Opinion: Your brain hates the flu shot. Get one anyway
If humans were perfectly logical creatures, we'd all get the #flushot. But instead, many listen to the irrational part of the brain and skip it.
If humans were perfectly logical creatures, we’d all get flu shots. They are easy to find, usually free, and undeniably effective. In the 2016-2017 flu season alone, they prevented an estimated 5.3 million cases of the flu. Yet less than half of Americans get the shot, proof positive of the enduring irrationality of our species.
Some of that gap is due to misinformation. But rejection of the flu shot is about more than just celebrity retweets of bad science about vaccines in general. In many ways, the flu shot violates our understanding of how medicine works in ways that tickle the irrational parts of our brains.
For example, people expect medicine to make them feel better. So minor side
