Every year as the weather becomes colder, we inevitably hear warnings from doctors and media about how horrible this year’s flu season will be. We are urged to visit a hospital or clinic to receive a flu shot in order to protect not only ourselves, but our loved ones as well. We may get tired of hearing this news over and over, but it is repeated for a reason. The flu is dangerous, especially to people on either end of the age spectrum. However, there is a growing mistrust of the flu vaccine and more and more people are deciding to take their chances without it, for one reason or another.
Deciding whether or not to get a flu shot is an important medical decision that should be discussed with a doctor. It’s helpful to share concerns with a physician so he or she can address your worries, but most importantly, so you are informed. It is good to know what risks you are actually taking, and which concerns are unfounded.
Ken Haller, a pediatrician at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center and an associate professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, took the time to respond to the most common objections to the flu shot:
1. The flu shot won’t protect me.
“Flu vaccines do offer a lot of protection against the flu. The flu is a really bad illness for anyone to get. It’s especially bad if you’re very young or very old because what it does, it creates a lot of mucus in the lungs. When kids are really young, their lungs are small; they get filled up easily. When you’re old, you’re not able to cough it out. No vaccine is 100 percent effective. Even getting 80-90 percent protection is much better than getting the flu. The unfortunate thing is a lot of people don’t realize how bad the flu is. They might think they know what the flu is, but it’s not until they get it that they realize how incredibly sick you get when you have the it.”
2. The shot is dangerous.
“The flu shot is not dangerous at all. It has been tested for years and years. We give it every year because the flu virus is smart in that it changes a little bit every year. So each year, the vaccine is modified a little bit to keep up with the strains of virus that are out there, but these are strains of the virus that we’ve known about for a long time. The flu vaccine has been around for a very long time and the chance of having a severe reaction to it are extremely, extremely low. The major risk factor is if you have an extreme allergy to eggs. There is a trace amount of egg used in the preparation of flu vaccine. If you say, 'Well, my stomach gets upset when I eat eggs, but I still eat waffles and cake and stuff like that,' that’s not going to be a problem. It is a very safe vaccine, and it is very effective. The chances of a severe reaction are low. However, your chances of getting the flu without the vaccine are really pretty high, so it’s important to weigh those risks and benefits.”
3. I’m healthy, so I’ll be fine.
“If people say to me, 'If I didn’t wear my seatbelt, what are the chances of me getting in an accident and getting hurt?' it's true that the chances are extremely low, but in that extreme event that you are in an accident, it’s really important that you’re wearing your seatbelt. I think of flu vaccine the same way. If people say to me, 'Am I going to get the flu this season?' most people don’t. It’s a significant percentage, but not a huge percentage. So a lot of people will not get the flu vaccine. They’re very healthy, they’ll stay healthy, and they’ll be fine, but in the same way that you wear a seatbelt because of the possibility of something happening, I think it’s important to get the flu vaccine. The flu is one of these diseases that if you get it, even while healthy, you’re usually out of commission for one or two weeks. You can’t go to work, you feel miserable, often you need someone to take care of you, and sometimes you end up in the hospital. Nobody wants that. If it’s preventable, and you can do it with a simple vaccination, why not do it?”
4. It’s too late in the season to get one.
“Actually, the flu season goes from about September through May, so we do see cases of flu into the spring. I think it’s always better to get your flu vaccine early in the season, but even if you get it in January or February or early March, it can help you down the road. The thing is, even though we do recommend flu vaccines every year, even if you do get it later, you have a better chance of having immunity to strains in the future that might come along.”
5. The flu shot gives me the flu.
“Right. I hear that all the time. The flu shot cannot give you the flu. There is no active virus. There is no live virus in the vaccine. There is nothing in these proteins that will give you the flu. What happens is that people will not get the vaccine until late in the season when they notice a lot of people have the flu. They get it and then three days later get sick and think, 'Man, I got that vaccine and I got sick.' The thing is, they probably got exposed to the flu a week before that because it takes a week to cause the illness. The other thing to consider is that there are a lot of other things running around in the winter that get people sick. They may get the flu vaccine and a couple days later get sick and think, 'I just got that flu vaccine and I’m sick. It must be the flu. It must be that flu vaccine,' because we try to find associations between things. In most cases, it’s not the flu; it’s something else. Another thing, no vaccine is 100 percent effective. There are some people, maybe 10-15 percent of patients, that get the flu vaccine, but it will not create enough of a reaction to prevent the flu. That’s unfortunate, but the more people we get who are vaccinated against the flu, the more people are incapable of passing it on.”
Again, whether or not to get a flu shot is a personal decision. If you still feel uncertain, talk to your doctor and weigh the benefits against the risks and if you do decide to get a flu shot, here are a few places offering them for free.
