this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

"What you were taught
"Flu shots give you the flu"

What we know now
A common misconception...

Updated understanding emerged around 2020"

Updated for whom? Anti-vaccine idiots?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 4 points 1 day ago

Well some shots do work like that. But you usually don't get symptoms unless you are immunocompromised and it's a live (but weakened) version of the virus.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They were just a little wrong, “Flu shots give you a flu”.

There are 2 types of these shots essentially:

  1. the pathogen is put into some other thing that creates stuff that fights against said pathogen. That stuff is then extracted and given in the shot.
  2. the pathogen itself is processed and given to you. This causes your body to make stuff that fights against the pathogens. Your body then vaguely remembers how the pathogen felt and hence, increases the reaction your body does to any attack from a similar pathogen that comes the next time. This is the one corresponding to the above quote.

Of course, if your immune system is weak, the processed pathogen can be enough to give you quite a bit of a problem.

[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

I know there are different types of vaccines, but really, experience should be enough to prove this assumption wrong many times over. I guess people just don't get their flu shots...