That's me.
I go to my new doctor. "Have you gotten your flu shot this year?"
Oh hell no, Doc. Never never. All that hassle and mild symptom reaction to the a damn this that is what? 5% effective? No thank you. Call me when it gets multi-spectrum.
"How bout a shingles vaccine?"
Please! Yes! Hurry hurry hurry! I'm not CRAZY. Gimme that shot!
My arm is sore right now. Good. Get the second one in March. Grandma had shingles and she really suffered with it, the poor thing.
But I think it is still rational to avoid flu shots at this time. And hope for an improvement or breakthrough. Or when I get to be a little more frail as I age. When that 5% makes more sense.
The side effects are standard. I get what feels like a punch-in-the-arm-bruise pain at the shot sight, and I always get the mildest of flu like symptoms. Nothing going to bed early doesn't fix up in a trice. And nothing bad enough to scare me away from getting a shot, unless that shot is useless, like flu.
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So many people seem unable to understand simple math and logic. If it takes the company one year to create a vaccine, and it takes the FDA at least a year to approve it, and then it takes another year to produce enough vaccine to matter, while the flu itself mutates yearly, what possible use is a vaccine that was obsolete before you got it?
Actually, it's 40-60% effective. Which starts being meaningful as you age and after you've had the real flu. It's fairly broad as to types, which is why it can be prepped and distributed before the season. But viruses are facinating in their ability to morph and adapt so a new one can still emerge during the season - the Spanish flu pandemic is a facinating study because of that. I still don't get the shingles vaccine because my doc uses the live vaccine one and I'm still dealing with being infection-prone after chemo. Not keen on live vaccine anything right now.
My arm didn't like the flu vaccine this year for a couple weeks. Not bad, but itchy and tender.
40? They are lying to you.
Estimates for the 2019 vaccine are 47%.
But the influenza virus is facinating. It has an amazing ability to get into a cell and make life miserable. I've got a whole shelf full of books on it. It's a love-hate thing. I don't want it ever again but how it made me suffer is facinating.
I've gotten to the age where the threat of a bad bout of flu outweighs the inconvenience of a few days of feeling meh. Ironically, I had no reaction to this year's shot.
The measles shot I got a few months ago was a different story. Swollen at the injection site for a month. But since I had no immunity at all (having only had the one shot in the mid-60s) and surrounded by NorCal anti-vaxxers, it was well worth it.
That's my feeling. If there's cummulative problems well, hell, try to catch up with Father Time. I've had the real flu and "walking pneumonia" and I'm ok with even a small percentage of protection these days. Except shingles. The live vaccine worries me but there IS a killed vaccine. My doc just doesn't have it.
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