Police wearing face masks to protect against influenza

Still Sick Despite Flu Vaccine?

Every flu season I hear someone say, “I received my flu shot, but I’m still sick!” Usually it is simple crankiness caused by not feeling well, but often others will comment they skip the cheap or free flu vaccine every year because they do not want to waste time on an ineffective vaccine. Sound like someone you know? Maybe even you?

Hold up there overreact-er. Vaccination is what made influenza (the scientific name for the flu) a seasonal annoyance. Before you take the path of least disease resistance, read about why you should vaccinate, how the flu vaccine is made, and what you should do with your new knowledge.  The flu shot is not a panacea, but your flu symptoms are not likely caused by a bad flu shot. […]

In Defense of Vaccination #TBT

Vaccines

Whenever anyone says they are anti-vaccination the first image I think of is this one:

The photo is reductionist, of course, but it’s also powerful.  Powerful because it encapsulates the current anti-vaccine debate: Vaccines cure and prevent deadly and debilitating diseases and yet are viewed as an olde tymey relic.  For pro-vaccine advocates vaccination’s benefits are established history and to argue otherwise is as incomprehensible as arguing against the Holocaust.  For anti-vaccine advocates there’s a mountain of “evidence” and the wisdom of mothers and fathers with first-hand “experience” and “logical” caution.

I use quotation marks, because I am pro-vaccination; this post is in defense of vaccination: a scientific, humanitarian, and moral position. […]