Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
It's about calculation of risk/reward. Is getting a flu shot - which for me, so far has been 100% in causing a couple days of illness and debilitation - on the minuscle chance you might die - worth it?
Too many people indulge in magical thinking, where the flu shot takes on a talismanic significance that makes them think that once they are immunized, they are "safe". I'm just pointing out that this is not so, and that this hysteria is an over-reaction.
As I said, many people getting the shot experience flu-like symptoms for a few days, so to me it seems that there are negatives on BOTH sides of shot/no-shot. I've been immunized twice, and both times I had a moderate reaction where I was out for 2-3 days. I've also had the flu a couple times, and both times it was mild and I was out for 3-4 days. To me it seems a better bet to forgo the certainty of being ill for a chance of being ill, even if actually catching the flu *might* be worse.
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Might be worse? I can tell you getting the flu is worse. As you've already stated, death is a possibility, but there's also other possibilities such as a death watch admission to the ICU on a ventilator for a couple weeks. You think this hysteria is an over reaction? We just admitted a physician to the ICU this weekend - young and healthy a couple days ago before contracting H1N1.
You know what's even scarier, and has yet to make the media? If the trend continues, and the average ICU stay is 1-2 weeks, and we only have ~10-20 ventillators per hospital, we are rapidly going to run out of ventillators. You can figure out the implications.
The other thing people don't know is that it's not really the virus that kills you; it's the body's immune system over-reacting and flooding the lungs with reactive cells and fibrotic tissue. Why is this relevant to you? Because it means having a "competent" or "healthy" immune system is 1) not as protective against H1N1 as against the usual/seasonal flu strain, and 2) could theoretically exacerbate H1N1 complications. Hence why we are seeing a disproportionate amount of young, healthy adults being admitting to hospital and requiring ICU admission.
However miniscule you perceive the risk, if it includes death, a couple days of mild malaise is a small price to pay for some degree of protection.