Reply to DD won't get the flu shot (Ugh)

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[quote=Anonymous]Have not read other replies but when that bad flu came through a few years ago, it affected young people disproportionately. (they believe it is because those who had been vaccinated years ago for another strain were protected, and young people were not).

I know a girl who almost died and now has only one lung.  Extremely athletic girl about your DDs age or maybe a year younger.

I understand where your DD is coming from but she's got an incomplete view of the situation; she needs more facts with respect to why vaccinating make sense.

As an aside, but relevant for this discussion, when my dad had cancer, I met with the head of (the cancer unit in a big hospital in LA) and had a few talks with him.  In particular, we discussed the concept of immunotherapy.  In layman's terms, here is the story (it may be dated as time has passed):  The body doesn't fight cancer because it doesn't see it as a foreign body.  Sometimes people who are really far advanced in their cancer, and there seems to be no hope, suddenly recover.  In figuring out why, doctors noticed that what often happened in these rare situations was that the patient had a bout with the flu (or maybe some other cold, can't remember now).  The belief is that when the flu got the immune system going again, in these rare cases, the body, with it's ramped up to defend foreign bodies, suddenly "sees" the cancer cell as an invader for the first time, so attacks it.

Immunotherapy is this idea if one can get the immune system ramped up, maybe it will then "see" the cancer cells.  The problem is everyone reacts differently and no one knows the dosage, etc, so this hasn't got through the FDA system.

Ok so…what does this have to do with your DD's situation?  I asked the head doctor, "well if that's the case, that's sort of an argument to not get the flu shot, right?  Perhaps if my dad didn't get the flu shot, then got the flu, his body might have "seen" the cancer while "seeing" the flu, right?"

And the doctor said, "Yes, there is an argument for that, but the problem is SO MANY PEOPLE DIE OF THE FLU, it doesn't work in the cost/benefit analysis."

Bottom line, what I learned is that the flu is a big, big deal.  
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