Vaccination & epidemic

[Undertoad]

If Clod is out I get to jump back in;

Originally Posted by glatt

We pretty much opt out of all the optional shots now, like the flu shots.

You should be following your doctor's advice on this and not just a thread. Medical professionals have 10-12 years of training and education, and then see 100 patients a day; all we have here is a big ol' argument.

But if you do follow the thread, the one section of the thread where we did flu shots was on Desiree Jennings, who became bizarrely ill after a flu shot... months later it was shown that she was faking, or at the very least her problems were entirely psychosomatic.*

So far, I haven't identified any side effects associated with any of the shots for my family, but I don't take that for granted like I used to.

Your own observations are uninformed and unscientific. If you had 10-12 years of training, and then saw 100 patients a day, you would be more able to notice those effects, and connect them to all possible causes, as opposed to only the ones you read about in threads.





*About which, patting myself on the back, I was right about all along, and followed the story closely in order to confirm one way or the other. But that whole thing was more about how to determine truth, not really about medicine, and is no substitute for actual training in medicine.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

You should be following your doctor's advice on this and not just a thread.

I have been following doctors' advice.

What I've taken from this thread and the "my kid's a nutter" thread and any others over the years is that vaccines are not without risks. I always had a "rub some dirt on it, Nancy" approach to getting shots, but I don't anymore.

I don't get flu shots anymore, but I encourage everyone else to. You all can take the risks and protect me. I'll just wash my hands and not touch my face so much.

This topic is kind of pointless for me, because the vast majority of shots for my kids came along before the controversy. We just did them without a second thought. The only one we gave some serious thought to was my daughter getting the Gardasil shot, and we decided to go ahead with that after my wife talked at length with the pediatrician and he convinced her it was worth it.

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by glatt

I don't get flu shots anymore, but I encourage everyone else to. You all can take the risks and protect me. I'll just wash my hands and not touch my face so much.

What specific risks do you mean, glatt? There's a small risk of feeling a bit tired and achy for a couple of days. For people allergic to eggs there's a flu vaccine made without eggs, although even people with egg allergies can usually get the vaccine without problems.

The problem is that 'we all' can't protect you if too many people choose not to get the vaccine (see herd immunity, above). Washing hands and not touching your face is good, but influenza is also droplet transmitted. Someone who sneezes puts two general types of droplets into the air: large ones that fall due to gravity within about six feet (thus the six-foot distance rule), and small ones that remain aerosolized for prolonged times, on the order of hours. That cloud of small droplets will remain and slowly spread in a room long after the person who created it leaves the room. That's how you can get 'flu without any recognizable contact with sick people (along with fomites on doorknobs and phones etc.). Influenza isn't a benign disease; even if it doesn't put you in hospital you may pass it on to someone who will die from it.

If you believe the risks of the shot, whatever they may be, are unacceptable for you, a healthy adult male with a presumably functioning immune system, on what basis do you encourage others to get the shot and assume those unacceptable risks in order to protect you? That's not my general impression of how you argue and think.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The obvious solution...