Flu shot heresy (Read 2156 times)

I would also add that the vaccination we receive for seasonal flu usually only really lasts a few months.  It is not clear to me why the vaccination from 1958 (was it?) would somehow last over half a century.

they didn't talk about vaccination but people being exposed to the actual virus and thus developing immunity. Am I right that such immunity would last a lifetime for that specific strain?

Huh, I didn't know that immunity to chicken pox wanes over time.  Ick, I don't want to get that again.

That is part of why you get shingles.

 

 

See, this is all I need to hear.  staunen2, why would you play devil's advocate when Trent states it this simply?  Why would you want to encourage people to consider NOT getting it? 

 

Whether the vaccine will be available is a separate issue.  We have no control over that.  My children will be vaccinated on November 4.  We have had no outbreaks in our schools yet, so I'm hoping that's soon enough.  My doctor's office is going to let me know when I can get it, and I will keep checking Maine's website for available public clinics.

For the 3rd or 4th time:  my interest was only to encourage a more constructive discussion by setting a less hyperbolic tone.  It seems logical to me:  don't demonize the other side and they'll be more likely to listen to and be positively influenced by what you have to say.  Not sure why this is so difficult to understand, but clearly you (and others) aren't interested and I'm through trying to get you to feel otherwise, so this is me checking out of the conversation ... 

Mini-tangent: if a person has shingles in her 30s will she still need the vaccine when she is older?

/tangent

We do not have clear recommendations on this.

Swine flu parties?

Silly me!  Instead of telling people to stay away from our house I should have had a party. It would have been much more fun than staying in bed day after day hoping my temperature would finally go down.

Another message board I frequent had this post  in response to a question on the effectiveness of vaccination ...

Flu continues to be an annual epidemic for lots of reasons. First is antigenic drift (the H*N* numbers can change). The genetic makeup of the flu changes, so the seasonal flu is a bit different each year. Also, the vaccine is far from perfect. It reduces the risk of getting flu by ~90% in healthy people, but only 40-50% in elderly or chronically ill. This is likely due to an inadequate immune response due to chronic illness itself or other medication.

The real problem with flu is not that those most vulnerable aren't vaccinated. We vaccinate around 60-70% of elderly or nursing home patients every year. Thats decent, but really far too low. The problem is that all of us young "healthy" people are too influenced by the tin-foil hat crowd to get the vaccine.

Vaccinating the healthy protects the vulnerable. Once we get to a certain threshhold of immunity, the virus has a much harder time circulating in the population. Thus, those most vulnerable are far less likely to get exposed to, and subsequently get sick from, the disease. This phenomenon has been extremely well researched and documented with diseases like polio, smallpox, measles, rubella, etc.

I absolutely firmly believe (based on years of medical school, internship, residency, 2 fellowships, research, and an academic clinical practice) that if everyone got fully vaccinated, there would be a handful of severe adverse reactions, and a tiny number of people might actually die from the vaccine. And, tens of thousands of lives would be saved.

For those who don't care much about the lives of elderly or chronically ill people, direct costs of influenza-related hospital admissions have been estimated to exceed $12 billion dollars. Want to save some health care dollars? This is low-hanging fruit...