Sadly, a lot of people think this way. The reality is:
–Influenza is the last remaining infectious disease that’s a major killer in the west. Somewhere between one in fifty and one in a hundred of us will have influenza as our ultimate cause of death.
–Yes, the flu tends to kill the very young, very old, or those with compromised immune systems. However, even if you’re healthy, you can easily pass the flu on to someone who dies of it. (Put another way, when you’re old, your protection will come not merely from the shot you receive, but from having a vaccinated population around you. If you want that benefit, you need to “pay it forward” and get the shot when you’re young.)
–Your immune response is better when you’re young and healthy than when you’re old and frail. A lifetime of receiving flu vaccines may better prepare you for immunity in old age than just getting the shot when you’re old.
–Plus, even when you’re young, influenza is still a pretty unpleasant disease. Staying home with the flu is not nearly as much fun as staying home with a cold. Why not reduce your risk of having to suffer through it, even if it’s not likely to kill you now?
Imagine there’s a $20 bill under a bush across the street, and it’s yours if you walk over and pick it up. If you have a cold, you’ll go get the twenty. If you have the flu, it won’t feel worth it.
“Put another way, when you’re old, your protection will come not merely from the shot you receive, but from having a vaccinated population around you”
Oddly, many people seem to believe this, I have no idea why. If you are vaccinated and get the disease, then the vaccine DIDN’T WORK. Or, you got a DIFFERENT strain than the one you got vaccinated against. In either case, it wouldn’t help how many others got the same vaccine, it wouldn’t help them either.
Also
” A lifetime of receiving flu vaccines may better prepare you for immunity in old age than just getting the shot when you’re old.”
Actually, a lifetime of flu vaccines MIGHT just produce highly resistant virii that will DEFINITIVELY kill you when you’re old, there is a reason all doctors recommend against taking more vaccines than necessary, there is a very real risk of developing harder and more resistants viruses and bacteria, just like with antibiotics. But “vaccine” has become this magical holy grail over the last decade…. when in fact simply getting the disease and surviving it is ALSO a vaccine.
Right, bacteria can become resistant against antibiotics. The antibiotic affects the bacteria directly and the they can learn how to deal with it and survive.
BUT the flu virus does not become resistant against the vaccine. The flu shot contains “shredded” viruses and “updates” your immune system so it can fight the flu and you don’t get ill. The flu shot itself doesn’t interact with the virus. It just gets the information to the immune system.
It is in fact true that people who are not vaccinated are protected, indirectly, by vaccinated population around them. If many people are immunized, the disease can not spread that easily.
Your thoughts on the matter apparently mirror mine. It seems like I’m not sick often enough, compared to other people I know at least. And even when I do get sick, it’s just a bad case of congestion, or a sore throat, and I can’t justify staying home from work. And if you ever DO want to take a more active approach to getting sick, visit a public school during flu season. Those places are breeding grounds for the worst diseases in the entire community.
Two words: “Herd immunity.” I absolutely get a flu shot every year, even though I a) would rather stay at home playing video games than work, and b) am in a very low risk category.
I get the flu shot every year. I get the flu every year. Pretty sure my employer is paying some guy in an alley to come shoot us up with saline solution every October. This year it was 2 weeks to the day after my “flu shot” that I got sick. I think I’m gonna pay for my own flu shot at an actual pharmacy next year.
flu shots are an educated guess on which of the 3 strains that’s going to be around. sounds like this year those doctors picked wrong. oh wait… two weeks is the time it takes to start really making antibodies, so you got sick earlier or it was just the wrong one.
Until it’s 1918 all over again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
Sadly, a lot of people think this way. The reality is:
–Influenza is the last remaining infectious disease that’s a major killer in the west. Somewhere between one in fifty and one in a hundred of us will have influenza as our ultimate cause of death.
–Yes, the flu tends to kill the very young, very old, or those with compromised immune systems. However, even if you’re healthy, you can easily pass the flu on to someone who dies of it. (Put another way, when you’re old, your protection will come not merely from the shot you receive, but from having a vaccinated population around you. If you want that benefit, you need to “pay it forward” and get the shot when you’re young.)
