Flu shots, should they be required?

pixmedic · Dec 2, 2014

BGeise said:
pixmedic said:

runnah said:

A bunch of photographers discussing medicine is like asking an engineer how to make love.

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yea, you gotta ask a real blue collar worker....like a professional pipe layer.

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What do you think pix? Aren't you a doctor or something

me??
no, no. not even close.

photoguy99 · Dec 2, 2014

You're frequently close to doctors. I assume you wash thoroughly, afterwards.

limr · Dec 2, 2014

It was 1978. And apparently as of this year, vials of smallpox were still lying around. In Maryland. Always the last place you look.

Destroying the last samples of smallpox virus could prove short-sighted | Tania Browne | Science | The Guardian

Derrel · Dec 2, 2014

Braineack said:
there's a very high risk your child will die during childbirth. that's the biggest risk of anyone below the age of 10. Solution: dont have kids.

I thought the solution would be : don't let your child be born as a child--but instead, only allow your child to be born as an adolescent...you know, sometime after the age of 10, when it's safer to be born...I dunno...just spitballing here, really

snowbear · Dec 2, 2014

When my lovely wife gets the flu shot, she is achy for a day or so - less than the run of the disease. I have had no side effects from the shot. She has no spleen; that means the common cold, for her, is like the flu for others. We will continue to get the shots.

snowbear · Dec 2, 2014

limr said:
Well it does matter. For example, my whole family is getting rabies vaccines. One vaccine that I will happily take as the alternative is certain death.

Ouch. My oldest had the series when he was three.

photoguy99 · Dec 2, 2014

Just so everyone knows, Braineack's statistics are mostly wrong. You can look this stuff up yourself.

The pediatric (0-18 years) mortality rate from flu is certainly quite low. One in something like 800,000. But most of those are unvaccinated kids. Most of those are at-risk infants.

So, if you're gonna be around at-risk infants, it's probably a good idea. That's why medical personnel are required to get it. So that, within the hospital environment, there are fewer staff roaming around spreading flu. Generally speaking.

Also, most years for most people, the vaccine is simply quite effective. No, it does not prevent you from getting the flu. It does lower the odds that you will. If you get it every year, then over a period of, say, ten years, you can generally expect to get the flu less often.

That's a measured reality. The benefits are statistical, not absolute, but nonetheless real.

I got it when I had an infant. I don't any more because I am willing to tough out the flu in exchange for the convenience of not mucking about getting the vaccine.

ETA: roughly running the numbers, flu vaccinations seem to be saving the lives of about 100 kids (0-18 years of age) per year in the USA. That's just the first order effect of vaccinating the kids themselves. Much harder to estimate the second order effects of vaccinating nurses etc.

Still, that seems pretty worthwhile.