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icarusAnd this would be why I don't get a flu shot:
Resistance to flu drug widespread in US: study
Viruses are highly adaptive. We've overused antibiotics. Many antibiotics are now ineffective. Now three flu drugs are ineffective: rimantadine and amantadine and Tamiflu. It's obvious to me that we've overused flu vaccines. Those should be for small children, the sick, and the elderly. Not pushed by companies that don't want to pay for sick days.
In other news: looking at a mountain of work for school.
Starting. That's the hard part. Starting.
ETA: Folks keep thinking that I'm mixing up vaccines with the drugs used to treat influenza. No. I'm not.
Doctors will still say get the flu vaccine, the same way they used to prescribe antibiotics like candy.
I was leery back in the 80s when everyone was prescribed an antibiotic for everything.
I evaded the antibiotics then. I'm not a bit surprised to find they were overused to the point of uselessness. People argued with me then, too.
Now I'm not buying it on the flu vaccines.
This is just one person's anecdotal observation, but I've noticed the flu season has been getting worse and worse. That spike began in the mid-to-late 90s when flu vaccines started being used to inoculate everyone who'd take it, and not just the vulnerable. (Actually, the spike started when flu vaccine makers began marketing to businesses that they'd have less loss of productivity if they got their employees to take it.)
Mark my words. In three to five years we'll start seeing studies that show an increase in the severity and number of flu viruses. In ten, we'll see a link between overuse of flu vaccines and the sheer variety and severity of flus.
Flu vaccines just aren't the same as your typical mumps, rubella, etc. vaccine. Viruses mutate. That constant mutation is why the flu vaccine has to be different each year, and why it only includes an immunization for the top seven or eight viruses the CDC guesses will be the "bad ones" for the season.
Resistance to flu drug widespread in US: study
Viruses are highly adaptive. We've overused antibiotics. Many antibiotics are now ineffective. Now three flu drugs are ineffective: rimantadine and amantadine and Tamiflu. It's obvious to me that we've overused flu vaccines. Those should be for small children, the sick, and the elderly. Not pushed by companies that don't want to pay for sick days.
In other news: looking at a mountain of work for school.
Starting. That's the hard part. Starting.
ETA: Folks keep thinking that I'm mixing up vaccines with the drugs used to treat influenza. No. I'm not.
Doctors will still say get the flu vaccine, the same way they used to prescribe antibiotics like candy.
I was leery back in the 80s when everyone was prescribed an antibiotic for everything.
I evaded the antibiotics then. I'm not a bit surprised to find they were overused to the point of uselessness. People argued with me then, too.
Now I'm not buying it on the flu vaccines.
This is just one person's anecdotal observation, but I've noticed the flu season has been getting worse and worse. That spike began in the mid-to-late 90s when flu vaccines started being used to inoculate everyone who'd take it, and not just the vulnerable. (Actually, the spike started when flu vaccine makers began marketing to businesses that they'd have less loss of productivity if they got their employees to take it.)
Mark my words. In three to five years we'll start seeing studies that show an increase in the severity and number of flu viruses. In ten, we'll see a link between overuse of flu vaccines and the sheer variety and severity of flus.
Flu vaccines just aren't the same as your typical mumps, rubella, etc. vaccine. Viruses mutate. That constant mutation is why the flu vaccine has to be different each year, and why it only includes an immunization for the top seven or eight viruses the CDC guesses will be the "bad ones" for the season.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 08:15 pm (UTC)Now vaccines are a different kettle of fish, and in my opinion cannot be overused. They make your body produce antibodies that'll kill the virus on sight or in the best scenario you don't get infected at all. No resistance towards vaccines have been recorded, they are very specifially geared towards specific viruses so a "flu vaccine" generally consists of vaccine for several types of flu-virus. Since flu virus evolve quite rapidly they sometimes get obsolete and need to be upgraded to reach peak performance once again. This isn't a big problem since making new vaccnies for flu is easy as long as you know what strain of virus is causing your specific outbreak. A consistent vaccine regimen can eradicate less adaptable virus than the flu, for example the small pox and in many parts of the world the measles.
As I said I agree with you in using less antibiotics, but do not confuse them with vaccines.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 08:21 pm (UTC)Read my replies to the other comments first.