Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
I wonder whether acceptance of vaccines might be higher if they weren't pushing the flu vaccine (and vaccines for other minor illnesses) so hard.

Diseases like polio and smallpox are one thing. But we've all had the flu. It feels awful for a couple of weeks, maybe a whole month occasionally, but is it really so bad that we want to monkey with our immune systems to prevent it? Yes, a very small percentage of people die of it ... people die. We are not immortal. Each and every one of us has to die of something.
As many as 49k people have died from the flu and flu-related complications in a single year in the US. I don't consider that a few people. That's over 24x the # of people who live in my town. And the greatest risks are to those who cannot receive the vaccine, like infants. Is it OK to tell a parent that their kid died from the flu, but they had to die from something, so it's NBD?

I have asthma...every time I get the flu I end up in the ER for a breathing treatment. I always get the vaccination, but herd immunity doesn't work if relatively few people do so. And sometimes the vaccine doesn't work as well as other times, but it generally provides some protection...and more protection the more people who get it.