I still think getting a flu shot is directly linked to getting the flu

[Rev. Rye]

I don't deny that most of the vaccines we have to take are effective and largely risk-free. I don't even deny that for many, the flu vaccines actually do help. That said, due to numerous factors, including the rapid rates of mutation that require a new vaccine every  year, occasional defects in manufacture, and immune irregularities in some people, it isn't all that effective. With the wildly variable effectiveness rates demonstrated in the article, even if the whole population took it, herd immunity might not actually take hold. Admittedly, the effects of getting it and it backfiring aren't really worse than not getting it at all, but to me it's a case of the benefits of doing so not really outweighing the benefits of not doing so.

Er?

What? If you're curious about the benefits of taking the vaccine and not taking it, I mentioned in my first post that every time I get the vaccine, I end up getting the full disease anyway. If I don't, well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. This year, for example, according to the CDC, it was apparently a pretty bad year and yet I didn't get the flu, despite not taking the jab. Like I said, that's just me.

If it's about herd immunity not working, remember, the stats in the article say it works about 70% of the time at best (and one recent flu season was just over 20%), which, from my understanding of herd immunity, is less than optimal.