Hello Alamo!
You know I love babbling about how to be a better member of your community. Today will be controversial to the audience that has never been my target in the first place:
You cannot claim to care about your community, then turn around and talk badly about vaccination.
Even if you happen to be one of those immunocompromised people (thankfully not me; I’ve always tolerated them well) who gets really sick after getting jabbed, facts say you need to be advocating for everyone around you to get vaccinated to protect your own health.
As we all should know by now, one of the biggest functions of immunization is stopping you from becoming a carrier, and passing an infection on to someone else. It is so incredibly selfish to hear completely healthy people lament about how a bout of flu will just be like a quick little cold for them.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2024, nearly 50,000 people in the US died from influenza and its complications.
Though there’s no guarantee the US Department of Health and Human Services will keep funding mRNA research (which they tried to slash last August), some researchers think that the amazing potential for these types of vaccines will outshine the US’s support of them anyway.
One very valid critique of vaccination in the past has been how flu strains are chosen. Usually that happens several months before flu season begins, so we have to rely on flu scientists’ best guess.
MRNA vaccines allow scientists more flexibility and adaptability, meaning they can be far more accurate in predicting dominant strains and they can produce doses of the vaccine much quicker too.
These types of vaccines were in trial stages already, but proper investing by wonderful people like the late and great Dolly Parton pushed them through, or “rushed” them.
I got both my flu and Covid shots on September 19th, and the pharmacist told me that it was not too early in the season to get them. I suppose I now know why. The rule of thumb for years, though, is to make sure you get your flu shot by Halloween for the best protection. Go ahead and get Covid too while you’re at it. Your community is counting on you.
Salud! .
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