Influenza vaccines, also known as
flu shots or
flu jabs, are
vaccines that protect against infection by
influenza viruses.
[2] New versions of the vaccines are developed twice a year, as the
influenza virus rapidly changes.
Vaccination against influenza began in the 1930s, with large-scale availability in the United States beginning in 1945.
The United States
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that vaccination against influenza reduces sickness, medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths.
[4][5] Immunized workers who do catch the flu return to work half a day sooner on average.
[6] Vaccine effectiveness in those over 65 years old remains uncertain due to a lack of high-quality research.[7][8] Vaccinating children may protect those around them.
[2]
The vaccines are generally safe;
fever occurs in five to ten percent of children vaccinated, and temporary muscle pains or feelings of tiredness may occur. In certain years, the vaccine was linked to an increase in
Guillain–Barré syndrome among older people at a rate of about one case per million doses.
[2] Although most influenza vaccines are produced using
egg proteins, they are still recommended as safe for people who have severe
egg allergies,
[16] as no increased risk of allergic reaction to the egg-based vaccines has been shown for people with egg allergies.
[17] Vaccines produced using other technologies, notably
recombinant vaccines and those based on cell culture rather than egg protein, started to become available from 2012 in the US
Criticism[edit]
Tom Jefferson, who has led
Cochrane Collaboration reviews of flu vaccines, has called clinical evidence concerning flu vaccines "rubbish" and has therefore declared them to be ineffective; he has called for
placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials, which most in the field hold as
unethical. His views on the efficacy of flu vaccines are rejected by medical institutions including the CDC and the
National Institutes of Health, and by key figures in the field like
Anthony Fauci.
[61]
Michael Osterholm, who led the
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy 2012 review on flu vaccines, recommended getting the vaccine but criticized its promotion, saying, "We have overpromoted and overhyped this vaccine ... it does not protect as promoted. It's all a sales job: it's all public relations."
[62]
US vaccine effectiveness
by start year:
[50][51][52]
| 2004 | 10% |
|---|
| 2005 | 21% |
|---|
| 2006 | 52% |
|---|
| 2007 | 37% |
|---|
| 2008 | 41% |
|---|
| 2009 | 56% |
|---|
| 2010 | 60% |
|---|
| 2011 | 47% |
|---|
| 2012 | 49% |
|---|
| 2013 | 52% |
|---|
| 2014 | 19% |
|---|
| 2015 | 48% |
|---|
| 2016 | 40% |
|---|
| 2017 | 38% |
|---|
| 2018 | 29% |
|---|
| 2019 | 39% |
|---|
These are copied and pasted from Wikipedia.
- Influenza viruses belong to the family Orthomyxoviridae and have a single-stranded segmented RNA genome. The influenza viruses are classified into types A, B, and C on the basis of their core proteins. Type A viruses are further subdivided according to their envelope glycoproteins with haemagglutinin (HA) or neuraminidase (NA) activity.
- Coronaviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses, about 120 nanometers in diameter. They are susceptible to mutation and recombination and are therefore highly diverse. There are about 40 different varieties (see Appendix 1) and they mainly infect human and non-human mammals and birds.
I am not a scientist, but I try to figure out the world by looking at data. From what I understand, both of these viruses are similar in that they are SS RNA, which allows them to mutate and recombine very quickly.
1. We have had influenza vaccines for almost 100 years, but Influenza still exists and still makes millions of people ill each year and kills many people every year. The vaccine has not eradicated influenza and does not prevent the spread of the virus, nor prevent it from recombining or mutating. Even if 100% of the world's population got the Covid Vaccine, similar to influenza, it likely will not stop coronaviruses from recombining or mutating in wild animals or asymptomatic individuals.
2. Effectiveness of the influenza vaccine varies even with advanced culture and distribution from only 10% in 2004 to 60% in 2010. And even studies of an almost 100 year vaccine can not prove the efficacy in adults over 65. They surely do not have the research then to prove yet the efficacy of the Covid Vaccine.
3. Even leading scientists, like Michael Osterholm, states that the influenza vaccine has been, "Overhyped and Overpromoted" Let the data in the future determine the effectiveness of this Covid Vaccine.
4. There are significant and severe reactions to the influenza vaccine to a small percentage of the population.
5. God forbid if there are severe complications not known or predicted by the scientific community now by utilizing MRNA vaccines. The part in Jurassic World where the scientist explains about Chaos theory is enough to scare a rational person.
I am not advocating not getting the vaccine. If it is important to you, please do. I have not been personally affected by Covid, but as the membership clerk in my church, I have recorded more deaths in 2020, than I did in the entire 6 years prior. This is sad, and we lostYou some beautiful people that I loved dearly.
But if I choose to decide not to get the vaccine, please do not call me selfish, or uncaring about society. You have not an idea how much love or hate I have in my heart towards you personally or society in general. I am a lover of Agency (Freedom of Choice), which is the greatest gift God has given to me. And I respect you to make your own choices, as much as I respect myself to choose for myself. My wife has gotten the vaccine, my 19 year old son has gotten the vaccine. My daughter will probably get the vaccine. But, based on so many unknowns, and the history of the influenza vaccine, and how they are both SS RNA viruses, at this time I will choose not to get this vaccine.
Now get back to your bonsai, pots, scrolls or whatever you do to bring nourishment to your soul.
