I hear talk, but I've never actually known anybody to get the flu after receiving the vaccine.
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I have but I really can't say they had the flu, even though they said so. Plus, I've read of it happening.
Maybe I don't know what the flu actually entails. I'm thinking nuclear cold with fever that keeps our asses sedentary for at least 2-3 days.
I've had lots of patients claim to have influenza after a fluvax, but since the advent of Direct Influenza pharyngeal swabs which allow me to test for flu in my office and ER (past 5 years or so) I have seen ZERO cases of influenza in patients who have been immunized. ZERO out of several thousand individuals.
As for symptoms of fullblown influenza infection: high fever (103+) that only partially responds to ASA/tylenol/ibuprofen, severe muscle aches, cough, chest pain with deep breathing and coughing, severe headache. Other symptoms may present as well. In its worst form, it can produce hemorrhagic symptoms/signs such as bloody diarrhea, hemoptysis (coughing up blood), and blood in the urine. Fatal cases I've seen in the past 20 years have been sometimes to some degree hemorrhagic.
My last personal bad run-in with flu was in 1983, and I was sicker than I had ever been in my life before or since. Really, really sick for 5-6 days, then weak & debilitated for 2 weeks thereafter. I couldn't walk a block for 2 weeks after getting sick.
