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" Pros   1. Getting the seasonal flu vaccinate cuts your risk of getting the flu by at least 70 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That means you&amp;#039;re 70 percent less likely to develop miserable symptoms like fever, coughs, congestion and body aches.   2. If you don&amp;#039;t get the flu to begin with, you won&amp;#039;t be susceptible to potentially serious complications like trouble breathing, pneumonia and even death. That makes getting vaccinated extra important for anyone prone to flu complications, including people who are 50 or older, are pregnant or have a weakened immune system or chronic condition (like heart disease or asthma). Babies under 6 months are also vulnerable (but too young to get vaccinated), so anyone in close contact with them needs to get vaccinated. When it comes to the H1N1 flu, children and young adults seems to be at greatest risk for complications.   3. Among the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes or heart disease), getting vaccinated cuts the risk of dying from the flu by 80 percent.    4. Getting the shot won&amp;#039;t cause you to get the flu. It contains dead viruses, so catching the flu from the vaccine is basically impossible. The virus can incubate for up to a week, so if you were exposed to it right before you got vaccinated you might believe (incorrectly) that the shot made you sick. Another issue is that people often use &amp;quot;the flu&amp;quot; colloquially to mean a runny nose and fever, but there are plenty of other illnesses that can cause those symptoms.   5. Experts say both flu vaccines (seasonal and H1N1) are perfectly safe. In fact, the head of the CDC, Thomas Frieden, MD, said that his kids will get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it becomes available (it&amp;#039;s just starting to roll out across the country now). And William Schaffner, MD, chair of the department of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, already got it himself (as part of a clinical trial).   6. Get vaccinated early enough and you&amp;#039;ll be protected for the whole season. You need to get vaccinated before you&amp;#039;re exposed to the flu, so the sooner the better.   Cons   1. There&amp;#039;s up to a 20 percent chance that you could get vaccinated and still end up with the seasonal flu. (We don&amp;#039;t have enough info about the H1N1 vaccine to know the odds on that one.) That&amp;#039;s because the vaccine contains several flu strains that scientists think are going to be circulating in the upcoming season, but there may be others going around that aren&amp;#039;t contained in the vaccine. A related note: If you only get the seasonal vaccine you&amp;#039;re still vulnerable to H1N1, and vice versa.   2. This year you need two vaccines\u2014for seasonal flu and H1N1\u2014which means two separate shots (though you could choose to get two nasal sprays instead).   3. Common side effects of the flu shot include a soreness, redness or swelling in your arm. Some people also end up feeling a bit achy or even experience a low-grade fever after getting vaccinated. And, if you opt for the nasal spray vaccine, there&amp;#039;s a greater chance of developing side effects like a runny nose, chills and headache. That&amp;#039;s because the spray contains weakened (but live) viruses, whereas the shot contains dead viruses.   4. It&amp;#039;s made with thimerosal, a preservative that contains ethylmercury. While there&amp;#039;s no conclusive evidence that thimerosal causes any major problems, some people have expressed concern about this ingredient (especially in regards to exposing kids to it). Flu vaccines without thimersosal are available, but only in limited quantities.   5. You can&amp;#039;t get a flu vaccine if you&amp;#039;re younger than 6 months old, allergic to eggs or have had a severe reaction to the flu shot in the past.    6. There&amp;#039;s a very slight chance that the flu vaccine could increase your risk of Guillain-Barr\u00E9 syndrome, a condition that causes muscle weakness, sometimes paralysis and, in rare cases, even death. No one really knows what causes Guillain-Barre, and most experts think it&amp;#039;s triggered by an infection. However, people who were given a swine flu vaccine in the 1970s seemed to be more likely to develop this syndrome. Several studies were done to determine if the vaccine and incidence of Guillain-Barre were really linked, and most of them found no such connection. However, one study did find an association: it suggested that one person out of a million vaccinated might be a risk for Guillain-Barre. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/womens-health/a4271/flu-vaccine-pros-cons-93971/>