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Also why many people don't take it at all. Not worth the constant hassle for something that doesn't bother me in the first place. Flu shot efficacy is usuall

Also why many people don't take it at all. Not worth the constant hassle for something that doesn't bother me in the first place. Flu shot efficacy is usually in the gutter anyway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Effectiveness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_vaccine#Effectivenes...).

discordance 5y ago
If taking a quick and harmless shot every year gives me up to a ~40% chance of avoiding disease then I’m good with that. Definitely a better outcome than not getting a flu shot.
- dekhn 5y ago
  when I get the flu shot I typically spend a week with a non-functioning arm and feeling like I'm very sick. However, I still get flu vaccination because it seems likely that this maximizes the overall health of humanity, and I'm more interested in the health of humanity than my own, in the long term.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
    Good that you get the shot, but I'll just note that the symptom you describe is far worse than most people who get the flu shot. Most years I get it I have no symptoms at all besides slight arm soreness. Maybe one in five years I have a mild fever for a day.
gerdesj 5y ago
It doesn't bother you yet. Wait until you are say sixty or seventy years old. I am of course making a few assumptions here 8) Flu rarely kills young 'uns in reasonable to good shape with no other indicators or whatever doctors call it. I mean risks associated with a particular individual. The point of vaccines is not perfection but more like a war of attrition. A vaccine has several potential purposes, some of them are these: * Reduce the possibility of infection * Reduce the effects of an infection * Reduce the infectiousness of an individual to other people The first two effects affect you personally and the third one affects society as a whole. The third one is the thing behind the "Don't kill grandma" meme. Your comment implies to me that you may not have considered it. If you have and are happy with that, then that is your prerogative. Each of those items above have various probabilities associated with them and rather a lot of external factors and so on. A vaccine's stated effectiveness in each area will obviously be some sort of average across a population. That's the thing: Vaccines inoculate societies as a whole and not just individuals when you look at statistics. The phrase "anecdotes are not data" is particularly true here. Even a "lol sad" 40% effective (whatever that means) vaccine will slow the spread of the thing across a population and reduce the possibility of individual deaths or other non optimal outcomes. When you start to look at the population as a whole you see huge numbers of people living instead of dying. With luck, one of those survivors might be you or me one day. This is the only time I will advocate a sort of communist approach to things. By "risking" inoculation, you reduce the possibility that someone else might catch the disease. You also get some additional abilities to fight off the bloody thing too - nice!
- Eelongate 5y ago
  The old people in my family usually get the shot. When I'm old, I might start to get it as well. Until then, I don't bother.
klyrs 5y ago
The flu didn't bother me 'til it knocked me on my ass for two weeks and I had brain fog for several months afterwards. The cost of a flu shot is a few bucks, a few minutes to get the jab, a sore muscle and mild symptoms for a day. That for 20-50% efficacy chance to avoid that 2-week monster flu? I'm in.
- jghn 5y ago
  One big issue is that colloquially "the flu" is used to describe bad colds and other illnesses. Almost no one who has "the flu" has influenza. Thus people underestimate how bad influenza actually is
  - corin_ 5y ago
    Actually I believe that in itself is a misunderstanding. Flu may be more likely than a cold statistically to hit someone badly, but it's quite possible to get the flu mildly, and it's quite possible to get really, really bad cold. The same way Covid being statistically more dangerous than the flu doesn't mean that every person getting infected by Covid has a worse time than every person getting the flu.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
> constant hassle > something that doesn't bother me Yeah you've never been unlucky enough to get a bad flu. I'll absolutely choose the "constant hassle" of getting a flu shot (i.e. a 5 minute pit stop at the drug store once per year). The flu sucks.

discordance 5y ago

If taking a quick and harmless shot every year gives me up to a ~40% chance of avoiding disease then I’m good with that. Definitely a better outcome than not getting a flu shot.

dekhn 5y ago
when I get the flu shot I typically spend a week with a non-functioning arm and feeling like I'm very sick. However, I still get flu vaccination because it seems likely that this maximizes the overall health of humanity, and I'm more interested in the health of humanity than my own, in the long term.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  Good that you get the shot, but I'll just note that the symptom you describe is far worse than most people who get the flu shot. Most years I get it I have no symptoms at all besides slight arm soreness. Maybe one in five years I have a mild fever for a day.

gerdesj 5y ago

It doesn't bother you yet. Wait until you are say sixty or seventy years old. I am of course making a few assumptions here 8) Flu rarely kills young 'uns in reasonable to good shape with no other indicators or whatever doctors call it. I mean risks associated with a particular individual. The point of vaccines is not perfection but more like a war of attrition. A vaccine has several potential purposes, some of them are these: * Reduce the possibility of infection * Reduce the effects of an infection * Reduce the infectiousness of an individual to other people The first two effects affect you personally and the third one affects society as a whole. The third one is the thing behind the "Don't kill grandma" meme. Your comment implies to me that you may not have considered it. If you have and are happy with that, then that is your prerogative. Each of those items above have various probabilities associated with them and rather a lot of external factors and so on. A vaccine's stated effectiveness in each area will obviously be some sort of average across a population. That's the thing: Vaccines inoculate societies as a whole and not just individuals when you look at statistics. The phrase "anecdotes are not data" is particularly true here. Even a "lol sad" 40% effective (whatever that means) vaccine will slow the spread of the thing across a population and reduce the possibility of individual deaths or other non optimal outcomes. When you start to look at the population as a whole you see huge numbers of people living instead of dying. With luck, one of those survivors might be you or me one day. This is the only time I will advocate a sort of communist approach to things. By "risking" inoculation, you reduce the possibility that someone else might catch the disease. You also get some additional abilities to fight off the bloody thing too - nice!

Eelongate 5y ago
The old people in my family usually get the shot. When I'm old, I might start to get it as well. Until then, I don't bother.

klyrs 5y ago

The flu didn't bother me 'til it knocked me on my ass for two weeks and I had brain fog for several months afterwards. The cost of a flu shot is a few bucks, a few minutes to get the jab, a sore muscle and mild symptoms for a day. That for 20-50% efficacy chance to avoid that 2-week monster flu? I'm in.

jghn 5y ago
One big issue is that colloquially "the flu" is used to describe bad colds and other illnesses. Almost no one who has "the flu" has influenza. Thus people underestimate how bad influenza actually is
- corin_ 5y ago
  Actually I believe that in itself is a misunderstanding. Flu may be more likely than a cold statistically to hit someone badly, but it's quite possible to get the flu mildly, and it's quite possible to get really, really bad cold. The same way Covid being statistically more dangerous than the flu doesn't mean that every person getting infected by Covid has a worse time than every person getting the flu.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago

> constant hassle > something that doesn't bother me Yeah you've never been unlucky enough to get a bad flu. I'll absolutely choose the "constant hassle" of getting a flu shot (i.e. a 5 minute pit stop at the drug store once per year). The flu sucks.