–Your immune response is better when you’re young and healthy than when you’re old and frail. A lifetime of receiving flu vaccines may better prepare you for immunity in old age than just getting the shot when you’re old.
–Plus, even when you’re young, influenza is still a pretty unpleasant disease. Staying home with the flu is not nearly as much fun as staying home with a cold. Why not reduce your risk of having to suffer through it, even if it’s not likely to kill you now?
Imagine there’s a $20 bill under a bush across the street, and it’s yours if you walk over and pick it up. If you have a cold, you’ll go get the twenty. If you have the flu, it won’t feel worth it.
That’s why I get the flu shot.
“Put another way, when you’re old, your protection will come not merely from the shot you receive, but from having a vaccinated population around you”
Oddly, many people seem to believe this, I have no idea why. If you are vaccinated and get the disease, then the vaccine DIDN’T WORK. Or, you got a DIFFERENT strain than the one you got vaccinated against. In either case, it wouldn’t help how many others got the same vaccine, it wouldn’t help them either.
Also
” A lifetime of receiving flu vaccines may better prepare you for immunity in old age than just getting the shot when you’re old.”
Actually, a lifetime of flu vaccines MIGHT just produce highly resistant virii that will DEFINITIVELY kill you when you’re old, there is a reason all doctors recommend against taking more vaccines than necessary, there is a very real risk of developing harder and more resistants viruses and bacteria, just like with antibiotics. But “vaccine” has become this magical holy grail over the last decade…. when in fact simply getting the disease and surviving it is ALSO a vaccine.
Right, bacteria can become resistant against antibiotics. The antibiotic affects the bacteria directly and the they can learn how to deal with it and survive.
BUT the flu virus does not become resistant against the vaccine. The flu shot contains “shredded” viruses and “updates” your immune system so it can fight the flu and you don’t get ill. The flu shot itself doesn’t interact with the virus. It just gets the information to the immune system.
It is in fact true that people who are not vaccinated are protected, indirectly, by vaccinated population around them. If many people are immunized, the disease can not spread that easily.
You really choose work over staying home playing video games??
You are one sick bastard!
There is a fourth panel
Brilliantly executed caesura, Adam!
Your thoughts on the matter apparently mirror mine. It seems like I’m not sick often enough, compared to other people I know at least. And even when I do get sick, it’s just a bad case of congestion, or a sore throat, and I can’t justify staying home from work. And if you ever DO want to take a more active approach to getting sick, visit a public school during flu season. Those places are breeding grounds for the worst diseases in the entire community.
So, you’re the one who goes to work sick and gives it to everyone else.
Shame!
On average, over 20,000 people die from the Flu in the USA each year.
Get your vaccine.
That’s not how science works….
Imagine people start holding sick kids in front of them and yelling “GIVE IT TO ME! GIVE IT TO ME!”
I’m going to call in tomorrow with a bad case of cooties.
Wait, can girls get cooties or are we just carriers? It’s been a long time since my playground days and I forget the “science”.
Girls are just carriers. The cooties germ starts as a repellent and evolves into an attractant to lure gullible boys into your sneaky traps.
Two words: “Herd immunity.” I absolutely get a flu shot every year, even though I a) would rather stay at home playing video games than work, and b) am in a very low risk category.
That’s not how herd immunity works.
So we can joke about everything but not the flu? If you ask me, the flew is hilarious.
I get the flu shot every year. I get the flu every year. Pretty sure my employer is paying some guy in an alley to come shoot us up with saline solution every October. This year it was 2 weeks to the day after my “flu shot” that I got sick. I think I’m gonna pay for my own flu shot at an actual pharmacy next year.
flu shots are an educated guess on which of the 3 strains that’s going to be around. sounds like this year those doctors picked wrong. oh wait… two weeks is the time it takes to start really making antibodies, so you got sick earlier or it was just the wrong one.
huh. there is a shot that has 4 strains in it now. that’s pretty cool. SCIENCE!