Only 39% of people in poll said that the science on vaccines ‘is clear and it is damaging to question it’
Nearly half of Americans are somewhat skeptical of vaccines, a new poll has found.
Some 46% of U.S. adults who responded to a Public First poll by Politico in March agreed that “facts on vaccines are still up for debate and it is damaging to enforce their uptake.”
In contrast, only 39% said that the science on vaccines “is clear and it is damaging to question it.”
The results of the survey are in line with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic and founder of the Republican “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
I question getting the flu shot every year.
Not because I doubt vaccines; but because, depending on the year, it sometimes is just not worth it. We develop a new one every year because the strains change every year, but sometimes it changes so fast, or a different strain than the one expected spreads instead, and the shot becomes fairly useless.
I have a family member that works in one of the labs that develops flu shots and she lets us know if it’s worth getting or not. Some years it’s just not. But they aren’t going to publicly announce NOT to get the flu shot because the public are idiots, and a good portion will take that to mean it’s never worth getting.
This doesn’t make any sense to me, you’re saying your family member routinely determines that the flu vaccine predictions are false?
Can you elaborate a bit? Because either your family member should be the one making the predictions or this doesn’t add up.
By the time it’s developed, produced, and distributed, they have a pretty good idea on if the strain they developed for has mutated or been outcompeted by a different strain.
Ah, that makes sense.
Doesn’t the current flu vaccine also include COVID? That’s worth getting regardless.
Your family member is an idiot and you’re a fool for taking the advice.
Ok, did you also get your PhD in virology?
Yes.
My understanding is that the flu vaccine helps with all kinds of flu and protects better against the target strain helping them immune system develop protection that improves resistent to other unknown strains.
It takes like 30 minutes and $0 to get the flu shot. That’s pretty low cost, and cheaper than delving into conspiracy slop holes trying to figure out if it’s “worth it”
That’s the problem though: scientific discourse is actually killed by “both sides”, the conspiracy nutjobs overwhelmed is so much that even common sense discussions around rare edge cases are easily disregarded as “delving into conspiracy”.
To be clear: I’m not blaming you individually but the fuckers who poisoned all discussions to the point where most of us assume bad faith from anyone and anything using the internet. :(
For this example: This is not about conspiracy but about strain management. Until the flu vaccine is produced and distributed we know if the bet this year which strains will dominate actually came true.
For me it’s not a question. I’ll get them anyway - but some people react very strong to the vaccine z having dlu symptoms for up to five days (still not terrible compared to the real thing - but if science already tells us that there’s little to no protection it’s becoming a calculation).
Might cost you $0 to get the flu shot not me.
if you don’t work in a hospital or aged care there is zero reason to get an annual flu shot. If anything by getting those shots unnecessarily you are helping new flu strains to emerge
Could you elaborate on this?
STFU