Evidence Shows that “…Your Excuses for Not Getting a Flu Shot Stink”

650K people die from flu each year according to the World Health Organization. Vaccination (herd immunity) is especially important to protect people at highest risk. Even pregnant women need one according to the CDC and Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports also addresses the three common excuses for not getting the flu shot in their article “Why Your Excuses for Not Getting a Flu Shot Stink“. Up front is the idea that it can cause the flu. No, it just makes your symptoms less severe if you get it (e.g. YOUR LESS LIKELY TO DIE… dying being a symptom apparently). And no, there is no scientific link to autism despite tons of fake news to the contrary.

So please, do the world a favor and get a flu vaccination yearly.

10Jan2019 update: Influenza has killed 3 unvaccinated Sask. preschoolers so far this season: public health officials “virus is hitting otherwise healthy children hard, particularly those under age nine”

13Mar2019 update: Unvaccinated children in Italy have been banned from preschool. Under the new law, parents are also subject to fines of 100 to 500 euros and local health authorities will then schedule vaccinations for the children to make sure they get caught up. The fines presumably are for the extra administration of managing the vaccinations instead of the parents. This is directly addressing the “tragedy of the commons” issue that unvaccinated people represent.

 

26Apr2019 update: The Cost of Measles: Let’s leave the science aside and talk about the economics. According to this NPR “The Indicator” podcast, it would cost the US economy $4 Billion annually without vaccinations (an outbreak). It costs $45 Million to subsidize vaccines. That’s a 90,000% return on investment. “Measles is extremely contagious. It can remain in the air for up to two hours after you’ve left…. [T]here can be really significant long-term effects. Some people unfortunately have brain damage after their body is trying to fight measles because of lack of oxygen. They may lose their hearing. They may lose their eyesight. … [W]hen people are having to respond to these outbreaks and they form an outbreak team, those people aren’t just materializing out of nowhere. They had another job in the public health system before that now they have to leave to go do this. We were realizing, like, wow, measles isn’t just causing measles. It’s also causing these weaker links in the health care infrastructure and the public health infrastructure. And goodness knows what that could be doing kind of for our risk for other diseases down the road.” Based on this scenario I think it’s pretty plain to see that we’re going to start seeing policy for folks who don’t vaccinate.
https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/15/713645707/the-cost-of-measles

29Aug2019 update: Pinterest helps with “the war around truth” and only allows posts “…from ‘reliable’ public health sources, including the WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.”   https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/pinterest-world-health-organization-vaccine-social-media-1.5263536

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