FLU SHOT - IT'S NOT TOO LATE

Contrary to the belief of many, influenza is not just an especially bad version of a bad cold. It is a highly contagious respiratory disease that strikes suddenly, causing fever, chills, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and fatigue. Symptoms can persist for weeks and in some instances lead to hospitalization or death. Children, pregnant women, seniors, young children, and people with certain health conditions are at elevated risk for serious complications.

The best prevention is annual flu vaccination. Flu shots are recommended for everyone over age 6 months, except for individuals with allergies to chicken eggs or to certain medications and preservatives, individuals who have experienced a severe reaction to flu vaccination in the past, and individuals who have contracted Guillain-Barré Syndrome within six weeks after a previous flu vaccination. People with a moderate-to-severe illness with a fever should wait until they have recovered. Seniors may not respond adequately to standard dose flu shots and can be given a higher-dose vaccine. 

On October 7, 2016, The New York Times published an article entitled “Let’s Talk a Millenial Into Getting a Flu Shot.” Why were Millenials singled out? Because a survey of urgent care centers found that more than half of them did not intend to be vaccinated. A 27-year-old Times staff member named Jonah volunteered to offer his own excuses and judge how convincing he found the scientific rebuttals (though as Neil deGrasse Tyson observed, “The great thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe it”):

• “I’m tough, my immune system is good.” (Up to 20% of the US population gets the flu each year; never having gotten it before doesn’t mean you never will.)
• “I’m a gambler.” (You’re not just gambling with your own health, you’re also exposing others - pregnant women, infants, seniors - who may be at higher risk of complications.”
• “Don’t flu shots give you a mini version of the flu?” (No, it is made with inactivated influenza virus; you’re highly unlikely to get anything more than a sore arm for a day or two. The flu mist nasal spray, which was made of attenuated live virus, was discontinued this year not because it made people sick but because it wasn’t effective enough. It is possible to catch the flu even after being vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine, but the likelihood is reduced and the disease will probably be milder.)
• “How do I know it’s going to work?” (You don’t. The vaccine’s effectiveness varies from year to year depending on how accurately the most prevalent strains were predicted, but overall your odds of getting the flu are reduced by 50-60%.)
• “I don’t want to get a shot. It hurts. I’m scared of needles.” (Aw, Jonah, it’s really not that bad; but true needlephobes can request an intradermal shot with a smaller needle that goes into skin rather than muscle and is barely perceptible.)
• Another excuse sometimes proffered, though not by Jonah, is that vaccination poses a risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare but serious autoimmune disorder. (A possible slight increased risk was in fact observed in 1976, long before Jonah was born, after a national swine flu scare. But except for that one year the risk has been vanishingly small, perhaps one in a million if at all - far smaller than the increased risk of dying from influenza if you fail to be vaccinated. Virtually nothing in this life is risk free, but the risk of doing something must always be weighed against the risk of not doing it.)

In the end, Jonah found the scientific facts persuasive and agreed to be vaccinated.  

​As usual, the very success of flu vaccination, combined with the limited life experience of most young people, has shielded them from the realities of a truly unpleasant flu season. But the particular reluctance of Millenials may also have to do with their being the children of a cohort of parents widely influenced by falsified data linking MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccination to a puzzling apparent increase in autism. This fear, which children born after the mid 1990s imbibed with their mothers' milk, subsequently generalized to all vaccinations and led to widespread distrust of a medical establishment that has overall served us well. In fact, as discussed at greater length in my previous post, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support a relationship between vaccination and autism, and the original journal article has long since been debunked and retracted. Nonetheless, just a few weeks ago an article was published in JAMA Pediatrics showing no association of either influenza or influenza vaccination during pregnancy with autism in the child - a line of research that, however reassuring, would probably not be draining resources disproportionately were it not for this cruel hoax. Sadly, these younger Millenials may consequently fail to protect themselves against a number of painful and potentially deadly adult diseases, including pneumonia, shingles, and others to be discussed in a future post. They may also be passing along their own dangerous antiscientific prejudices to the next generation.

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As you can guess from my husband’s “flu shot couture,” he and I got our immunizations a couple of months ago, which is when I'd originally planned to post this entry (sigh). 

Drugstore chains, having discovered that offering immunizations is a good way to lure back-to-school shoppers into their stores, now begin advertising as early as August that supplies of the new vaccine are available. Getting inoculated at the beginning of August is not necessary and may even be a bit too early. Since the vaccine’s protective effects start to taper off within a few months, mid September through early October may actually be the optimal time to be vaccinated and start your "immunity clock" ticking. 

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If you missed that window, however, it's still not too late to get a 2016-2017 flu shot. Immunity following vaccination builds up in about two weeks, and the peak flu season usually runs through January and February. You can be vaccinated at Walgreen’s, Rite Aid, and other major drugstore chains; or you can check online for other options within your community. It’s better to have it right now, even in late December, than to skip it altogether.