The only time I’ve ever been hospitalized for an illness was when I was in for complications from the flu. And I’d gotten my shot that year. I got one of the strains they didn’t vaccinate for. A really nasty one.
We get flu shots annually.
Influenza vaccination is complicated. Flu travels North South in opposition to the sun. When they anticipate next years vaccine they chose (or in the past have chosen) two emerging strains from the SOuthern Hemisphere and one that was going strong at the end of the season in the North last year. So you really only get protection for three strains. Which makes it hard to research because the vaccine very likely has an effect on which strains ultimately become a problem in the North (or South depending on where you are). But it is an uncontested fact, as noted above, fewer people die with a vaccination program in place.
If you aren’t tired at bedtime look up the list of current influenza strains circulating. Faster than counting sheep.
January of last year my wife got the flu and it was quite mild, she passed it on to me and it was quite mild for about 4 days then it went wonky in one day and I ended up in the hospital and almost died of kidney failure. No idea why both of us felt like we had mild colds and then overnight mine went lethal.
I don’t understand the technicalities, but my doctor told me that the methods of building the flu vaccines now are not as good as they used to be and have negatively affected the efficacy of the vaccines.
I have heard... .so take with a grain of salt, that the reason some people seem to get the flu after the flu shot is that the flu shot lowers immune system initially overall. And then actually makes it easier to catch other strains going around. Which adds another layer of wreaking havoc on the immune system and makes you that much more vulnerable to secondary infections of all kinds.
I got one in ‘99. It worked, never had the flu sine then.