I cannot remember a time in my life when I thought vaccinations were a good idea. I mean, when I was a kid, I hated 'em. That needle hurt! I remember once praying before going to the doctor's office, "Oh, please, God, make it not hurt!" I told my mom and she laughed, saying of course it would hurt, but God wanted me to have the shot so I'd be healthy. Guess you can't argue with that logic -- I've never contracted whatever disease it was they were shooting into me. Not sure that means the vaccine worked, though.
When I grew up and discovered they were actually shooting disease cells into me, I disliked 'em even more. I especially never understood the public's fascination and demand for the flu vaccine. Last year's near panic over the lack of available vaccine amused me. It takes nearly a year to produce and distribute a vaccine, making it extremely unlikely that the vaccine begun in January would be the one that would stop a flu outbreak 10 or 11 months later. Even medical doctors would tell you that the flu strain in the vaccine seldom matches the one going around nearly a year later. The logic just isn't there.
So the July 26 article from BBC Health News makes me smile, whacko that I am. It seems that viruses mutate much quicker than previously thought. One virologist said, "Their work shows that, overall, the virus is a lot more busy swapping genes than we ever thought it was."
I'm not gloating over rampaging viruses that may decimate the world. Might happen, might not. I'm just commenting on the now-shown fact that that flu vaccine jab everyone got so excited and angry about not getting last winter probably wouldn't have helped anyway.
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