Dear Science,
Should I get a flu vaccine this year? I’m 22 and have never had
the flu. The shot hurts like hell, right? My shitty job doesn’t have
health insurance, and I can’t be off work for long without getting into
deep money trouble. Is this all a bunch of bullshit? Will the world end
or will it just be another winter with regular sorts of colds? My
friend who read The Great Influenza is begging me to get the
shot. Science, help!
Swine-phobic
First, the official line from the CDC: If you’re a pregnant woman, a
health-care worker, aged 6 months to 24 years old, caring for people
under 6 months of age, or with a preexisting disease that makes you
likely to die from a lung infection, you should be vaccinated for
swine flu. That adds up to about 160 million people in the United
States. Sounds reasonable to Science.
The annual flu—the regular old flu we know, love, and have
some limited immunity to—serves the following plate: fever,
cough, runny nose, headaches, and body aches. These are not subtle
symptoms. Expect a decent fever, above 100 or so (38 centigrade for the
educated). The body aches can feel like knives being inserted
into all of your muscles. (If you don’t have the above, you
probably don’t have the flu. Don’t go to the doctor. Don’t go to the
ER. Sit at home. Eat chicken soup. Going to the ER in the next few
months is likely to get you the flu.) Swine
flu has all of the above, plus diarrhea and vomiting. Why? Because when
it hurts to move, the best thing to have is an uncontrollable urge to
barf.
Every summer, the epidemiologists and virologists get together and
attempt to figure out the flu variants most likely to be
running around the globe in the coming fall. The flu vaccine comes in
two forms: a shot from flu virus grown in eggs then killed with
detergent, and an inhaled mist (no needle required) that is an
attenuated version of the same candidate flu viruses. (Attenuated means
“broken at making you sick” in vaccine land.) You can expect some
soreness and maybe a day or two of low fever as the vaccine does its
job in getting your immune system all worked up.
Nobody really knows how bad this year’s flu season is going to be.
Most docs and scientists are worried about swine flu because it’s
so different than the annual influenza most of us
have seen; our immune systems are totally unacquainted. Recent studies
published in the New England Journal of Medicine have shown
several of the candidate swine-flu vaccines get our immune systems at
least ready to put up a fight. If you’re in the groups the CDC
is recommending, get vaccinated. It should be available most places
early in October.
Immunizingly Yours,
Science
Send your science questions to
dearscience@thestranger.com
Flu vaccination is not particularly effective on a person-to-person basis, but mass vaccination on the population as a whole is very effective at preventing massive outbreaks.
At least that’s what the infection control doctors I work with say.
Do your part.
Is there not some danger in massive vaccinations?
The shot does not hurt like hell. It’s a shot. It feels like a shot.
If you can’t afford to be off work, getting BOTH flu shots is the best way to help prevent at least long bouts of sick leave. The flu will leave you debilitated for at least 7-10 days. The regular seasonal flu vaccine is available now, the swine flu vaccine will be soon.
The reason they worry about younger folks and swine flu in particular is since they have a good immune system, the body might fight this novel virus so hard that it goes into overkill and fills your lungs up with fluid (otherwise known as viral pneumonia). That is what killed many of the flu victims in Mexico- that plus poverty= no doctor, just treating themselves with antibiotics they got over the counter, which don’t work with viral pneumonia.
It is normal for the flu to kill many thousands of people with weakened immune systems annually. Not so much with young and healthy people. That said, wash your hands, and don’t panic if you get the flu- unless you have a harder and harder time breathing, with a nasty cough and fever. At that point get to the doctor!
There’s been some canadian research done that shows getting the seasonal flu shot first can increase your chances of getting H1N1 by up to 20%. Most of the provinces up here are holding off on seasonal vaccination programs until after the H1N1 vaccines are distributed. Just something to keep in mind.
Canadian Lurker, that study you cite was proven to be somewhat bunk, as the results have not been replicated in any other similar study and the control methods are considered highly flawed. Anyway, even if that study was not so questionable, a correlation does not prove causation.