I think it is more accurate to say that the vaccine isn’t working as well as it was hoped. But to say that it isn’t working is inaccurate and tends to discredit vaccines in the minds of many. This can result in even worse epidemics in the future. The official medical advice is still very clear. The vaccine will help, and is worth getting.
Question- is there still a reason to get a flu shot? If the shot isn’t effective against the most dominant strain floating around, does the potential side effects make getting a shot not worth it?
Hoping for some clarification here. Thanks in advance.
Why is the South getting hit so hard, while places with greater population density are less effected?
Every family we know has had at least one case. My son is recovering and my wife just came down with it.
how does Delaware swing a “minimal” while surrounded by “high”?
I was going to post something to that effect. It is working about 57% of the time. Far too many people skip the flu shot every year anyway, so shame on boingboing for promoting this kind of fuzzy thinking.
I’m guessing the mutated strain was simply more prevalent there. New England, New York, and the West Coast must have the non-mutated strain.
Yes, it’s worth getting the flu shot. What potential side effect concerns you?
(I say it’s worth getting because all of the RNs I work with have gotten the shot, have gotten their families vaccinated, and the one nurse with a grown son who refuses to vaccinate his children is very upset about that. Even if you get the flu after getting the shot, there is a possibility that the effects won’t be as severe).
My sister in law, an RN, has had many cases this year of healthy 20-year-old-ish people needing breathing support from the flu. It is a bad year. So regardless, cough/sneeze into your arm and wash your hands religiously.
Maaaaaaaaggggggie!!!
The south overall has America’s highest rate of uninsured. Uninsured people don’t get flu shots. Herd immunity suffers. But at least they get to thumb their nose at the guy in the Oval Office.
Looking at the earlier maps this strain seems to have started in the South and is spreading out from there.
Could be a lot of things. Viruses tend to like warmer places (though this doesn’t necessarily explain WI and MN). The mutated strains might’ve appeared first there. General health infrastructure might be worse, so the things that pop up might be more prone to spread to more people before anyone thinks to go to a doctor about it. (Part of me wonders how health insurance rates correlate with the virus’s spread). Diseases also tend to be more rampant in poorer places in general.
Personally, I’m going with the Pat Robertson theory: this is divine retribution for the 2014 mid-term elections being an affront to Jesus’s true message of peace and love. 
Seriously, though, it sucks that your family has been hit rough by this. Take care of yourselves, and try not to visit old people or babies!
Everyone in my family got a flu shot this year except my wife (allergic) and daughter (pregnant).
Everyone in my family has had the flu this year except my wife and daughter.
What’s that “they” say about correlation vs causation again?
Or they could be uninsured because they can’t afford it.
VACCINES ARE MADE FROM MERCURY AND ABORTED BABIES SO YOU REALLY WANT THAT STUFF IN YOUR VAINS CAUSING AUTISM NO I DONT THINK YOU DO
also: chemtrails
I was going to chime in with the same kind of experience: last year I got sick about three days after the shot, because of the shot, because of getting the shot late, because of going to get the shot at a place where sick people go, or because it was already going to happen by the time I decided to get the shot.
This year I haven’t gotten the shot. Yesterday I had the kind of workout where my aerobic capacity is just 100% gone, inexplicably, then I remembered, that’s the precursor of getting sick. I feel it coming now.
I mean the states, not the individuals. The flu doesn’t single people out for their politics usually. But the red parts of that map have a pretty close correlation to the states that refused to expand Medicaid. Those states have much higher numbers of uninsured, for obvious reasons.
In other news, last year’s flu shot kicked my ass, I was down for 2-3 days. It’s a possible side effect. Also well worth it - I work face-to-face with seniors, and should not kill them.
What does “working” 57% of the time even mean - 57% immunity, right? If you have been vaccinated against the “out of date” H3N2 variety, it’s still probably close enough to the circulating one to help reduce symptoms, no?
So that’s why the wife and I have been firing out vomit and shit like firehoses. I figgered it was Ebola.
