Thanks for your question Ivette,
The way they make the flu vaccine is to pool several strains
together that they think might be infecting people this year. Usually this
means the strains that were most prevalent at the end of last flu season or
strains that are currently infecting people in other countries that we
might have contact with. Since there are many strains, the vaccine is not
100% effective, but the numbers are much better than 50%. You are correct
that getting a flu shot will not make you less able to fight off strains
that are not in the vaccine. In fact, if you were infected with such a
strain, your ability to fight that infection would be as good or better
than if you had not been immunized.
--David Miller
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