This is a very contentious issue.
I fall on the side of DeeBye in it. I too have had influenza once in my life. I was damned sick for two weeks. However, flu shots are dangerous too.
This link discusses some of the problems with them.
On a more personal note, there are potential side effects from the flu. Without spending more time searching than I have to spend right now, I offer my own anecdotal observation of two otherwise healthy seniors who both contracted acute demyelinating disease following their first flu shots. In both cases they were, in fact, told by their doctors that they had most likely contracted this from the flu shot. Being sick for two weeks beats the heck out of being paralysed for a year. The toll on the health care system and their families was immense, and certainly not comparable to being sick for two weeks.
And Armin?
Did anyone do any questioning to find out how many of them had taken a flu shot themselves or lived in close proximity to someone who had taken a flu shot? Those with already compromised immune systems certainly are among the more vulnerable to influenza. But I question the logic of insisting that exposing them to the virus is a reasonable way to protect them.
Edit: grrr The forum software wanted to make one of my options a smiley. Sentence structure changed.
I fall on the side of DeeBye in it. I too have had influenza once in my life. I was damned sick for two weeks. However, flu shots are dangerous too.
This link discusses some of the problems with them.
On a more personal note, there are potential side effects from the flu. Without spending more time searching than I have to spend right now, I offer my own anecdotal observation of two otherwise healthy seniors who both contracted acute demyelinating disease following their first flu shots. In both cases they were, in fact, told by their doctors that they had most likely contracted this from the flu shot. Being sick for two weeks beats the heck out of being paralysed for a year. The toll on the health care system and their families was immense, and certainly not comparable to being sick for two weeks.
And Armin?
Quote:Even the recent years' more "harmless" strains killed an average of 6000 people here in Germany. Admittedly, they were mostly the elderly and already weakened folks, but who do you think they received their infection FROM?
Did anyone do any questioning to find out how many of them had taken a flu shot themselves or lived in close proximity to someone who had taken a flu shot? Those with already compromised immune systems certainly are among the more vulnerable to influenza. But I question the logic of insisting that exposing them to the virus is a reasonable way to protect them.
Edit: grrr The forum software wanted to make one of my options a smiley. Sentence structure changed.
And you may call it righteousness
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake