You're on some of my meds, just stick with it mate, it's been 7 yrs since my last drink but I had a hell of a reason not to.
There are always new strains of flus, and probably covid strains too. As I understand it, the flu jabs people get each year target the dominant strains at that time. Many vaccines do work by injecting a small amount of the virus, although the covid ones were MRNA vaccines which, again as I understand it, work slightly differently in that they don't inject the virus itself but a piece of RNA telling your body how to fight that virus, which your body would normally produce as a response to encountering the virus, thus this way skipping a step and avoiding the use of the live virus. That technique was quite new at the time of covid but may be commonplace in many vaccines now.
Sounds like you did your own experiment This year you didn’t have a flu jab like usual and got flu. Flu is always mutating, so the jab can only try and catch the most prevalent strains
I paid for my flu jab for 5 years before I got it for free. Used to work in a Uni and realised if I was off for 3 weeks, I would come back to an office full of marking. Haven't had the flu since way back in the 80s. Had whatever Covid jabs were offered. Think I had it very early on pre jab and pre tests. Had it once since. Was vaccinated against Smallpox back in the 70's as we went on holiday to the then Yugoslavia, which had an outbreak in 1972.
If at risk or with a compromised or weak immune system, you should certainly have a flu vaccine. Whether it is worth having one if you're not at risk is an individual decision, hopefully never arbitrarirly enforced again.
mad thing is the immuno suppressant im injecting fortnightly gives me side effects of ....you guessed it flu symptoms. so i have 24-48hrs of flu every fortnight. ive got used to it. my immune system is only supposed to be shut off in the skin department but it does overlap. my pal has spent 12 hours in bed for 3 days running and is now on the mend. up and about. i didnt get that bad. i really wanted to get the jab, its just despite injecting myself every 2 weeks, im still scared of needles blood tests i almost faint if i look at the blood filling up the syringe. whereas i have no problem drinking it straight out of the jugular.