Aren't most of the people with serious complications also those most at risk if they get the flu?
Granted that this is anecdotal information, but I'm over 60, in many years have been part of one organization or another of 200 - 1000+ people who got flu shots (from employer, church, etc.), not to mention all the other people my wife and I know (relatives, friends, etc. -- my wife is VERY gregarious, not to mention her having a huge Facebook "family",) and in all that time, and of all those people, I do not know of ONE person who has had any worse than a mild complication from a "flu shot."
‘Aren’t most of the people with serious complications also those most at risk if they get the flu?’ Probably, however the 5-9% complications rate for the majority of vaccines is within the ‘high’norm in terms of risk. My issue is in terms of proven effectiveness. Flu vaccines for any given year are an highly educated guess in terms of the probable strain/s for that particular year. With an effectiveness of 40-50% for any given year over time, for me, being healthy, the risk/benefit ratio didn’t justify my receiving it.