Wait, does the flu vaccine actually work like that? I didn’t kmow it did anything to dampen transmission. I’ve never gotten it because I have such intense needle phobia it didn’t seem worth it, but if this is true, then it has more benefits than I realized and that kinda changed the calculus a little
Yes, vaccination primarily reduces odds of infection. No infection = no transmission. Secondarily, vaccination reduces the symptoms of an active infection if you get one anyways.
It’s basically a numbers game. With a vaccine the flu can’t spread through your body because you have immunity. Meaning your body can fight of the flu so you don’t get sick/have symptoms (or at least all of that is greatly diminished). Since the flu can’t spread in your body, there is less flu in you for you to spread to others.
So more people vaccinated means less viral load in the community which means less people spreading and therefore getting the flu.
I guess that does kinda make sense, less viral load in the commumity = better. I always thought that, because it might only protect against 80% of the flu strains out there (or however good we guess for the season), that herd immunity can’t be achieved and there was no point
I definitely never heard of it presented as a measure to protect people around me
No. This person is clueless. vaccines don’t prevent you from catching a disease. they simple allow your immune system to deal with it better. the flu vaccine means when you do get the flu it will more like cold.
you are getting sick all the time, it’s just that your immune system works well against things it knows. you only get sick sick when you encounter a bug that your immune system hasn’t ID’d and can’t fight.
you can still spread viruses and bacteria to other people even without symptoms. you are doing it all the time.
Wait, does the flu vaccine actually work like that? I didn’t kmow it did anything to dampen transmission. I’ve never gotten it because I have such intense needle phobia it didn’t seem worth it, but if this is true, then it has more benefits than I realized and that kinda changed the calculus a little
Yes, vaccination primarily reduces odds of infection. No infection = no transmission. Secondarily, vaccination reduces the symptoms of an active infection if you get one anyways.
It’s basically a numbers game. With a vaccine the flu can’t spread through your body because you have immunity. Meaning your body can fight of the flu so you don’t get sick/have symptoms (or at least all of that is greatly diminished). Since the flu can’t spread in your body, there is less flu in you for you to spread to others.
So more people vaccinated means less viral load in the community which means less people spreading and therefore getting the flu.
I guess that does kinda make sense, less viral load in the commumity = better. I always thought that, because it might only protect against 80% of the flu strains out there (or however good we guess for the season), that herd immunity can’t be achieved and there was no point
I definitely never heard of it presented as a measure to protect people around me
No. This person is clueless. vaccines don’t prevent you from catching a disease. they simple allow your immune system to deal with it better. the flu vaccine means when you do get the flu it will more like cold.
you are getting sick all the time, it’s just that your immune system works well against things it knows. you only get sick sick when you encounter a bug that your immune system hasn’t ID’d and can’t fight.
you can still spread viruses and bacteria to other people even without symptoms. you are doing it all the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity
Stop spreading antivax pseudoscience
When your immune system kicks a virus out, you don’t catch the disease.
For your immune system to kick it out, it has to be in first.