My doc keeps mentioning I should get a pneumonia shot. I haven’t gotten one even though I am past the “magic number” of age 65 for getting one. And what’s up with that? No one tells you at age 64 to be thinking about getting all these adult baby shots. As soon as you hit Medicare age there seems to be a host of vaccines and tests they want you to have. I usually question everything, no matter what it is. I research a lot of things, especially medical, to ad nauseam. It seems they use the same language with all vaccines and meds; it won’t prevent you from getting pneumonia, shingles, flu, etc., but you should get them anyway because of your age. If it doesn’t prevent, why bother? I’m a bit cynical about a lot of things.
My doc encourages me to get pneumonia shots. I haven't gotten around to it yet. But he plays down the shingles shots, even though I'm not certain I never had chicken pox.
Mine tries to encourage me too, but when I asked if the shot "prevented" all types of pneumonia including bacterial, viral, and fungal types pneumonia, he paused too long and became wide eye alert by looking straight at me, instead of looking through me and around me, before he answered, umm, yes it does. But now I wonder.
I have gotten both the pneumo vaccine and the shingles. They are real vaccines and seem to alleviate both diseases. The pneumo vaccine released in the U.S. does not protect against the most serious type occurring in young people--usually in military barracks and college dorms--and if you recall the outbreak at Princeton a few years back the FDA actually imported vaccine from Europe that dealt with the epidemic form. It was not an approved vaccine but was issued under "emergency use provisions".
I've had the pneumonia vaccine and both of the shingles ones (a newer, more effective one was released after I got my first one.) Now that I think about it, I don't believe I was that old when I got the first shingles one. I was 56 when I moved, and I got that vaccine before then. I have never had a flu shot, nor have I been COVID-vaxed.
I had a doctor I dearly loved who I could talk to about anything and get an honest, intelligent response. I saw the guy for over 25 years. He encouraged me to get the shingles shot, and I made him test me first to make sure I had had chicken pox...I could not recall. As I stated in a prior comment, the latest shingles shot (Shingrix) is way more effective (97%) than the original vaccine (Zoastavax was 51%.) If you decide to get Shingrix, be advised that it is a 2 shot regime, and the second shot must be taken within a certain time frame after the first shot. Not only was I not told this when I got the first shot, there was a shortage of the second shot that could have caused me to miss the window (I was pretty angry, and CVS does not notify you when the second shot is available...you gotta call them every damn day.) If you miss the window, the advice is "Get the second shot as soon as possible," but it's meaningless advice...there are no studies as to how effective the vax is if you miss the recommended window. So make sure there are no supply issues with the second shot before you let them inject you with the first one and you're put into a state of anxiety.
Nobody has to get any type of shots/vaccines, but if you get something, due to not getting the shots/vaccines, you may have wished you had got the shots/vaccines. Wife and I have got any shot/vaccines our doctors have recommended. But, that is us.
The problem is that there is no way anyone can prove this one way or another. No one can prove that getting a vaccine was the reason they did not get sick, just as no can one prove that being unvaccinated is why they caught something. If a vaccine makes you ill or causes serious issues, you may have wished that you had not got the shots/vaccines; for example, there were children throughout the 1980s and 1990s who contracted polio because of the vaccine they took. The government used to set an initial risk threshold before they would release a vaccine for general use, then we as individuals were left to decide. And even then, kids were permanently crippled over a period of 2 decades before something was done about it. Everyone makes an educated choice regarding their degree of risk tolerance, but there are no absolutes either way.
I would get the shingles shot, but I don't think I've ever had chickenpox. I've never given much thought to pneumonia. I think it's usually the result of some other illness.
Of all the vaccines, the pneumonia shot is the one I have come the closest to even consider getting because it has been around a long time. I have had no vaccines of any kind since I was a child. I think I had almost every childhood disease there was. I did not get a Covid shot. I had Covid last Fall, as did my husband. I always like to have as much knowledge as I can to make a sound decision for myself, especially when it comes to my health. I probably over analyze things. I usually take the doctors suggestions under advisement, and then will make my own decision.
Corona viruses, like rhinoviruses, mutate at such a rate that no vaccine is much use against them. That is being demonstrated by the constant need for boosters for the current round of disease. The original "vaccine" for Covid provides no protection against the current variants and may make you more likely not less likely to contract the illness. Fortunately, viruses tend to attenuate and become less virulent, so the current variants produce few, if any, hospitalizations. Influenza is somewhat the same, but there are major strains of influenza viruses and they vary in virulence. I just heard an interview with a doctor who said that last years flu vaccine was only 35% effective against the strains that were causing disease, and that thee "Senior" vaccine has, so far, not proven more effective than the standard vaccine but produces far more side effects, most of which mimic contracting the flu virus itself. The same cannot be said for the viruses against bacteria and viruses that are more stable, such as the Yellow Fever virus.
That is an historically consistent figure regarding flu vaccines: -1 in 3 chance they will accurately anticipate the coming strain -1 in 3 chance the vaccine will be effective against its target strain even if they correctly anticipate it --Basic math arrives at a 1 in 9 chance that a given flu vaccine in a given year will do you any good at all That being said, if I were in an at-risk category, I would take advantage of anything that provided a shot at protection, regardless of how low the odds might be...as long as the side effects were reasonable.