For the last 10 years or so, I've gotten a flu shot every year. Never had complications, never had the flu. With my son being a physician, he'd never let me hear the end of it if I didn't get one. Especially now, I'm getting chemo, and I'm immunocompromised, so it's more important than ever. I'm a HS teacher, so I'm always exposed to viruses. No flu vaccine will ever give immunity to every strain out there, but I feel that there is also a social obligation to get the flu shot. The more people immunized, the harder it is for the viruses to spread. It's no big deal for me to get one, and if I can block someone else's chain of transmission, I'm happy. Also, despite the fact that the virus not only mutates but recombines with other strains, immunity still exists and remains even if incomplete. On the one hand, this may mean that if you get the flu after getting the shot, it won't be as severe. But look at history- the 1918 pandemic differentially killed the young. In part, it was because their healthy immune systems "over-reacted", and the exaggerated immune response helped kill them. But it was also because older people had already been exposed to genetically similar viruses. Same with the recent spring "swine" flu outbreak a few years ago. A similar virus had caused an outbreak in the 1950's, so many older people were unaffected.
