CNN: "How my daughter died from a simple case of the flu"

[Solly Mack]

42. I know it it happens that way.

The CDC now tells people to stop saying 36k die. That the number is more like 3k-49k , depending how how well the vaccine works against certain influenza strains. They develop for one crop and another crop hits instead or along with, and it is usually a more dangerous strain. (mainly because it is new to us...as humans, new...even if animals have already died. The cross-over of a new strain can be more serious.)

It's a race, not exact, against what strains will hit, and people can still get strains not in the current vaccine.

Still, the vaccine does help prevent deaths.

I'm not being callous, though I know it comes across that way to many.

A friend to my mom and aunt got his flu shot one year, he was 75, the shot caused a stroke and he was paralyzed for the remainder of his life. My mom and aunt had no such reaction to the same shot. They all went together. No one else did in our county. It was a big local story 40 years ago. I remember because I was just starting high school at the time. I'm sure he didn't 't think it worth the risk. But 1 out of 100k plus isn't bad odds.

The overall health and age does have an impact. Different people react differently. Some children and adults have been known to die from reactions to vaccines, but the overall benefits, cruel as it is to say, makes the vaccines (not just for influenza) worth it. Though I can honestly say I didn't always trust the military when it came to vaccines.

People can make up their own minds, but when I was getting cancer treatment, I wanted to know who and who didn't get their immunizations. Because those children (and some now adults) who didn't, were deadly to me in my weakened state.

Yes, no one should have to die from a vaccine - but I shouldn't have to die because of a lack of a vaccine either. Cancer is bad enough. The treatment is worse. But to survive cancer and then die because someone didn't immunize their child/now young adult? That's murder in my book.