Steve complains people say crazy things about the flu vaccine. For the most part, I agree with him.

Until we get to this point:

5. The flu shot causes the flu. If you believe this one, you are beyond the reach of reason and might as well go volunteer for Ralph Nader. The flu vaccine is made from DEAD viruses, people. It is impossible for it to give you the flu. Forty years ago, crappy vaccines gave people the flu. Things have changed. Take off your tie-dyed T-shirt, cut off your ponytail, and go outside. Guess what? TV is in COLOR now.

I have no idea if the flu vaccine causes the flu. I'm aware a good dose of deoxycholate will decimate a virus, and I'm well aware quality control is supposed to be good.

But...

I dated a girl -- a biochemist -- who always got the flu shots because her workplace was nice enough to offer them to any interested employees. And each year, immediately after getting it, she'd invariably miss several days of work with ... well ... what seemed to be the flu.

People in a position to know such things said it didn't happen. That it was a myth. The virus was dead. Etc. And I'm not saying I doubt any of that.

But I saw her get sick. Repeatedly. On cue. Full-blown, not mild. Missed several days of work.

Yes, I'm aware that doesn't happen. Or that it's a stunning coincidence. I've read quite a lot of the literature saying it ain't so.

And each year, several other people in her workplace did also. And it was a small workplace -- probably 20-30 people, many with their PhD's in hard science. People who grew and engineered bacteria for a living, so they were hardly susceptable to misinformation about virii.

As you might imagine, enthusiasm waned after a number of years of this. It was so clear this was happening that her workplace eventually stopped offering the vaccinations.

This wasn't 1962. It was the 90's.

Some claimed you don't get the flu, but instead you can get "flu-like symptoms" from the shot. Okay. But what's the point of that?

I know, the symptoms are supposed to be milder and short-lived. They weren't for her. Nor for her co-workers. It's supposed to happen to 2% of the recipients. Okay, good to know that. Then why 3-4 out of about 20-30?

Or they all just happened to be coming down with it, or something with similar symptoms, unbeknownst to them, at the time the got they shots?

Both years?

I have no theory, far-out or otherwise, to explain this. But I know what I saw, never knew her to be otherwise suggestable -- she was a wonderfully down-to-earth girl. And she sure wasn't faking it.

So it's all well and good to claim things like this don't happen, but I have no way of reconciling that with my direct experience.

And I can understand how a person who had not been told they only had "flu-like symptoms" could see this as getting.... well... the flu.

From the vaccine.