rfenst wrote:Meh.
Annual flu shots are similar in that they don't know which variants are going to be in play each year so they create a new "shot gun" type of vaccine hoping to have made a good educated guess. That is necessary every year to provide a modicum of resistance. I am comfortable with that and have taken the flu shot every year for the last 25+ or so years.
Certain vaccines are well known to require more than one dose, sometimes two, to be effective. If we have a new variant(s) and I can build anti-bodies to whatever variant(s) is/are out there at the time, I will gladly seek out the vaccination (unless I see something that concerns me).
YMMV
So you're comparing COVID with the flu? Anyone that mentioned such as a comparison would be berated.
But comparing the COVID vaccine (9 months old) with the flu vaccine (20 years-ish old??) is OK and all good on your end?
Transparency:
1) I don't do the flu vaccine. I haven't had the flu in... I don't remember how long. 25 yrs?? The last time I can place it, I sweated it out with hot and cold fever. Sort of bed ridden for a day or so... flipping though channels of DireTV. Landed on watching B&W movies... Orson Welles marathon on AMC or something.
Citizen Kain totally sucked me in and would highly recommend it to anyone. (off topic)
2) The flu... I'm guilty of using it as an excuse to play hookie from work maybe once or twice a year. Today is gonna be one of those layabout... "cough, cough" sick days. No flu, no COVID, just a day... In MA you get somewhere on the order of 20 to 40 hrs un-paid sick time each year. Don't know specifics because I don't use it. If I'm sick or want a vacation, I use my earned paid vacation time. Today I chose to use a "cough, cough" sick day.
That said, I'm not big on getting shots for something I'm at a low risk of being infected with or even a lower risk of dying from. Even less so with something based on technology that never made it out of a lab until recently.
As for vaccines, I don't know if I've ever had a polio shot or a MMR vaccine and stuff... I probably did but I have no known record of it. I had to do the HEP shots for a previous job since there was a chance I could be exposed with bodily fluids (F-n gross, hated walking into that room to analyze used catheters. Loved the technology of heart catheters... super cool stuff, hated it when them when they came back if they failed).
I'm not an anti-vaxer. If someone wants to label me as such, so be it. My kids are up to date on the childhood vaxs. These vax have some time tested history behind them.
The COVID one, not so much. This is the rut I'm stuck in.