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Polio, smallpox, flu
There is a difference between your examples. Polio and smallpox are specific viruses, and their vaccines target target the precise, known polio virus and smallpox virus.
The flu virus(es) as you pointed out, change every year. Based on the best available information, a determination is made as to which flu virus is likely to be most prevalent in the coming winter season. Most of the time they’re right, but not always. It’s a moving, changing target. The vaccine is prepared with the best available information, in advance before the flu season begins, so enough vaccine can be manufactured and distributed to the public.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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I’ve never had a flu shot in my life and I never get the flu, go figure.
The last time I had the flu was in the 20th Century when a sick woman coughed on me for 5 hours on a Hawaiian Airlines flight.
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Never having the flu is great. Congratulations. However, it does not mean you will never get and let me suggest, it is a miserable couple weeks if you do. So the advantage is still to getting the immunization shot. It is free.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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EW, you must be new to the internet. Whoever mentions the Nazis first, loses.
I am totally for free choice. But choices have consequences. You want your kids to contract polio? Fine! But don't do it at my local school.
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"I’ve never had a flu shot in my life and I never get the flu, go figure.
The last time I had the flu..."
Que?
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"They want you to spend millions on the flu shot which again, does little to prevent the flu."
1. It's (usually) free. Yes, somebody pays for it, we all do, but it pays for itself many times over.
2. "Does little to prevent flu". Uh, what about those tens of thousands of lives saved every year? Is that chance?
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Paul you really have trouble comprehending. I had just said, I am for science and that most vaccines are extremely effective. Where did I say I am against all vaccines? Polio? Take that vaccine for sure!
I'm done here.
Happy thanksgiving. Eat organic and your immune system will have an easier time fighting off microbes.
~Aloha
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quote:
Originally posted by Rob Tucker
Never having the flu is great. Congratulations. However, it does not mean you will never get and let me suggest, it is a miserable couple weeks if you do. So the advantage is still to getting the immunization shot. It is free.
I got the flu back-to-back in 1996 and 1997. One of those years nearly killed me, gave me pneumonia, and I was very sick for months. I was in my mid/late 20's and the poster child of health when the infection hit. My lungs never completely recovered so I bear the burden of that 1990's flu even today.
I haven't missed a flu shot since, and I've also never been sick since.
Do a little online research, people who survive the flu are at greater risk for heart attacks and a wide variety of other permanent illnesses.
Much easier to avoid it in the first place with a free or extremely low-cost shot. AND I get to ask my annual comical "Will this give me autism" question of the Long's pharmacists every year.
The "best thing" about the flu is that as far as communicable diseases go, most people who are exposed to it don't actually get it. Unfortunately that leads them into a false security that they've had it when they actually had something much more minor, or that they have an "immunity" that doesn't really exist. When most people get "actual" influenza they know it, because they feel like they are going to die.
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I got the flu 2-3 years ago. Seems now like it was a month long debilitating affair. Wen I went to the doctor I said I had never had a flu like this before. The doctor said I probably never had the flu before and in the past I had mistaken bad colds for flu.
I don't want to go through that again.
In recent news there is research showing the CDC may finally be closing in on a universal flu vaccine. An antibody derived from llamas. Those folks really do dig deep if they located an antibody in llamas.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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EW: "The flu virus is different. It mutates."
Wrong, all viruses mutate.
EW: "the flu virus mutates every year and that vaccines against them do little to prevent the flu"
Wrong, the vaccine prevents many, many cases of the flu and tens of thousands of deaths.
EW: "They want you to spend millions on the flu shot which again, does little to prevent the flu."
Wrong, the flu shot actually saves money. Who is "They"?
EW: "Paul would (if they could) like to force teachers to take the shot when he doesn't even work in that field."
Wrong. How would you know where I work? I wouldn't force teachers to do anything, they can go spread their diseases at any school they want, except my local one.
EW: "Eat organic and your immune system will have an easier time fighting off microbes. "
Wrong, eating organic is actually worse for your health, but that is at least debatable.
EW: "it sounds like you need some education on the topic"
Yes, you do.
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