A friend of mine has NEVER EVER gotten a flu shot and he is now over 60. (I'm not sure that as a baby he got any vaccinations at all other than polio. He wasn't born in the United States.) He is one of the people who believes that vaccinations and flu shots in particular are unnecessary. Some of these people believe that the government gives people diseases like cancer and AIDS in other vaccines. To me this is paranoid thinking.
For much of my life I did not take the flu shot, not out of fear, but out of a sense that I did not need it and was so strong and in such perfect health that if I got the flu I could fend it off. And if I did get a virus or cold or a flu I must have.
I started taking the seasonal shot in the last few years because I'm now in much more contact with the general population than I was - and that includes at libraries - and because I visit people who live in Assisted Living where there are a lot of seniors and people in more fragile health.
I DON'T WANT TO BE CONTAGEOUS.
I'm convinced that, although the flu shot manufacturers take a good guess at what strain of flu is making its way around the globe and could be wrong, so that a vaccination might not actually work in every case, that the LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE TAKING THE SHOT actually helps protect those who refuse. When thousands of people take the shot, they cannot get or give others the flu.
Well, my friend had a couple bouts of somewhat serious illness this year for the first time. He was afraid enough to actually go to a hospital Urgent Care at one point. He took antibiotics around the clock for the first time and he managed to break a fever of more than 102! At that point I urged him to get the flu shot, because I think he is slowly becoming more fragile and at risk. He said he'd think about it.
And he didn't do it.
Not even when I brought up some DEATH CERTIFICATES from a database and showed him that people did indeed die of the flu in the not so distant past - like in the 1960's!
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