Flu Shot

I'm not getting one.

Every year The Experts run around screaming "We're gonna have a huge pandemic this time for sure!", and lo and behold, nothing happens. Except last year, when they said, "We're not going to have a pandemic because, uh, we have a shortage of vaccine." OK, so they were right that there was no pandemic, but shouldn't the rest tell you something? Especially since sometimes more people are killed by the vaccine than by the flu.

I used to live with a couple of guys. One dutifully got his flu shot every year. My other housemate and I would laugh at him. Every year the vaccinated housemate got a terrible case of the flu. Sure, my other housemate and I got typical winter colds, but they were relatively mild, nothing like Mr. Flu Shot got.

So no flu shot for me, thanks.

 

You're comparing a vaccine from 1976 (claiming to be the first mass vaccination) to today? I'm sorry, but that's just laughable - do you think no progress has been made in the past 30 years?

But everyone has their own choice, and i'm not going to berate you for not choosing to get one.

Also, for what it's worth, my flu shot didn't hurt one bit - no bruising, no pain what-so-ever. i had even forgotten about it until i was in the shower the next morning and saw the small little circular bandage out of the corner of my eye and freaked out thinking it was a tick or something - until i actually looked at it

 

I don't get a flu shot because of some predicted "great pandemic." I have heard no such predictions since the "swine flu," which I like to call the Ford Flu, when the country stayed away in droves and there was no pandemic. I get a flu shot because the flu is nasty and I am not allergic to eggs. (Egg allergies are the big risk in flu shots, if I undrstand correctly.)

My flu shot always hurts. I'd compare it to the soreness you get after a hard weight-lifting session, except that it lasts longer. No biggie.

P.S. I have a conspiracy about the Ford Flu: I think it was an attempt at a psychological experiment: The military would like to be able to use biological warfare, but does not want to decimate the U.S. population. A massive innoculation could raise suspicions on the part of our enemy (at that time the Soviet Union). And of course they could not announce to the US public, "We want to innoculate you against the disease we are preparing to drop on Russia."

So they announced that there would be a pandemic of "swine flu" and everyone should get innoculated. They wanted to see if the public would buy it. If a large enough part of the population accepted the shots, they could go ahead and develop a disease and a vaccine, then announce a new horrible (but fictious) strain of flu and tell everyone to come in for the shot. But the shot would actually be for their own disease, which they could then drop on (in this case) Russia.

Fortunately for the world, the experiment failed: the American public was too cantankerous to report dutifully for shots, and the whole concept had to be shelved, at least for the time being.

Just my little conspiracy theory.

Note that I don't believe there was anything especially nefarious in the shots they offered at that time. My theory is that they were trying a psychological experiment to see if they could get everyone to come in for a shot.

But I still get my flu shot because I don't like getting sick, and the flu shot reduces the chances that I will. It's all about risks and probabilities.