Originally Posted by Libertine

Downplaying herd immunity? Herd immunity is *extremely* important when it comes to many other diseases that are vaccinated against. Not getting your children the MMR vaccine, the DTP vaccine, etc. is extremely irresponsible, since it endangers not just your children, but other people and society as a whole as well.

With the flu, however, the problem is that it spreads and mutates too quickly to make it possible to achieve herd immunity. By the time you have an effective vaccine, there already are tons of outbreaks. By the time you've vaccinated enough of the population to get within reach of herd immunity, a new strain of the flu is already rearing its head.

So with the flu, the primary goal isn't achieving herd immunity - the middle of an epidemic is quite a bit too late to start thinking of that. Rather, the primary goal is protecting those most at risk.

That means that vaccinating people with weakened immune systems, people working with patients who have weakened immune systems, and people most likely to come into contact with the virus is the priority. After that, mass vaccinations can be used to slow the spread of the epidemic and decrease damage among the population as a whole - especially in case a strain mutates into something more devastating.

With viruses that don't mutate or spread as quickly, on the other hand, both herd immunity and individual prevention are primary goals. Herd immunity is the reason smallpox is now forever gone, and the reason that there's a good chance of eradicating polio in the reasonably near future.

But you don't understand any of this, do you?