not get the flu shot.

ETA: This isn’t directed at you, but I don’t get arguments that someone decided to skip the flu shot just because it doesn’t protect against every strain of flu. Like, even if it’s only 40% effective, that’s still higher than 0% effective. So, again, baring a negative medical condition or reaction, what’s the point in skipped it?

No, we don't. We don't have compromised immune systems. We don't have reactions to the vaccine itself.

We just get the flu every year that we get the shot. That's not considered a medical reason to not get the shot.

My only point in bringing up the efficacy of the flu shot is to compare it to the (possible) efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine. I don't know anyone personally who uses that argument to skip the flu shot, though maybe there are those who do.

Have you done research into the different TYPES of flu shots offered? It's possible to have reactions to one type and not the other. Do the rest of your family get the flu shot TO protect the one person in your family that has the negative reaction to the shot? You said you used to get the mist version, it's still available so that is an option still.

I don't know about different types of shots, but all of our pediatricians have received theirs from one manufacturer, but we don't have a reaction to the flu shot itself. We get the flu every year we get the shot. No, none of us have received the flu shot since 2016.

And the only reason our little one got it that year was at the urging of her doctor who assured us that she was "unlikely" to get the flu if she got the shot and the doctor believed that she would be most at risk to get the flu if she didn't get the shot. No one in our home has gotten the flu since then.

We move quite often, so our kiddos have seen several different doctors over the last few years and none of them have had the flumist since 2015. I'm not sure why, it just hasn't been available from their pediatricians. Both of our big kids have received the mist since they were 2 except for 2012 when our pediatrician didn't have the mist and since we had a newborn in the house, we agreed the shot was a necessary precaution ... we changed our minds when they both would up with the flu a few months later and I was taking care of an infant and two very sick children.

I received the flu shot in 2005 because I was pregnant and my ob recommended it (along with an MMR booster after my daughter was delivered). I received the shot in September 2005 and wound up with the flu in February 2006, two weeks after my daughter was born.

My husband hasn't gotten a flu shot since it was required by an employer in 2001 and he was able to refuse the shot from then on out since he missed almost two weeks of work due to the flu when he had never missed a day of work in the previous 8 years he had been with that employer.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I don’t get arguments that someone decided to skip the flu shot just because it doesn’t protect against every strain of flu. Like, even if it’s only 40% effective, that’s still higher than 0% effective.

The biggest reason I got the original shingles vaccine (only 60% effective) was for that very reason. 60% is better than 0%. My sister had shingles, and even a 60% chance of not getting it was good enough for me.

Once the COVID-19 vaccine is available, I'm probably going to be among the early receivers group due to my age.

 

[Kestryl]

The biggest reason I got the original shingles vaccine (only 60% effective) was for that very reason. 60% is better than 0%. My sister had shingles, and even a 60% chance of not getting it was good enough for me.

Once the COVID-19 vaccine is available, I'm probably going to be among the early receivers group due to my age.

I had shingles at the age of 29! Thankfully it was a moderate case, but oh boy, it still sucked. I would kill (not literally) for the vaccine, but my insurance won’t approve it for anyone under 50.

 

[crazymama]

Hope so.... more for the rest of us.