"If I get a bout of flu, I figure it will lose and make my immune system stronger for it. "

"...let my own immune system build up its antibodies naturally through exposure to common pathogens and its own defensive reactions to that exposure."

The problem is, the standard Asian flu that comes around each Winter is not the same each year. It evolves and changes, and must be incubated and new vaccine produced.

I AM now at the age where a serious bout of flu could be dangerous....and the annual shot is included as part of my HMO plan, so I am paying nothing extra.

This swine flu seems to NOT hit the elderly as hard, so I may pass on it.