Yes, the vaccine changes every year as the prevalent strains of flu change on an annual basis. We cannot precisely predict the next years strain but the CDC is pretty good at it. I forget the actual numbers but they get it exactly right more than half the time and even when not exactly right the next years strain can be close enough that some benefit is derived from vaccination. Think of it as forecasting the weather on Wednesday for the next weekend. The weatherman might not always nail it but it still seems reasonable to take precautions if a hurricane is predicted. Think of the CDC "guesstimate" of which flu strains to put into next years vaccine as similar to those graphic percentage chance that a hurricane will hit a particular point on the shoreline. They use the best forecasting models available and it is certainly better than not forecasting at all. The vaccine companies wouldn't make a vaccine at all if CDC didn't make those predictions.
The media hype each year is mostly to encourage people to get off their butts and get the vaccine. Same as other public service campaigns that often stretch the truth or focus on worst case scenarios. They learned the technique from the Madison Ave advertisers and the Weather Channel. Sadly CDC hasn't learned all the lessons yet as they haven't brought out boobalicious babes in tight fitting sweaters to make the pitch for vaccination.
Vaccines are WAY safer than the public seems to think. The 24/7 news cycle loves exaggerating vaccine stories almost as much as hyping hurricanes. For starters, the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses that cause no issues are never reported on and no congressman calls an investigation to determine why little Johnny didn't get the flu. No Hollywood stars trot their kids out to show how healthy they are. There are no rumor mills on the interweb extolling the virtues of a fully vaccinated child who didn't miss school. To put vaccine safety into perspective, think about the number of deaths or severe injury due to vaccines each year compared to the number of deaths caused by toddlers with guns or kids riding bikes or Thanksgiving drive to grandma's house. Not even close. There are very very rare deaths and almost all of them make major news stories nationwide. The more problematic and very false accusation is related to autism or other rare illnesses that just happen to be diagnosed within a month or so of a child receiving a vaccine. This has been looked at in many careful studies that are easily available on line. None of the studies show a relationship between autism and vaccines. The first study that reported such an association used intentionally false data. The British doctor that published that paper was subsequently convicted and had his license taken away (he now lives in Texas where he is the darling of the anti vax crowd). The basic problem is that people (our dear president just provided an example during his campaign) make a causal association between a vaccination and some health event when there is in reality only a spurious or random association. No single case can be absolutely ruled out but by looking carefully at thousands it is possible to conclude that the associations are simply random, not causally related. If I ate cheerios for breakfast and then have an accident on the way to work, was it the cheerios fault??
The immune system seems a mystery to many folks as there is no solid organ one can point to. It is also still not completely understood or understood as well as muscles or liver or bone so folks can have some pretty wild ideas about how immunity works. The notion that "putting too many vaccines into a child" is going to "overload" the immune system fails to consider the fact that our immune system deals with many thousands of antigens and potential pathogens at the same time every single day. Giving it a few more antigens/vaccines to chew on is no more work than tossing an extra box of Kleenex into the trunk of your car on a shopping trip. You cannot "overload" the immune system very easily at all. There are a few very specific exceptions (a few live viral vaccines interfere with others so are given separately).
Regarding mandatory vaccines, there are a few examples where it just makes sense but generally the public should be encouraged rather than required to be vaccinated. Healthcare workers need to be vaccinated as they work with very vulnerable people who might die if a healthcare worker transmits a virus like flu. School kids need to be vaccinated against illnesses like measles, mumps and polio that we know caused great harm before being brought under control by vaccines through herd immunity. It is sad that vaccination, which has provided YUGE public health benefits over the past century is being attacked at least partially because people no longer live in fear of the diseases that are now vaccine controlled. My grandfather died when my mother was 3. He died of diphtheria, a disease that has essentially been wiped out in the US by vaccination with the "dreaded" DTP vaccine.
stupid moron) and I damned sure will next year.:mur:
