Get your flu shot

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

125. I had not run across that before. Quite interesting.

Especially when you realize that the immunity gained from having gotten influenza itself is vastly superior to the immunity gotten from the vaccine.

As I stated above, my confidence in my immunity is based on having gotten flu in my youth, as well as my understanding of the virus itself.

Back when we all needed to show proof of smallpox vaccination when returning to this country after travel abroad, I kept on losing the documentation, so I kept on needing to get a smallpox vaccination. No big deal, except that after a while I didn't show an immune response to the vaccine. Another factoid connected to smallpox: the last outbreak in this country was in 1948. One of the things that stood out then was that people who had last had a smallpox vaccination 50 years earlier were still, for the most part, protected.

I am not conflating smallpox with influenza. Quite the contrary.

I understand the value of vaccinations. I'm just not entirely certain that a blanket recommendation of the flu vaccination is truly in everyone's best interest.

Here's another thing to ponder. There are those who cannot be vaccinated, or who have highly compromised immune systems. Should absolutely everything be done to protect them, even if that's not in the best interest in the majority.