# A few notes on vaccination **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 13, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106 "2013-10-13T00:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106/21 "2013-10-13T19:29:52Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > What’s the science on this reaction? People freak out a lot? Oh, you mean the muscle soreness and elevated temp. 😉 Because the vaccine is producing an immune response, and one group of chemicals released during that response are [cytokines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine). Cytokines cause inflammation, which makes some important immune cells reproduce more rapidly and in greater numbers, but inflammation can also cause an elevation in temperature, muscle soreness/stiffness and a general feeling of blah. (I think? \*\*Antigen \*\*should know more about this than I do, so maybe I’m misremembering and it’s not that simple or I was taught wrong…) ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106/22 "2013-10-13T19:53:15Z")
Welcome to my world. I’ve been writing about this issue and watching it for over ten years at this point. You cannot mention this subject without some crazy showing up and making all sorts of insane claims that look superficially reasonable. A big chunk of the problem is that big pharm really does suck so badly. They really do all kinds of [terrible shit.](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath.html?hp) Vaccines are one of the very few things they do well. So vaccine defenders are also forced to defend big pharm a bit which sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106/23 "2013-10-13T20:06:27Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Welcome to my world. I’ve been writing about this issue and watching it for over ten years at this point. I had the interesting position of being deeply within the autism world but not emotionally invested in it; I had a running discussion with someone very close to me about the Wakefield/MMR debate. From the very beginning, something about it smelled - it had every hallmark of bad/woo/pseudo science, but I had no choice but to wait out the studies etc. for vindication. My position was sometimes misread as a denier (when it was actually “not proven - let’s wait and see”) and I had quite a few people with advanced degrees and much experience angrily put me down and insist that the matter was proven and beyond dispute and so forth. When Wakefield was exposed and the matter settled by the many subsequent studies showing no link, they brushed it off as if they had known all along, and dismissed my claim that it takes no particularly acute ability to smell bullshit if you aren’t blinded by it. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106/24 "2013-10-13T20:12:39Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > The other thing is, in a not-insignificant number of people (myself included), a flu shot can lead to headache, muscle soreness, and a low fever. People who don’t know better may well be calling this small reaction “the flu” and freaking out over it. Yep. I’d say that MOST people do not understand what influenza actually is, between people who think that their mild cold must be “the flu” and the people who think that they have “the stomach flu” anytime they vomit. There are some people out there who just can’t be reasoned with, some shrouds of denial and/or stupidity that cannot be pierced. Look at all the people who die from drunk drivers, texting drivers, etc. despite years of public awareness campaigns about how deadly such behaviors are. I think that for many people, the only thing that will finally get through to them will be if someone they love does develop a serious illness that would have been vaccine-preventable. In the meantime, just make sure you get your vaccinations on schedule and keep your kids away from these people until they have developed immunity so that when the inevitable epidemic does come we might hopefully be spared. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106/25 "2013-10-13T21:24:30Z")
> [@Cheez\_Whia](#): > > [Flu shot thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=702318) …Ouch. ☹ That sucks. Thanks for reminding me - I should go get mine tomorrow! ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106/26 "2013-10-14T00:25:03Z")
You’re welcome! Make sure you _do_ get it, and post here that you did! I live with an actual immuno-compromised person, and he gets a flu shot every year, and has had the pneumonia shot, and I think the shingles shot. I’m gonna ask him when he wakes up from his nap. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-few-notes-on-vaccination/671106.md?page=1)