I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong, and this week, I learned that I've been very wrong about something that I've defended for a long time. Right now, I want to publicly apologize to everybody that I ever argued with about the benefit and necessity of a flu shot. I've always believed that they did keep me from getting the flu, especially one year over a decade ago when a co-worker came in to work with the flu just after the holidays, and the only people that didn't get sick were the ones that got a flu shot.
Maybe it worked that one time, but it looks like the truth is that I've just been lucky. I've had the flu twice in the past 11 months, despite having had a flu shot last year and again in October. It turns out that the flu shot that was given this year was completely ineffective, as the strain of the flu that I've had this week is one that was in the shot, but has mutated since they created the formula last March. Digging deeper, I further discovered that flu shots are actually effective in a third of the people that get them each year. That means that they're completely useless to over 66% of people that get it.
CDC, you have bamboozled me for the last time. I will never get a flu shot again. I knew that viruses mutated and that was always a risk, but I had no idea of how extremely ineffective flu shots are. It's a money-making racket, plain and simple. And I hope that everybody that's given flu shots enjoys the money they made this year, because after the story about the shots being useless this year broke the day I was diagnosed with the flu, you will NOT see lines for shots next year.
I don't know why I've been so hard headed about it, because I've had health care professionals tell me that they were a waste of time (of course, they weren't my own doctors, but others that I knew working in that field). I guess I had to learn for myself, and I'm sorry for that now. This flu is by far much worse than the strain I had around New Years. It knocked me out flat for 3 days, and I'm just now starting to get up and active (in a very limited fashion) today. My doctor cleared me to go to work on Monday, but I know that's going to be tough, as my energy is still very low.
So folks, I'm sorry. I was wrong. So many of you tried to tell me that I was wasting my time and money, and even putting myself at risk of side effects for absolutely nothing. It turns out that you were absolutely right. I'm not afraid to admit that I had a wrong mindset on this - and to warn others now that flu shots are a total and complete waste of time.
I also want to promise everybody planning to visit us over the next few weeks (for Christmas and New Year) that Rick and I will thoroughly clean the house once I'm recovered. More good news is that we did all of our Christmas shopping, wrapped the gifts, and wrote the cards before Rick got sick the week of Thanksgiving (and stored them in our guest room, which we haven't been in since Rick got sick, so they haven't been handled while either of us were contagious), so you don't have to worry about any lingering virus/germs on anything coming from us. We've tried very hard to keep it contained.
That's all today. Take care, and have a great rest of the weekend.
Bye!
Maybe it worked that one time, but it looks like the truth is that I've just been lucky. I've had the flu twice in the past 11 months, despite having had a flu shot last year and again in October. It turns out that the flu shot that was given this year was completely ineffective, as the strain of the flu that I've had this week is one that was in the shot, but has mutated since they created the formula last March. Digging deeper, I further discovered that flu shots are actually effective in a third of the people that get them each year. That means that they're completely useless to over 66% of people that get it.
CDC, you have bamboozled me for the last time. I will never get a flu shot again. I knew that viruses mutated and that was always a risk, but I had no idea of how extremely ineffective flu shots are. It's a money-making racket, plain and simple. And I hope that everybody that's given flu shots enjoys the money they made this year, because after the story about the shots being useless this year broke the day I was diagnosed with the flu, you will NOT see lines for shots next year.
I don't know why I've been so hard headed about it, because I've had health care professionals tell me that they were a waste of time (of course, they weren't my own doctors, but others that I knew working in that field). I guess I had to learn for myself, and I'm sorry for that now. This flu is by far much worse than the strain I had around New Years. It knocked me out flat for 3 days, and I'm just now starting to get up and active (in a very limited fashion) today. My doctor cleared me to go to work on Monday, but I know that's going to be tough, as my energy is still very low.
So folks, I'm sorry. I was wrong. So many of you tried to tell me that I was wasting my time and money, and even putting myself at risk of side effects for absolutely nothing. It turns out that you were absolutely right. I'm not afraid to admit that I had a wrong mindset on this - and to warn others now that flu shots are a total and complete waste of time.
I also want to promise everybody planning to visit us over the next few weeks (for Christmas and New Year) that Rick and I will thoroughly clean the house once I'm recovered. More good news is that we did all of our Christmas shopping, wrapped the gifts, and wrote the cards before Rick got sick the week of Thanksgiving (and stored them in our guest room, which we haven't been in since Rick got sick, so they haven't been handled while either of us were contagious), so you don't have to worry about any lingering virus/germs on anything coming from us. We've tried very hard to keep it contained.
That's all today. Take care, and have a great rest of the weekend.
Bye!
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