Flu shot?

[Darrell KSR]

Done. Hope this year they're better at predicting the strain than last year.

[Doc]

The progressives are using this as yet another push for gun control.

[KSRBEvans]

I was at a WalMart in Pensacola over the weekend and they had an employee walking around asking if we'd had our flu shot yet. I wasn't aware they even had the vaccine in stock yet--it wasn't even Labor Day. Is there a problem with getting it this early? Will it lose its efficacy by February (which is usually when I get the flu, for some reason)?

[Darrell KSR]

The vaccine might last a lifetime, or at least 90 years, according to one study.

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1835907,00.html

Or at least through the spring and actually into the next year, longer than first thought.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ColdandFluQuestions/story?id=5677892

But this study shows only six months, and then it drops significantly. So go figure.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/850817

I figured it takes two weeks before it becomes effective, and anything in September would take you to March, so I was good with it. But my wife said she wants to wait until October to be safe. Maybe that's the most prudent course.

By the way, I was picking up something at the Walmart pharmacy when an employee solicited me, too. So mine was not planned, just happenstance.