Pluot said...
I get a flu shot every year as does everyone in my family.
If you have a moral or scientific objection to the shot, fine, I'm not going to argue with you.
If you don't do it because you don't like shots, don't feel like it, think you won't get the flu anyway, I urge you to please get it. The flu shot is not 100% protective, so when people in high risk populations who ARE vaccinated are exposed to people who are sick with the flu, they are more likely to get sick themselves. I am not immunocompromised this year the way I was last year because I'm off of all UC meds, but I have family members who are still considered high risk and who have needed to be hospitalized in the past after contracting the flu. In my opinion as a society we have an obligation to take steps to protect those of us who can't protect themselves. My brother already gets the flu shot, washes his hands, doesn't touch his face, etc, but he's still in danger of getting very sick. Most of us can get a flu shot for free or very cheap, and each additional vaccinated person reduces the likelihood of someone like him getting sick.
That's the end of my rant on herd immunity. Again, if you don't want to get vaccinated because of moral or scientific reasons, fine. But if it's something else, stop and think about how getting vaccinated can be a good deed and benefit your community, even if you don't think it benefits you.
To date, there hasn't been any scientific evidence suggesting that the flu shot helps herd immunity. Osterham published an interesting medical journal article for the lancet. He did a meta analysis of the efficacy of flu shots and
concluded the following:
"With relatively low efficacy, the flu shot today doesn't have much power to produce true "herd immunity," Osterholm says. Herd immunity is achieved when enough people are immunized with an effective vaccine that the community's viral load drops, protecting even the unvaccinated."
Further, they said that it offered no benefit for those over 65 and under 18:
"For children and seniors over age 65, there was no rigorous data showing their efficacy at all."
But he also goes on to suggest that the moderate efficacy of the flu shot is still better than nothing and recommends getting the vaccine for
personal protection in the article. Nevertheless, more effective vaccines are needed to really induce the herd immunity effect.
My conclusion? I'm not saying that people shouldn't get vaccinated. People have the right to make those kind of choices and I'll certainly fight for your right to get the vaccine. However, I feel strongly that the people have the right to know the raw statistics and the true effectiveness of these vaccines. They should also be advised of the risks and the ingredients present in these vaccines as babeinthewoods said. In my honest opinion, the benefits are exaggerated and overblown by the CDC and media.
The reason I mentioned colostrum earlier is that the first polio vaccine was created by the immunoglobulins in colostrum. Why they didn't use the same method this time around is baffling to me, but I suspect it has something to do with the FDA and USDA.
Post Edited (StealthGuardian) : 9/28/2013 5:53:26 AM (GMT-6)