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[AugustWest]

I got the flu about 10 years ago and that was about as sick as I've been.  I started getting the shot after that.  Haven't had it since.  Woot.  Get 'em free at work.

[Nabubrush]

When I got my shot this year, I jumped in front of an elderly person in line. Pushed 'em down, too.

[wombat]

Go for it. I push little kids out my way at the zoo, too.

[littlefallsmets]

To those who got sick the same year you had a flu shot, were you actually diagnosed with influenza or did you just have symptoms and self-diagnose?

Prob'ly half the time, yeah.

[Victoria Waterfield]

I've never heard of vaccines causing allergies by way of making it too easy on your immune system. It's not getting exposed to parasites that's thought to make the immune system go nuts, as it were.

[Doc]

I think a dude is talking about the hygiene hypothesis, which basically says that people tend to do this thing where they don't let kids get exposed to anything when they're young (particularly parasites, as per the lovely Ms. Waterfield) which results in a naive immune system that over-reacts and predisposes you to hypersensitivity reactions later in life. This is a real thing, though the actual mechanisms involved are a bit murky. Vaccines are basically the opposite of that though, they're giving your immune system something to react to and as far as I know the hygiene hypothesis is only really talking about what your system is exposed to at a young age so having a vaccine when you're 30 is doubly irrelevant.

Things I have been taught to tell people about vaccines:

There is no good evidence they cause autism.

Just because you get a flu shot doesn't mean you won't get a cold (which isn't the same) or even the flu. There are lots of different flu strains and it mutates all the time, the shot generally protects against the most prevalent around that year.

There is NO good evidence they cause autism.

You may feel a bit groggy for a couple of days after the shot, you are taking something that causes your immune system to react, so yeah your immune system might react. In some, very very rare, cases it might even over-react, that's why they often keep you around for half an hour after certain types of vaccine. The odds of this happening are infinitesimal compared to the odds of getting badly sick if you actually get the disease.

THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE THEY CAUSE AUTISM.

You might think you don't need a shot because you never get the flu, or you get over it pretty quickly, this is probably true but the thing we're more interested in with vaccines is something called 'herd immunity' that is when enough people in a given population (something like 80%) are immune to a disease, it doesn't have anywhere to live anymore and basically dies out. This is how we got rid of smallpox and polio. Point being you might get over the flu or not even notice you have it but in the mean time you might pass it on to your grandmother, or your newborn nephew, who aren't as strong and may be made very sick. No, the medical profession is not above unsubtle emotional manipulation.

You know what? Sure, vaccines cause autism. Also the CIA created AIDS to kill Freddy Mercury and end British domination of the pop charts.

That said, I often forget to get mine because as a Caucasian male aged between 18 and 50 I only go to the doctor when I can actually see bone and putting a band aid on it for two days hasn't helped.

[KeithHernandez]

What does caucasian have to do with it?

And the CIA created AIDs to kill gays and minorities.  You want to be a doctor?  Get yer facts straight first, son.

[Doc]

What does caucasian have to do with it?

And the CIA created AIDs to kill gays and minorities.  You want to be a doctor?  Get yer facts straight first, son.

Not much, I just felt like being overly specific about demographic.

And way to buy into what The Man wants you to believe, man.

[greenkoolayd]

i have a hard time believing that the government can create anything as sophisticated as aids.

[pmcd9]

To those who got sick the same year you had a flu shot, were you actually diagnosed with influenza or did you just have symptoms and self-diagnose?

Down with the Sickness

[jay-ell]

THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE THEY CAUSE AUTISM.

I hate Jenny McCarthy.

Last year, I actually had friends & relatives call me and ask me if they should let their kids have the H1N1 vaccine "because of thimerisol." Like I'm some kind of vaccine expert because I've got a kid with autism? How bizarre, how bizarre.

