Get Your Flu Shot, Folks!

[Ms. Toad]

149. Nope. Good for a year or more - always has been.

Unlike immunity created by acquiring the disease which lasts a lifetime, immunity from most vaccinations tends to wear off in a dozen or so years (depending on what virus or bacteria is being vaccinated against). And immunity from the influenza vaccine lasts a much shorter period of time - but still on the order of a year.

BUT - the flu changes every year, so last year's vaccine does not (except on rare occasions) protect against this year's influenza.

And what the flu vaccine bullies don't tell you is that this year's vaccine only protects against their best guess as to what this year's top few strains will be. Sometimes they guess correctly - sometimes they don't. And when they don't (The numbers range from 5% overall to 50% of the time for the B strain of influenza), all this bullying & guilt tripping to coerce people to get the influenza vaccine is for naught. The increased protection for those who received the 2013 vaccine was only 60% because of the inability to predict precisely which strains would be floating around.