No.

 

i should probably get one before leaving for overseas.

 

I'd let the flu shot get YOU.

 

are we in russia now?

 

absolutely.

 

Nope. I have never gotten the flu shot and *knockonwood* never gotten the flu.

 

only times i got those were when my work offered them for free. which was a total of two times

 

Serious side effects from flu shots are incredibly rare -- about 1 in a million (300 people in the US total if every person was vaccinated). The rate of being hospitalized from influenza-associated conditions are ~667 in a million (200,000 every year), and the odds of dying are about 120 in a million (~36,000 every year). With the potential for a bigger flu season this year due to H1N1, the odds are clearly in your favor if you get vaccinated. I'll be getting both the regular and the swine flu vaccines this year. The Swine flu vaccine has side effect rates that look to be very similar to regular flu vaccines based on the data we have so far.

I've been getting flu vaccines every year for the past 8 or so. The one year I didn't (forgot), I got the flu right after Christmas, ended up missing 1 week of work, losing about 15 pounds, and it took me months to get back to normal. Both of my grandparents were hospitalized with flu-related conditions, likely from me passing it along to them.

 

There's obviously some chance that the flu vaccine is not for the same strain as whats out there. Its all about guesswork with a little bit of luck.

 

Definitely, though flu scientists have gotten very good at predicting flu strains based on reported cases, and most years the flu vaccine is a pretty good match for the strains that are floating around. Though there is always the danger of a new strain (like H1N1 last year) popping up that nobody has ever seen before.

Forgot to mention that if you've ever had a flu vaccine in the past and didn't have a severe adverse reaction then, your chances of having a reaction to the vaccine in the future are way less than 1 in a million as the vaccines are always made out of the same type of stuff.