Influenza 2018-2019 vaccination

Adding measles (vaccination) here because there is unusually high prevalence in Europe this year. Including France where media identify point to low childhood vaccination rates. In 2017 that was 90% according to OECD.

CDC and others such suggest 95% measles vaccination rate is required for herd immunity - because it is highly transmissible. Even though there is no current US outbreak (tends to hum along with hundred or few hundred reported cases per year), there is concern with a jump from Europe. See interactive map of statewise vaccination rates here:

Measles outbreak raging in Europe could be brought to U.S., doctors warn

With only MA, VA and ND reaching 95% target. Several states are below France's 90%.

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If there are young children in your vicinity, the MMR vaccine is supposed to come twice. For older who have not, or have no record, it is also recommended by CDC and other needlers.

Very nearly eliminated from US, but not quite yet. Few have direct memories of just how bad a disease this is.

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Many media reports seem to start with a big 'here it comes' photo with freakishly large needle. Seems like poor advertising to me.

 

Whoopie is about a 6-shot series often bundled with other vaccines. It seems to wear off (your immune system forgets) faster than other vaccines.

 

With some trepidation I mention what a US-licensed physician said to me. That many skin wounds will update your immune system on tetanus and typical 10-yr renewal vaccinations are optional.

I think that is not mainstream medical opinion. Clostridium bacteria are very common in soil. A lot of microscopic evil doers are common in soil. Setting aside the agricultural industry, it's my opinion that soil scientists are much too casual about soil exposure including inhalation.

Room full of students or other workers drying and grinding soils - I won't even go in there.

 

Appealing but not compelling to attribute pop-up diseases to evil human activity.

As big bags of re-directable cells, humans (among so many other critters) are where enterprising viruses will attempt, have always attempted to crack the code.

Immune system in all its incompletely understood glory is central. Vaccines get you in tune with "what's going around". Medicines designed to kill invaders are much more harsh and present much greater side effects.

But if immune systems get too frisky, an entirely different set of problems arises. Decades later, it looks like most deaths from 1918 influenza were cytokine storms. Suicide, basically.

So ya gotta be good. But not too good. In life-extension thread nearby we have not yet got around to discussing how to make immune system color inside the lines for several additional decades.

 

More editorializing. While I consider pharmaceutical industry to be expert at money grubbing, evidence that they are aiming to harm is slim to none. Depending on one's views about conspiracies, no doubt.

But we lack a serviceable alternative. Herbs and acupuncture and all similar are mostly anecdotal and leastly mechanistic. For folks like me, 'trapped' in needing mechanistic explanations, they offer little.

Wherever you land, anti- or pro-vaxxer, everything else remains the same. Wash hands. Avoid snot slinging and snot slingers, wherever they may be. On commercial air travel, take it to the next level and wipe down your tray table. Time-pressed ground crews clean the lavatories, but nothing else

if your smaller people are sick and getting sicker rapidly, suck it up and seek medical assistance. OTOH, dunning doctors for antibiotics when there is clearly a viral problem does no one any good. Sure, doc will give a prescription just to get you gone - waiting room is full of larger problems. Don't join bacterial game of improving their resistance.

Big-ag animal farms are doing that well enough without your help!

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Before a foray into American tropics I asked a doc for anti-bacterial prescriptions, just in case. Doc, being sensible, resisted. I being mechanistic and somewhat convincing, got them (but did not have need to ingest them later). Entertainment came when I handed it to pharmacist to get my bottles. His (or her) facial expression was memorable.

"Wow I hope you fell better soon"

"Thanks I feel better already"

 

Don't see @30. I would not entirely agree, but the subject presents some subtleties that have not been fully examined. Farm folk are in dirt from an early age. City folk, aspiring to soil research, bring their naive immune systems into labs, and commence with the touching and inhaling. They do get sick.

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Recently I was in a rural setting here, preparing a patch of soil for artichoke seeds. I was in it. Watched with interest as my finger infections bloomed for a few days and then were beaten down. Immunological yah-tah-hey!

Breathing dried aerosolized soils is a different game though.

 

@ChapmanF please expand. Perhaps you'd prefer a more/less duality there?

I claim that generally coloring within the lines of Englisch usage allows me to go out, briefly, when it suits. Not all suits are cut in the same way.

 

Topic of annual (different) influenza vaccinations is serious, and perhaps more so because last year's antigens on offer were rather ineffective.

Related topic of vaccinations in general seems fair to include, and contrast, because general public understanding of such does not appear deep.

Beyond those, I'm not wrong to toss in a bit of hygienic common sense. I may be guilty of adding humor to a serious topic, or of also tossing in scarcely related anecdotes. Trusting that readers can manage the wheat/chaff separation thing.

Perhaps it's also obvious that part of my dancing is to draw Real Medical Professionals into this discussion (I know you're out there), to the extent they might illuminate our discussions.

 

This flu season has had elevated # cases, but less than previous year. Apparently this years quadrivalent vaccine is a better fit for what's going around.

That was just a pro forma summary to get to what I want to mention:

Darla Shine, Wife of Top Trump Official Bill Shine, Goes on Pro-Measles, Anti-Vax Rant

Ms. Darla Shine presents herself as substantially less than a medical authority here. But, free speech and all that...

 

Also perhaps of interest is CDC's self assessment of 2017-2018 flu season:

2017-2018 Estimated Influenza Illnesses, Medical visits, and Hospitalizations Averted by Vaccination in the United States | CDC

"...estimated that influenza vaccination prevented 7.1 million illnesses, 3.7 million medical visits, 109,000 hospitalizations, and 8,000 deaths associated with flu."