As the cold weather starts to move into full swing, cold and flu season is officially upon us. Local pharmacies such as CVS, Walgreens, and Rite-Aid offer the flu vaccine as well as Covid-19 and many other vaccines. Appointments are made easy by calling or scheduling online at your convenience.
The flu as most of us know is a contagious disease that spikes during the winter months (October-May). Symptoms include but aren’t limited to: chills, fever, sore throat, headache, runny nose, and vomiting.
The flu should be taken very seriously. Thousands of people in the United States alone die and are hospitalized every single year. That’s why it is vital to get the flu vaccine every year to prevent it.
So where does the myth of the flu shot giving you the flu come from?
When you receive the flu vaccine you are not being injected with the live flu as many people think. The vaccine contains an inactive strain of the flu or no virus at all. The myth comes from when you receive the vaccine some might get some side effects from it such as swelling, soreness from the injection sight, headache, fever, and muscle aches from the vaccine that subside fairly quickly after a day or so.
“The flu vaccine cannot cause a person to get sick with influenza because the strains of influenza contained in the shot are either inactivated or attenuated, so they cannot replicate and cause illness in the body,” says Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an Ask Prognosis regular”(www.bloomberg.com).
Say for instance you received the vaccine but were already exposed to the virus 4 days prior to you even knowing you had it. This is where some cases also come from. Where you receive the vaccine, but then get the flu directly after it. It’s all in timing and unfortunate luck.
The flu vaccine takes up to 2 weeks to take effect and is still not 100% after those two weeks. Every year, the vaccine mutates and forms a different strain. So every year experts use data as to which strain will be most prominent during that year.
To help prevent you from getting the flu or any other contagious virus, make sure to clean your surfaces, wash your hands, avoid touching your face, and stay home when you’re sick.
Resources:
https://www.vaccines.gov/find-vaccines/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-10-09/can-the-flu-vaccine-give-me-the-flu#:~:text=%E2%80%9CSometimes%20side%20effects%20from%20the,headache%20and%20fever%20after%20vaccination.
https://www.medexpress.com/about/newsroom/press-releases-media-coverage/medexpress-health-myths.html
Images: https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/Flu/Pages/Flu.aspx