Flu Shot Scandal of 2012

Things to know as background for this post (It's mostly background, sorry about that):

• My parents are leaving on Monday morning to go to the Virgin Islands. 
• They have both had their flu shots, forever ago.  They've definitely kicked in.
• My stepmother, who works for people who have little walk-in clinics in drugstores, decided to get Tamiflu for them in case they came down with the flu while on vacation.
• Apparently, because of some huge (and typical, as this seems to happen every year) mistaken understanding of the global need for flu shots (Hello, how many people are there in the world?  How many flu shots did you sell last year? Okay, plan for at least that many.  Oh, you didn't sell them in Europe last year?  Well what proportion of people in other countries get flu shots?  Okay, plan for at least that many.), the makers of Tamiflu (I'm looking at you, Genentech) have not prepared enough doses of Tamiflu to get us through the cold and flu season.
• If by "us" my stepmother means "the UK" because my brief investigation does not indicate fears of shortage in the United States.
• http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/11/prweb10105617.htm
• Because of the "information" or "allegations" shown above, my stepmother came home with only one course of Tamiflu, rather than the two courses that would be needed if both of my parents simultaneously came down with the flu while in the Virgin Islands, despite the fact that they have both been vaccinated.
• My father's reaction to the fact that she only brought home one dose was as though she had injected him with live Influenza virus.  According to his whining, she must not love him and she has definitely forgotten that his physician brother (now retired) totally prescribed my stepmother with plenty of doses of Tamiflu in the past, how can she be so selfish, now they're going to encounter the flu and only SHE will get the medicine -
• (This was almost the exact same argument my exboyfriend and I had in 2001, living in Manhattan after the World Trade Center attacks, when his mother sent his brother and him each a gas mask and a course of Cipro in case of air or anthrax attacks.  We had been together like 1 month, but times were stressful and I accused him of deliberately trying to live when I, of course, was definitely going to catch anthrax and die.  At least we know where I get my deductive reasoning...)
• She pointed out that HE could actually be the one to take the course, but this was ignored -
• They're probably both going to die now
• And wait, wait, hold the phone - while they're fighting about the Tamiflu neither of them will need but one of them will certainly die without - has Maryellen had a flu shot?  
• They yell upstairs to me.  
• I am sitting on the floor of the bonus room, laughing at them and preparing to watch Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, in no way prepared to be targeted by their argument.
• "Have YOU gotten a flu shot?" my father demands.
• Now, the truth is, I had deliberately not gotten a flu shot this year, for weak reasons known heretofore only to me, but I'll tell you since I've gotten this far with the story.
• I don't want one.
• I'm lazy.
• I don't like the possible flu-like symptoms one can acquire by getting the vaccine.  If I'm getting flu-like symptoms, I might as well have the flu.
• (While the symptoms are annoying after the shot, this is an asinine argument, because the flu is horrible, horrible, horrible and the weak symptoms one may or may not get from the vaccine are nothing in comparison)
• (I know all this but still can't come up with a convenient time to get the shot; there's never a good time for flu-like symptoms)  
• I am hopefully going to nursing school next year, and will now have to get flu shots for the rest of my life, so I kind of wanted one last flu-shot-less year to myself to do my own devil-may-care flu thing.
• "No," I respond. 
• They both explode in shock and concern for their own lives - WHAT?  There's a person living in this house who has not had a flu shot?  What if this person brings the flu into the house?  All they have to protect themselves is the fact that they're both vaccinated and one dose of Tamiflu!  This can't be true, this can't be right - the vaccine doesn't even kick in for two weeks, good God, get the vaccine - you're in mortal danger and could kill us all - your studies could go completely down the drain - all that work, lost to the wind because you get the flu and miss school!  
• DO YOU HEAR US???  GET A SHOT! 
• I consider this.  I don't really want one.  But they seem to have me cornered.  I flip through my reasons for not getting one.  None seem to stand up to their hysteria.
• "Okay, I'll get one," I say.
• "You HAVE TO GET ONE, I can't BELIEVE you haven't gotten one, they don't even kick IN for two WEEKS -- "
• "I said I'd get one."
• "WHEN will you get one?  It has to be done immediately you don't understand your schoolwork could all go to hell --"
• "I'll do it this weekend."  I don't want to get one this weekend.  I have to work all day Saturday and really don't want to be inconvenienced by flu-like symptoms.
• "You'd better, you're really tempting fate, you have to get one, God forbid you get the flu and bring it into this house and we all get it --"
• "I'll get one THIS WEEKEND, I already said."
• I have no plans to get a flu shot and they will probably forget about it.
• Nope.  All week: "Did you get your flu shot yet?" ... "Is it this weekend?  Then no, I probably haven't gotten it yet."

Today, after class, against everything in me, I drove to Walgreens and waited for my flu shot.  I  read the pamphlet and saw that chances were slim that I would have any symptoms.  I also canvassed three or four people at school and asked if they had gotten their shots and if so, did they have symptoms?  And nobody had gotten symptoms.

After the shot, I asked the guy administering it, "Is it common to get flu-like symptoms after getting the shot?"

"Yes," he said.  "About 50% of people do get those symptoms."

So, obviously, now I can't lift my arm and have a million-degree fever and need to go straight to bed.  Those flu-shot bastards.  Actually, I feel fine, but am sure it will kick in when I least expect it.