I told them, "My kids are getting it, just like they get all the recommended vaccinations. You can do what you want, but there's no correlation between vaccines and autism, so I don't know why you wouldn't."

You might think you don't need a shot because you never get the flu, or you get over it pretty quickly, this is probably true but the thing we're more interested in with vaccines is something called 'herd immunity' that is when enough people in a given population (something like 80%) are immune to a disease, it doesn't have anywhere to live anymore and basically dies out. This is how we got rid of smallpox and polio. Point being you might get over the flu or not even notice you have it but in the mean time you might pass it on to your grandmother, or your newborn nephew, who aren't as strong and may be made very sick.

How true is this, really, for things like the 'flu, which you also say has multiple strains that are constantly mutating? Am I killing babies by failing to get a 'flu shot? Or are medical professionals just interested in getting healthy people immunized so they don't have to deal with as many cases of the 'flu?

Forget what you've been taught to tell us -- we want the TRUTH, man!

[Nabubrush]

The autism-vaccine "link" is another one of those things that people get really het up about on the internet. Strange phenomena, really.

[Carlos del Vaca]

There was a big-ass article in Wired a few months ago about the vaccines vs. autism debate.  Wired, not surprisingly, took the side of actual scientists. 

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/

I'd like to hear an interview with an anti-vaccine parent after their kid comes down with whooping cough or some other disease that had been seemingly eradicated.  I mean, I don't want to wish bad shit on anyone's children, but it's happening, and I wonder if such people are willing to admit they fucked up.

Anyway.  I don't typically get a flu shot. I know I probably should, but I've just never felt the need. Strong like moose.  The missus gets them, and we get them for the kids.

[jay-ell]

The autism-vaccine "link" is another one of those things that people get really het up about on the internet. Strange phenomena, really.

Not just on the internet, my friend. You ever try talking IRL to a parent with an autistic kid who truly believes that her child "got autism" from a vaccine? It makes you want to slap their face off.

Especially when they talk about how taking the chance that their kid will die of polio or the measles or some other horrible, preventable illness is preferable to getting vaccinated and (in their minds) risking "becoming autistic." It's practically hate speech, it makes me sick.

Carlos, there was a case a couple of years ago where an anti-vaccination activist took her un-vaccinated kids on some global expedition (can't remember where exactly they went) and brought home a case of the measles. The activists' kids got better quickly, but there was a major outbreak in their community among unvaccinated people (which included voluntarily unvaccinated kids as well as people with suppressed immune systems and babies under 1 year). One baby actually did die as a result. That's the problem with anti-vaccine parents -- like drunk drivers, they usually end up killing someone else's kid. If you want more info I might be able to track down a link to the story, but that's the basic gist of it.

See also: Doc's explanation of herd immunity, above.

[Doc]

How true is this, really, for things like the 'flu, which you also say has multiple strains that are constantly mutating? Am I killing babies by failing to get a 'flu shot? Or are medical professionals just interested in getting healthy people immunized so they don't have to deal with as many cases of the 'flu?

As far as I understand it, it's as true for flu as it is for anything else in as much as if enough people have an immune response against a particular strain then the ability of that strain to propagate drops to zero. Which flu (or variety) they make the vaccine for in a given season though is guess work, I think they see what the biggest strain is in the opposite hemisphere (opposite seasons work for us sometimes) and target that, just because it isn't possible to culture enough vaccine in time if you wait to see what strain people actually start getting when flu season rolls around. It happens sometimes though, that's what they did for the H1N1 vaccine, near me anyway. I did get that one for what it's worth because I was in a hospital at the time and didn't feel like accidentally passing the worst flu around onto some poor cancer fighting dude who had enough to worry about. I'm not familiar with the shot/mist distinction that Ash is talking about, but I assume it's similar principles.

tl;dr - I still think it's valid because it's one less disease I won't give my Nana. At a basic level that's what it's about.

And Ash gets a can for giving me an image I can bust on some poor unsuspecting soul one day.