Quote:
Originally Posted by bobcowan
|
Thanks Bob.
I posted the previous post before reading this one.
The most interesting new thing I read was a cell grown vaccine. This may improve things a bunch, at least in theory it should. I question if this method might reduce the Mercury based preservative required, when grown in eggs. I hope so. As I understand it, most of the bad things have to do with growing the virus in eggs.
I still come away with the same understandings.
1) The Flu shot does not prevent you from getting the flue, as a small pox vaccination prevented small pox.
2) The flu shot most likely reduces your likely hood to get the flu, but the variable are many and difficult to measure. There is no conclusive proof.
3) The flu shot does give your immune system a head start and therefore in my mind is the biggest benefit. It will reduce the severity of the flu if you get it, provided the strain you got matched the shot. The guess of which 3 or 4 to put into the shot each year is a gamble using the best statistics we know.
4) There are real risks. If you are one of the unlucky few, the damage to you can be devastating.
5) There are other long term risks that we may not know for years. If you get a shot every year of you life that is a lot of mercury.
This is a multi-billion dollar industry. It would not be in their self interest to be totally honest. There are plenty of real scientist out there questioning this. Therefore I still stand by opinion that people who choose not to get a flu shot are not all idiots, and it is their right to make that choice.
It just occurred to me that statistically some of the people who did get the shot are idiots, therefore idiots has nothing to do with it at all.