Re: Dr. Clayton Forrester's Science Roundup
The influenza vaccination can be a bit more difficult to address. I will state right away that most people, including healthy adults, would benefit from receiving it (but as always, discuss with your doctor).
For one, it has several animal reservoirs, several strains, and it can be very difficult to predict which are going to be the most prevalent each year. This is why there can be a large degree of variance with the efficacy year to year. Additionally, each strain has a different R0 (see video) which further complicates the issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsTR6DYzPvI
Influenza strains also have varied morbidity and mortality. If a strain predominates with a high R0 as well as a high morbidity and mortality, you have something like the 1918 pandemic. Most strains kill the young, weak, and elderly but the 1918 and others targeted young adults
because of their immune system. The "well educated" immune system of a majority of the victims induced a cytokine storm (your immune system going crazy).
Most of us adults have a pretty well educated immune system. We have had influenza strains in the past so we are not as seriously ill when we experience similar strains (unless they have mutated to act in the way 1918 did). However, every years influenza vaccination provides protection, no matter how small, for every one who is able to receive it. Simply put, you should get it for the same reason you get your measles vaccination.
Some common misconceptions about influenza:
-It is not strictly seasonal. It is year round. Because of many factors (one large one being the beginning of school and locking people in containers with each other) "influenza season" is fall/winter.
-The symptoms are varied. Many times, you will not even know you have it. It can seem like a cold; it can kill you. Think fever, runny nose, sore throat, headache, muscle ache, coughing in any combination. Nausea and vomiting are rare symptoms and if you have those, chances are it is not influenza but more likely a gasteroenteritis.
-Prior influenza shots do not help much (or at all) for current strains as far as infection goes. This also goes for prior exposures to influenza. Our population rapidly adapts and as we become immune, different strains will adapt and will take advantage of our weaknesses. There is a large, multi-species reservoir that insures this will continue to happen. Prior exposure or vaccines
may (with a small m) help formulate an immune response to similar strains (think getting over your "cold" quicker).
-There are many viruses that we are exposed to. Influenza is only one so if you get something after the vaccination (or before the vaccination), you do not know if it was influenza unless it was properly tested.
-H. influenzae is a bacteria which we have a very effective vaccination for, one that has saved countless lives. This is not viral influenza.
Now, there are several factors into why people do not get the influenza vaccination. Some include the fact that most adults are healthy. It is difficult to get someone to do something they see no benefit for, especially if they have experienced no health problems or do not attribute any negative personal experiences to influenza. We have selective, very imperfect memories. If we see ourselves as healthy, our memories exist in that lens, same for people who consider themselves unhealthy. We will minimize past illnesses and selectively remember things. This is a very well studied phenomenon. I was pretty sick this year (odd for me) but ask me in five years and I will probably remember it as a mild cold, if anything at all because I think of myself as a healthy person. You will not argue someone out of their own memory. Most physicians give up pretty easy with influenza vaccinations because it can be quite the uphill battle and we have to prioritize during appointments. Why dig your feet in over the influenza vaccination in a fifteen minute appointment when you can spend that time getting them to take their **** blood pressure medication?
The next bad influenza pandemic is not a question of if but when. This is not fear mongering, just a study of history.*
*Any errors can be attributed to Better Call Saul in the background 
