Don’t Hit Me with Your Flu Shot

Don’t Hit Me with Your Flu Shot

Can you remember sitting in the doctor’s office gripping your mother’s hand? Terrified of the shot that was about to be injected into you. What if your parents refused to let you get a flu shot? A New-Jersey 4-year old has not been able to attend school for a week because his parents refuse to give this year's flu shots because of his egg allergy. Some states require children between the ages of 6 months to 5 years to get flu shots. In some workforces, especially medical professions, flu shots are becoming mandatory. Flu shots should never be necessary because of all the major issues that follow the flu vaccine.

Since 1933, the flu vaccine has been helping patients stay healthy from the virus we all know as the flu. Unfortunately, in the past few years, the well-known vaccine we have all become familiar with has been letting patients down. In the year 2014, the CDC reported strain A of the vaccine flopped by 23 percent and strain B dropped by 60 percent. These were record high percentages for the vaccine. Our country wants to know why and if it keeps flopping should we even get the shot? Most people don’t know that a flu shot is made up of many vaccines to protect against different strains of the virus. When flu shots are only 38 percent effective, patients want to know the problem. Epidemiologists in Canada have discovered that setting up trials to see if the flu vaccine is effective takes too long, and by the time they prove the vaccine can work, a new version of the virus will come around. Instead, doctors use data from the year before to determine if the flu shot will work on patients. The data process isn’t the most efficient way to make sure this vaccine will work, but doctors believe that they don’t have the time or budget to keep trials running every year.

Many people are scared of the effects of the flu shot and the negative symptoms that may follow. Many of the symptoms include soreness, nausea, runny nose, severe allergic reactions, and in some cases Guillain-Barre Syndrome (neurological paralysis). Since flu vaccinations are made with eggs, many children have a serious allergic reaction to eggs. Flu shots can be done without eggs, but no one wants to spend the time to make another million flu shots for individual cases. This turns patients away. Who would want to risk their life for a shot that may protect you from a virus? One type of patient who is very cautious about the flu vaccine is pregnant women. The 2014-2015 flu vaccine was not approved for the pregnant woman. Women are at an increased risk of serious illnesses and pandemic influenza during their prenatal period. Flu shots have an ingredient in them that is called mercury. Mercury is one of the most toxic substances during the prenatal period. Woman's number one priority during pregnancy is their children, and they wouldn’t risk the life or well-being of their child on a shot.

Does everyone want to know when is the best time to receive a flu shot? Well, there isn’t. It depends on when the flu season starts. If the season is milder, the less the virus is circulating. In 2013, the flu virus started a month earlier. No matter what people still get the flu shot and even get the flu. Well first, the shot doesn’t work as well for the elderly, even though they are at a higher risk of developing the virus. Another main reason the flu shot may not work is because it takes at least two weeks for the protection of the vaccine to fully kick in. If a patient might get the flu even if the vaccine is demanded, then why should the vaccine be mandatory?