General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Fewer than half in USA get flu shots, CDC says ~ USA Today [View all]LeftishBrit
(41,203 posts)Or are you talking about specific federal or state rules in America? Probably different here: the flu vaccine is only very actively promoted to certain groups in the UK.
You are talking to someone who became very ill as a small child, because a probably unvaccinated doctor brought the 1968 pandemic flu to me when I was already in hospital for something else; so it's not that I don't take it seriously. But the benefits of the flu vaccine are simply not (at present) as strong as those of many other vaccines. Hopefully, more work and research will lead to better flu vaccines.
In any case, even if many people are wrong, hypocritical or irresponsible about not taking the flu vaccine, that may indeed be a reason for putting them under more pressure to take it, but it's not an excuse for not giving children vaccinations against easily preventable childhood diseases. Still less is it an excuse for the MONSTERS OF PURE EVIL like Andrew Wakefield and the Daily Mail who have spread the lies about vaccines causing autism. At least, so far as I know, no one has done that about the flu vaccine. (And no, before I'm accused of the latter, saying that something doesn't cause autism is NOT the same as saying that it can never have any risks or side-effects.)