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by WalterBright 3356 days ago
> flu

Get the flu vaccination. I haven't gotten the flu since I started with the vaccinations, while everyone around me was felled by it.

It's one thing to feel righteous staying home to keep from infecting others at the office, but an even better thing to get vaccinated and not transmit it to anyone.
1 comments
dragonwriter 3356 days ago
> Get the flu vaccination. I haven't gotten the flu since I started with the vaccinations, while everyone around me was felled by it.

Your lucky; vaccinated people get the flu all the time. The flu vaccine is designed to predict against a set of strains that are expected to be most significant in the upcoming flue season, but, aside from the usual problem of vaccines being less than 100% effective at what they target, there are lots of flu strains that aren't targeted by the vaccine, and often the predictions as to which ones are most important to protect against turn out to be wrong.

It's good to get the flu shot, but it's not anywhere close to a 100% guarantee.

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WalterBright 3356 days ago
> Your lucky; vaccinated people get the flu all the time.

I know, it's around 60% effective. But even if you still get the flu, the symptoms are reduced.

Your point is valid but not justification for not not getting the vaccination. It's irresponsible to not get it. It's free (under Obamacare), and if you don't care about yourself, there are other people who for various reasons cannot get a shot and can die from the flu.

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dragonwriter 3356 days ago
> But even if you still get the flu, the symptoms are reduced.

If you still get one of the covered strains (or similar strains) despite the vaccination, the symptoms are reduced; it's generally ineffective against other strains.

> Your point is valid but not justification for not not getting the vaccination.

Since my point was fairly explicitly that you should get the vaccination, but should not expect it to eliminate the need to take sick days for the flu, I agree with this but find it something of a non-sequitur. "It's good to get the shot" is, indeed, not a justification for not getting the shot.

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