Do vets assume they don't need doctors?

Just because I don't like the misinformation antivaxxers spread, I feel the need to address a few things, and everything I mention can be verified at the CDC website.

First, the flu vaccine is not given every year because it is 'weak' or non-effective; the flu strains being spread change each year, and the strains that go into our annual vaccines are essentially voted on by a panel of experts as to their best guess of what will be the emergent viruses several months in advance. Anyone can go to the CDC's website or even ask at your local pharmacy or walk-in clinic (that gives flu vaccinations) and *ask* what is in this year's vaccine. :) The vaccines also differ by region, again based upon expert assessment of trending. Are the experts sometimes wrong? Yes, but I'd still trust their guess over yours, or mine. :)

Can the flu vaccine make you sick? No. Again, no. End of sentence. When someone quotes this 'fact' at you, sirens need to be going off in your head, and red flags should be waving, because this person has absolutely no idea what they are talking about, and no idea how vaccination works. Vaccination is not like homeopathy; this isn't like giving you the chicken pox to prevent you from getting chicken pox, or giving you whatever the antithetical to chicken pox (brave pox? LOL) to fight of chicken pox. Homeopathy is a total sham pseudoscience, and has NOTHING to do with how vaccination works. When you hear that the vaccine has the virus in it, don't try to take logical leaps; instead understand that the vaccine works a little more like this: Let's say you want your dog to bite the postman; what would be the easiest way to have that happen? It would be to show your dog pictures of postmen and reward him when he attacks, then get a postal uniform and repeatedly reward him when he attacks, then get your neighbour to dress up like a postman, and so on. Well, that's exactly how a vaccine works...just in a biological equivalent. The vaccine presents the shape - the form - of the expected virus, and goads the body's immune system into attacking this simulated virus, over and over again. By the time the real virus shows up, our immune system is ready to jump on and stomp the snot out of anything that has the same shape(s) as contained in the vaccine.

So why do people get sick and blame it on the vaccine? It's called confirmation bias; you might want to check it out. When a person gets sick, they were either already sick, in a symptomless prodromal stage, when they got the vaccine, or they became infected after vaccination with a different strain of the flu than what was contained in the vaccine they received. Don't believe me? Ask a doctor. Ask the CDC. Flu vaccines do not give anyone the flu. Ever. Period. It's not even physically possible.

We are fortunate to be so privileged that vaccination is a luxury. The flu has killed, kills every year, and will continue to kill. There are many parents who would beg, steal, or borrow to be able to protect their children through vaccination. If you would like more information, Penn & Teller had an excellent and funny episode of BS! (spelt out in full) about it, and last I checked, it was up for free on YouTube.

And remember: The keyword here is herd immunity. Be socially responsible and get vaccinated so that you aren't a vector of disease, if for no other reason. You owe it to Society. Remember that lecture on Rights and Responsibilities in grade seven? Yeah. That.