I wish the kid would have stayed in school
personally I never get a flu shot but that's just me.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=27747957&nid=148&title=mom-alleges-flu-shot-caused-death-of-her-19-year-old-son

She's not electing to have an autopsy done and is strictly going by her gut.
The flu shot may not have anything to do with his death. People get overworked about flu vaccines without really understanding how they work. I get one every year now, haven't had the flu since I started.

What are you a christian scientist?!

Give me a break.

I too get a flu shot every year, because I live in the 21st century.

If the vaccine is at fault, two possibilities are a severe allergic reaction or Guillain-Barre syndrome. Both are rare side effects and according to the CDC are usually (but not always) reversible.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/guillainbarre.htm

According to one online source, there are about 8 deaths worldwide per year from GB per 160 million flu shots. This may not actually be an increase in mortality because the same people that died from the shot would have likely died from the flu.

According to the CDC, flu-associated mortality varies widely in the U.S., ranging from 3,000 to 49,000 deaths yearly.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm#how-many-die

There is a risk to everything, but overall flu shots do not present a significant risk compared to the benefit of being protected from the flu.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2013 07:44PM by summer.

if you live in a big place then the people you get the shot from may not know you- (if there's an age limit on flu mist!) I wonder why they limit it, they don't make that much of it & are unaware adults don't stop having issues with needles at 50?

I'm not sure why there's an age limit. I'm just as healthy as I was at age 49, so I'll take the Flu Mist for as long as that is the case, and for as long as I can get away with it. I do appreciate not having a sore arm!

My physician told me years ago that he doesn't offer it because it requires refrigeration and doesn't have a long shelf life. A health department, on the other hand, gives out many vaccines within the space of a few hours or days, which works well for the Flu Mist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2013 09:28PM by summer.

This breaks my heart because a very close family friend got a flu shot for her 8 year old son. He had a hearing screening at school a couple of weeks before his flu shot. He had normal hearing.

A few days after the flu shot my friend started noticing that he was turning the TV really loud, and it seemed like he was ignoring her when she talked to him. His teacher called and said she thought he might have a hearing problem. They went and had his hearing tested and he had permenant hearing loss and now has to wear hearing aids for the rest of his life.

doctors did tons of tests on him to try and figure out what happened to him. The ENT said that his hearing loss pattern looked like his nerves in his inner ear were destroyed by a medication that is toxic to his ear. The only thing he had been given was a flu shot. The specialist told my friend that this very uncommon, but he has heard of hearing loss after a flu shot before.

There are risks to every drug and vaccine. Just do your research and then make an educated decision weather to have them or not. It's your choice. My kids had all of their vaccinations with no bad side effects. Thank God!

Ms. Webb is in pain and I imagine she will struggle to find peace, I would. I understand her not wanting an autopsy, but perhaps that information may have been necessary for an answer. I hope that there will enough information for science to give her an answer that allows her to move forward. She's sad. Her son died. She wants to know why.

51 years old. Never had a flue shot, never been sick.

Broke my arm once though..

If she wants to know why then she should have the autopsy done. If they can figure out why this happened then it might help save someone else in the future. I'm sure she's in agony, but only having a gut feeling means she may never be at peace.

I used to be afraid to get a flu shot and there was no good reason for my fear. I've been getting one now for years and it is definitely necessary due to my existing medical conditions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2013 08:13PM by formermollymormon.

I get the (weakened) live vaccine every year -- Flu Mist. I love it! One shot up each nostril and you're finished. I do this because I am phobic to injections and avoid them as much as possible. So every year I tell the good people at the local health department that I am 49 years of age (the last year that you are eligible to get the nasal vaccine.) I've never had a problem with it. This year, I was told that it's quadrivalent -- it protects against all four strains of flu.

I learned something interesting from the CDC site -- the mist is only active in a cold environment, meaning your nose. It has absolutely no effect on warm environments, i.e. your lungs.

He would have had the same problem whether he was getting his mission papers together, getting a job that offered him a flu shot, was going to college and had a flu shot, or just got the shot for prevention.

It's tragic and senseless. It has nothing to do with the church.

My mom didn't have me vaccinated. Thanks for those measles. Fundamentalists of all stripes seem to have a hang-up about vaccines



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2013 08:31PM by ladell.

Every year I get a flu shot. Every year (months later) I get the flu and for the last 3 years, wind up in the hospital. 58 years old. This year, I haven't got the flu shot - yet.

Immune response may change under stress, adrenals running etc.

People may have to budget for months to prepare for something like this. Interviews. Leaving peers. Going into the unknowable, become suspended in powerlessness. "getting a call" a directive disempowering the member missionary who is NOT choosing a junket trip to fund raise for or specific teen mission international location, or a specific trail building team to audition for instance from the old student conservation association. Powerlessness. change. often lead to a vulnerable state.

Good luck this year then making the big flu shot decision. For me its more than an injection, you're probably already mature making smart health low stress routine taking care of your body. Me, not so much. But lately, I've been better taking care. Things like, during flu season, better food, cut back on wasted/waisted empty calories (see I said I can do better) more sleep (when tired) or whatever. and even, even, try to break ties with a sense of responsiblity causing stress, about things which I can do nothing about *but I would if I could since I try, I try to be a good person, like that pre- missionary, Feeling duty and obligation for something You wish, want, to be better but however which is not in your power to control - like where they were being sent in their "call" adding to a sense of powerlessness; In My Opinion, if it can change blood pressure, then perhaps it can change immune resistance as well.

think of the stress the pre- missionary was under. Now imagine a dipped immune system responding to any biological infection here or abroad in any delivery method.

Positive thoughts & help to the family at this tragic time.

Is there any information? did the family mention the missionary was on an immune system diminishing medication? Their private care doctor would know- long term immune suppressant from arthritis, asthma, allergies, anything? An immune suppressing inhaled, or shot, or daily pill- in the small writing says to see your doctor and this makes an increased risk of colds, infection, even getting chickenpox again.
Getting annual shots is the doctor's call- it may build resistance, or the specialist would say its a risk.

Did they get their flu shot from someone who knew them, their medical record or from a clinic or public marketplace instead of their own care practitioner?

If you believe your home teacher can cure disease with olive oil, then scientific thinking probably gives you a headache, which hopefully, your home teacher can cure with olive oil.

I don't think the flu shot is to blame,but we will never know because she declined an autopsy. Maybe she missed some critical information that could have been hereditary that she needs to know for the sake of her other kids. I feel sorry for the lady but I think there may be some other issues at hand,she is against Flu shots and autopsys . I also don't think the mission is to blame, I get flu shots and so do my kids and none of us are going on missions.

They are lethal to some people whose systems can't handle all the crap that's in them.

If there is an unusual death in California it is mandatory for an autopsy to be performed, unless the person has been under a doctor's care recently for an illness. At least that is my understanding.

What's up with the state of Utah. Why don't they perform an autopsy to see why the young man died?

As you likely know, Utah and California are very different cultures. It is beyond politics and deep within the values. Utahns submit readily to patriarchal and authoritarian concepts (obedience), California is well-known for being on the leading edge in US cultural and societal change as well as being a safe place for counter-culture lifestyles and beliefs.

I came down with a case of influenza in 2000 iirc, that nearly killed me. I had been working on an election campaign for Utah legislator Kurt Oscarson. He came down with the flu a few days before I did. He did die from it. The legislature created the Kurt Oscarson Children's Organ Transplant Fund, listed on the back of the Utah income tax form, in his honor.

Flu does in fact kill people. I get a flu shot every year since then. My bout with the flu that year was too close for comfort.