Quote:
Originally Posted by zuluking
"To put it bluntly, seasonal flu vaccines are a guess..." - $8M govt program = 'shot' in the dark. Doesn't even cover the swine flu.
"and people will still get the Flu, but hopefully a milder version." - also called the Obama effect
"a healthy immune system can be exposed to 10s of thousand of antigens" - what about the unhealthy one?
"just by walking down a street breathing in may expose you to more antigens than contained in a flu shot." - but why stop there? let's pile some more on!
"Elemental mercury is bad, but the vaccine form is a ethylized version of it, and the body does not hold on to it." - but the toxicity of ethylmercury is not well studied, so what could possibly go wrong?
It's free though.....hmmmm.
|
- A guess yes, but backed up with science and research to make it a very educated guess
- Those that end up getting to flu anyways would be much more minor and their infectiousness decreased than full on flu
- Keep in mind, I'm not saying everyone Must get vaccinated, just that it's highly recommended. The choice is still yours
High risk population for flu include:
1. Individuals at high risk for seasonal influenza and its complications –
* Children 6–23 months of age;
* People 65 years of age and older;
* People of any age who live in nursing homes, lodges or chronic care facilities;
* Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding;
* People living on the street or in homeless shelters;
* People with selected chronic medical conditions such as:
o Heart or lung conditions;
o Diabetes or other metabolic diseases;
o Cancer or weakened immune systems – including those who are HIV-positive;
o Kidney disease;
o Anemia or hemoglobinopathy.
Health care providers and other care givers are strongly recommended to get the vaccine in order to protect people in their care.
http://www.health.alberta.ca/health-...influenza.html
- Being a particlized or attenuated virus vaccine, the risk to those with weaker immune systems should be very minimal. All vaccines are tested with this in mind before full scale production
- No matter what you do, your body is going to be exposed to thousands of antigens everyday, at least a flu shot can have some benefit
- You have more to worry about egg protein than mercury
If you don't get a flu shot, that's okay. But if you do get the flu, please stay home until after coughing stops to minimize the spread
Every year, there are small communities that are mainly unvaccinated. Those communities get hit hard by the flu (from large student bodies missing school for etc). No one dies usually, but the disruption during the flu season isn't as large as a vaccinated population of the same size