RE: Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 08/10/18> let’s talk contagious diseases… and a couple that might be.
Give me a second here, I need to count the number of flu shots I've had in my lifetime. That would be zero.
Not that I am anti-vaccine. I'm not. 4 scourges of my youth have been vaxed into submission. Smallpox, Whooping Cough, Red Measles and Polio. Marvelous advances by modern medicine, to the point where parents today can make a real decision whether to vax for these.
Those 4 success stories spawned an entire world of vaccine studies and doctors. The rush was on to rid humanity of every disease.
The problem being that the evidence that many of these vaccines work is not empirical. There is a huge mistake made when you say "X worked really well in the general population therefore Y will work exactly the same."
I've got a little at stake here. Red Measles just damn near got me when I was 3. I spent the night in the local hospital packed in ice to give me a chance to fight the explosive fever. I am one of the last people in the US to have this disease. I'm glad it's gone.
The chance exists that we might experience another Flu epidemic on the magnitude of the 1918 episode. Can the CDC or anyone prevent it? Maybe. No more chance than maybe.
So. Does the CDC do good? No question. Are they manipulated? Do they manipulate? Yeah.
Past performance is no indication of future actions, but I'd be willing to wager a fair piece of my net wealth that I won't take a flu shot this year, either.
My mother was big on flu shots when we were kids, but as soon as I was old enough to decide for myself I was done with them. I don't recall ever getting sick, sick but it did make me feel a couple times a little under the weather.
I think, just like you mentioned, the vaccines we received as kids were important and for the most part seemed safe. But now that the recommended number is above 30 by the time kids are 18, that is just scary to me.
No flu shots here you can bank on that.