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I've only had the flu one time in my entire life and it was the same as the only year I got vaccinated. I haven't had a flu vaccine since and I haven't gotten

by fnid 17y ago

I've only had the flu one time in my entire life and it was the same as the only year I got vaccinated. I haven't had a flu vaccine since and I haven't gotten the flu since. Edit: Not saying I don't believe in vaccines in general. But I'm not sure I believe in the flu vaccine. I can't explain my flu infection, nor can others who experienced the same circumstance: getting the flu the only year they were vaccinated. I have been vaccinated against other diseases since then though.

eru 17y ago
I tried to re-upmod your post back to 1 point. You state an observation. And while that anecdote flys in the face of what many here (including myself) believe about vaccination, there's nothing wrong with your comment. For what its worth, I had have lots of flus, but was never vaccinated against influenza (as far as I can remember).
- sketerpot 17y ago
  The observation isn't inconsistent with the facts about vaccination. Flu vaccines can't protect against every strain you might encounter, and it's a simple matter of probability that there are going to be a lot of people who get vaccinated for the first time, get a flu that year, and stop getting vaccinated from then on. This is why anecdotal evidence on this issue is worthless. Worse than worthless, actually, since it distracts from the proper statistical approach to thinking about vaccines.
  - eru 17y ago
    Perhaps. And a proper comment like this is a good reply. Downvoting doesn't seem right to me in this case.
nollidge 17y ago
Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation. Edit: "I can't explain my flu infection" I can. You got the flu strain which wasn't covered by the shot.
gcheong 17y ago
The flu vaccine is very hit or miss as there are multiple strains each year and vaccines are only developed for the strains most likely to be the most active each year so there are many possible explanations for your case, but one thing is certain - the vaccine did not cause you to get the flu as a dead/weakened virus cannot cause the illness. Also, you may have had the flu before but not recognized it so I'm not sure you could say you've never had it before except that one time unless you've done extensive blood testing. But let's say you really never did have the flu except that one time, well, if millions of people are tossing coins you would expect that there will be cases where for some people it always comes up heads with one tail.

by fnid 17y ago

eru 17y ago

I tried to re-upmod your post back to 1 point. You state an observation. And while that anecdote flys in the face of what many here (including myself) believe about vaccination, there's nothing wrong with your comment. For what its worth, I had have lots of flus, but was never vaccinated against influenza (as far as I can remember).

sketerpot 17y ago
The observation isn't inconsistent with the facts about vaccination. Flu vaccines can't protect against every strain you might encounter, and it's a simple matter of probability that there are going to be a lot of people who get vaccinated for the first time, get a flu that year, and stop getting vaccinated from then on. This is why anecdotal evidence on this issue is worthless. Worse than worthless, actually, since it distracts from the proper statistical approach to thinking about vaccines.
- eru 17y ago
  Perhaps. And a proper comment like this is a good reply. Downvoting doesn't seem right to me in this case.

nollidge 17y ago

Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation. Edit: "I can't explain my flu infection" I can. You got the flu strain which wasn't covered by the shot.

gcheong 17y ago

The flu vaccine is very hit or miss as there are multiple strains each year and vaccines are only developed for the strains most likely to be the most active each year so there are many possible explanations for your case, but one thing is certain - the vaccine did not cause you to get the flu as a dead/weakened virus cannot cause the illness. Also, you may have had the flu before but not recognized it so I'm not sure you could say you've never had it before except that one time unless you've done extensive blood testing. But let's say you really never did have the flu except that one time, well, if millions of people are tossing coins you would expect that there will be cases where for some people it always comes up heads with one tail.