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So I trade a 62% reduced chance of getting the flu, for a certainty of flu-like symptoms. This sounds to me like a lousy deal.
There's a chance you might get some mild cold like symptoms for a day or two. Some sneezing, a little congestion, you'll live. For what it's worth, I had my shot about three weeks ago and never had a single side effect.
Your being inoculated with a dead virus, so it's impossible to actually catch the flu from it..
No strong opinion either way here. I happen to be at work when they were giving them away free so I got one... still doing fine. No flulike symptoms... a sore spot around the injection site for a day.
No doubt about it.
Even polio before Salk and Sabin: 90 to 95% of the people contracted polio and had no symptoms but developed antibodies and immunity. They never knew they had the disease.
Here's the dilly for those who want to muse:
A large study was done on families who had not been affected by Plague in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was done by examination of old European census and cemetery records. Some families were found to be nearly immune to it. Scroll on centuries and it was found that these same families showed a remarkable resistance to the H1N1 Spanish Flu of 1918-1919, the biggest killer in history (100 Million dead.)
Now hold onto your hats...the same European family lines seem to be unable to contract HIV.
If someone can connect these dots with cause and effect there's got to be a Nobel Prize in it for him.
There is a proposed genetic mechanism for the resistance to plague and HIV:
"Many people who are resistant to HIV have a mutation in the CCR5 gene called CCR5-delta32. The CCR5-delta32 mutation results in a smaller protein that isn't on the outside of the cell anymore. Most forms of HIV cannot infect cells if there is no CCR5 on the surface.
People with two copies of the CCR5 delta32 gene (inherited from both parents) are virtually immune to HIV infection. This occurs in about 1% of Caucasian people."
"For example, in 1665, the plague hit a small village in England called Eyam. The town quarantined itself to keep the Black Death from spreading into the rest of the country. A year later, the plague had burnt itself out but half of the townspeople were dead. Was there something special about the half that lived?
In 1996, researchers tracked down descendants of the people of Eyam and looked for any mutations they might have in common to explain this high survival rate. What they found was a mutation called CCR5-delta 32."
The genetic basis of resistance to influenza is an area of study, but specific genes have not yet been identified. Do you have a link to the information you posted?
Quote:
Originally Posted by nybbler
So I trade a 62% reduced chance of getting the flu, for a certainty of flu-like symptoms. This sounds to me like a lousy deal.
Feeling slightly achy and feverish for a day or two is not the same as having full blown influenza. For most people, the worst thing the flu vaccine does is give you a sore arm for a short time, so having flu-like symptoms is not a certainty.
The vaccine is safe, with no proven serious side effects. There is already a demonstrable significant decrease in HPV infections since the HPV vaccines were introduced.
You very own immune system can do the same thing. Take chicken pox. I was exposed to chicken pox when my kids, and kids around them, had it. Since I had had chicken pox myself, my OWN immune system kicked in so I did not get it again. Same for Measles, and probably the same being exposed to the flu, including different strains, over DECADES.
I will try to find a link on a story. A woman wrote and asked why she came down with the flu (no flu shot) and her 84 year old mother (no flu shot) did not when they both were on a plane together. This was on a medical site. The answer was that probably because her mother had lived longer than she and had been exposed to that flu strain and had her own antibodies to it. Dr. Jenny????? lol
Do you think the ONLY way for your body to create antibodies is from vaccines? It just applies to measles, mumps, chicken pox, and not the flu? If that is true, how did the human race ever survive the flu pandemic of 1918 when there weren't vax for it?
Oh, I forgot. It could be ME who dies from it. That is how big PHARM makes $$$$$$.
Well you win the prize for the most idiotic response on a vaccine thread....
First off, the whole point of vaccines is to avoid "catching" diseases like measles in the first place. Of course your immune system provides immunity to the disease after catching it, but it is better to be vaccinated and attain immunity without having to go through the disease
The airplane story is also beyond ridiculous, lots of factors in play as to who "catches" a disease even in a closed space like an airplane....not EVERYONE on a plane will catch the flu if exposed. Bottom line, the daughter should have been vaccinated...
Lastly, the 1918 Flu Pandemic??? Between 30 and 50 million people died, and THAT is part of your ANTI VACCINE rant????
Do you think maybe a FEW less would have died had there been a vaccine????
So I trade a 62% reduced chance of getting the flu, for a certainty of flu-like symptoms. This sounds to me like a lousy deal.
And that 62% reduction is only in the BEST of years. It is never better and very often much, MUCH worse.
An this is not MY opinion, it is CDC data collected and announced after the flu season has ended.
I will go out on a limb and make a prediction. Based on the antigen drift in the Far East, I will predict no better than 25% protection for 2014-2015. Let's see how close I get.
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