I wonder at what age flu shots provide overwhelming benefits. 40? 50?
I'm still reasonably young and don't bother, but maybe I should start getting them.
Now that the evidence seems pretty clear that it reduces your risk of dying from cardiovascular events by ~30%, you should probably just get it every year:
It's like bike helmets. I didn't always wear them as a kid because they were uncomfortable, they weren't that effective, and we didn't know how bad head injuries were. But now that they're extremely comfortable, extremely effective, and we know how bad head injuries are, it doesn't really make sense to wear them any less than 100% of the time.
This claims flus cause heart attacks, so the flu vaccine reduces heart attacks by reducing flus. In my own case I wonder if there'd be any benefit, because I've never gotten the flu despite taking no precautions including shots.
So the greatgrandparent can at best say they have never had symptomatic flu. They cannot confidently say they have never gotten the flu. It is flawed reasoning to use no symptoms of flu = not gotten the flu = not getting vaccine.
100% of the time? I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it, but you’re right. Everybody should be wearing bike helmets all the time to protect against head injuries.
Really, we should change the name “bike helmets” to something else if we want people to change their thinking and behavior. Perhaps “personal safety devices”?
> If we just stopped one of the 1.5 million brain injuries each year — mandating permanently wearing helmets for the entire population is worth it!
I don't think most people would agree with you. If we passed a law in the US mandating no car can be capable of traveling faster than 25 mph, we would save 30,000 lives per year. But we don't do it because driving at higher speeds is worth the trade off in lives.
There's people that claim they are impacted for days by vaccinations. I generally notice a little tiredness. I don't care to argue with them about whether they are actually impacted for days, but if they are it certainly changes the comparison vs being a little tired for part of a day.
And clearly people don't care to avoid the flu, vaccination rates are pretty low!
I wonder at what age flu shots provide overwhelming benefits. 40? 50? I'm still reasonably young and don't bother, but maybe I should start getting them.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35723106/
Also discussed here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31899781