My world isn’t as black and white as you make it out to be. I take a skeptical approach to any new information I discover. For instance, if we had a drought after erecting windmills, I would consider the possibility that the windmills were responsible for blowing the clouds away, then I would learn all I could about windmills from reputable scholarly sources. If someone could actually use the scientific method to demonstrate that windmills could actually blow clouds away, then I would be forced to question the scholarly sources.

I treat vaccines the same way. Thus far, many of the concerns about vaccinations are either exaggerated or unfounded; furthermore, it is blatantly obvious that some of those concerns stem from a complete lack of understanding. Is this lack of understanding caused by ignorance, or just laziness? Perhaps it is a little of both. Maybe your need to be right is more important than the truth. Perhaps you have so much of your own faith invested in your beliefs, it has become part of your ego.

I do find it rather amusing that there are people who would needlessly criticize science and technology, but are more than happy to embrace it whenever it suits their needs.

To illustrate my point, you suggest that by not getting a flu vaccine, your family will build their immune system. If your goal is to build your immune system so you will be healthy when the flu comes around, you would get a flu shot if you actually understood how the vaccine works. What the vaccine does is introduce an attenuated version of the virus to your system, and your body builds up its immune system to fight it without the virus actually being able to attack your body. This way, when the real virus comes around, your body will already have built up an immunity after “Practicing” with the attenuated version of the virus. This means that even if you weren’t exposed to the real flu virus at all, you’ll still have antibodies in your system keeping your immune system strong.

Your suggestion that getting the vaccine will lead to a lifetime of sickness is also equally as unfounded. My family has been getting the flu vaccine ever since it first came out, and each and every one of us is very healthy. We’re not the only ones; billions around the world attest to this fact. There’s no indication that this year’s H1N1 vaccine was made any differently than any other vaccine. Finally, history has demonstrated the effectiveness of childhood vaccinations at preventing a lifetime of sickness in people. For example, nobody is paralyzed by Polio today, thanks to vaccinations.

I’m glad you presented this view, allowing me to illustrate my comparison as being valid. Hopefully, you might take some time to study vaccines and how they really work so that you can make better informed decisions in the future. Here’s a good link to get you started:

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/10/27/science-is-sexy-how-do-vaccines-work-and-are-they-dangerous/