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Reply to "terrified of getting the flu"

The US has almost no method of requiring universal flu vaccination, so widespread availability and no cost are the next best thing. It’s helpful to remember that almost nothing is free in the US - certainly not health care.

When to call an outbreak an epidemic is a political decision, in large measure. In the case of flu, waiting until an epidemic is declared to think about population-level vaccination is almost completely worthless. I understand that they are saving money, and it’s even possible that in a good year that money is better spent elsewhere, but it’s terrible public health policy. The price of that is paid in a bad year, which officials will always describe as a surprise. The UK epidemic is likely to be declared in the next week or two, at which time the public health response will be, essentially, “oops.” Here’s a Telegraph article that tells the current story.

Your personal vaccination decision is yours alone. By viewing the vaccine as purely being about personal health care (and skipping it) you increase the risk of getting the flu, of course, but you also increase the risk of helping to worsen a significant and deadly problem in your community. When you spread the flu, people really will die from it, usually the very young and the very old.

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