system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Do annual flu shots cause a similar evolutionary resistance/mutation of viruses to what we are seeing with antibiotic resistant bacteria? If so, why is there a push for reduction in antibiotics and an increase in flu vaccinations?
gpt
>Do annual flu shots cause a similar evolutionary resistance/mutation of viruses to what we are seeing with antibiotic resistant bacteria?

No.  Vaccines and antibiotics work in completely different ways.  

Antibiotics are chemicals that directly kill bacteria.  The danger with antibiotics mostly occurs when people don't finish their treatment regimen.  They take the antibiotics until they feel better and then stop, but all the bacteria weren't dead yet, and the ones left alive are the ones most resistant to that antibiotic.  Now, if the person had kept taking the antibiotic, those bacteria would have died, because "resistant" is not the same as "immune".  But by stopping the treatment early, all of those resistant bacteria have a chance to begin multiplying again, and now the entire infection is composed of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  And since bacteria have very short reproductive cycles, they evolve fairly quickly, so the chances are pretty good that some of the bacteria will evolve to be even *more* resistant to antibiotics than their "parents", and all of the "parents" are already resistant.

By contrast, the flu shot is a vaccine.  It contains weakened/dead viruses that can train your immune system to fight the real thing.  If the virus can't infect you well enough to get a foothold, there's much less of a chance for it to be able to evolve resistance.