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Comment by dirtfree22 | Hacker News Reader

What I don't get is why are we are spending resources on artificially fortifying our bodies for something that's not event a serious threat? We as society already possess capabilities to survive against threats even more serious. Our body is magnificently apt at defending itself. Disease becomes a problem for us only when we are not taking good care of ourself and our environment, like all the disease outbreaks in UK and US in 1800-1900 when we were living in filthy environment of cities and consuming food/water contaminated by our own filth. Thanks to sanitization revolutions we were able to regain our health. We can once again reach pinnacle of our health if we get rid of newly create pollution in our environment/food.

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100 years ago the 1918 flu killed 100,000,000 people. That seems like something worth preventing a second time if we can. All the sanitation in the world isn't going to counteract the fast global transportation network we (and disease) enjoy today.

Huh? In bad years 80,000 people can die in a single year in the US alone from the flu. In what way is that not a "serious" threat?

Flu and complications related to flu kill thousands of people each year. How is it not serious?

Eh what? Even with modern healthy conditions the flu can be devestating to the very young or old / frail. The vaccination aproach is not just to keep yourself from getting sick, it’s also to prevent yourself from being a vector to infect people who might not be able to be vaccinated or survive if they were to become ill.

Some flu strains also appear to work either better or just as well on the healthier people, including the 1918 flu, because they can trigger a nasty autoimmune cascade, and at that point, your healthy immune system becomes a nasty liability.

Right, that I think I understand. However, maybe we could do better by eliminating micro-plastics from the food chain and having health guidance that isn’t written by big sugar, big fat, and big agro? Why do we have to inject new manufacturered drugs into the entire population? Where’s the limit with vaccines? Should all viruses and bacteria be eliminated through vaccine? I’ve never seen a drug without a side effect so while I am pro-vax for things like polio and even chickenpox, I really do wonder where the imperative is for flu. We can likely make much greater strides in general numbers by simply providing free access to mental health practitioners. Heck, I bet even returning the US House of Representatives to a 100,000 count per would have meaningful results on the public’s welfare, and that doesn’t require injections!

i believe the reason you are being down voted here is because we as a society can work on more then one thing at a time.

people working on flu vaccines are probably not interested, trained or able to work on public welfare. People who work on public welfare are not interested, trained or able to work on vaccines.

Apart from the deaths, if a permanent universal flu vaccine was invented it would save the USA over 10 billion annually, forever. A good ROI.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/30/the-flu-costs-the-us-economy...

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