Just for clarity by "tin foil hat" types I'm not talking about people who believe on the balance of things that vaccines will not result in a major health benefit. I do believe there is a benefit but it is not huge for healthy young people. I do think that could tip more favorably if there were more herd immunity if we got 80% of the population vaccinated. The "tin foil hat" types are the people who report totally unsubstantiated beliefs about the vaccines as though they were facts.
The main reason I get the vaccine other than the fact that I work with old and sick patients is that I do believe that there is benefit to a society as a whole from getting vaccinated. If more of us did it, it would be much harder for epidemics to break out and that improves the health for all of us and especially for those who are old and have weakened immune systems.
The flu vaccine wouldn't by my number one target for population health. That would be your standard childhood immunization schedule. There are some very nasty illnesses in there that just aren't common now because the vast majority of children participate in the voluntary vaccination of their children. Still the damage perpetuated by falsified research about MMR and its link to autism has done so much damage to public health that the doctor (Andrew Wakefield) responsible should really be put in jail for the amount of morbidity he has inflicted on the general public. Also the amount of guilt he may have inflicted on parents who believe their choice was responsible for their child's development of autism should also not be ignored.
