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On My Soapbox: Don’t Forget Your Flu Shot!
Last winter, in the span of a week, I had two things happen: A family friend buried his healthy 50-year-old sister-in-law, who went to Mexico feeling fine, and came home in a coffin a few days later, dead from the flu. They tried to get her home to an ICU bed in Los Angeles, but there were none available, all taken up by other flu patients. The doctors the family were in communication with in L.A. were monitoring her condition and assured the family there was nothing more they could have done for her in the United States.
Later that week, on Christmas Day, our baby slept 19 hours straight until we decided to wake him up. He was disoriented and had a low-grade fever for an hour after we woke him up, and barely wanted to eat. After consulting his pediatrician (who is a bit too trigger happy about going to the ER) and a pediatrician friend (who is far more laid back on such matters), we decided to bring him into the hospital to be evaluated. It was the middle of the flu epidemic, and despite the two of us being vaccinated, I was hyper-vigilant about staying away from people coughing, not letting the baby touch anything, and washing hands with hand sanitizer. While we were waiting to see a doctor, we heard one of the attendings talking to a family in the cubical next to ours. She told the family “This isn’t a severe enough illness to warrant an ER trip. You have all been exposed to the flu while you were sitting here. We had a child die in this hospital from the flu this week.” Not exactly what you want to hear sitting beyond the curtain with your sick baby. Thankfully, the baby was fine, and neither of us came down with the flu.
The severity of the season last year turned me into an evangelist for the flu shot. So you’ll excuse me if I share two studies from last year, in hopes you’ll get a flu shot next time you’re in your local pharmacy, or when your office offers free flu shots in the lobby.
One of the chief arguments people make about why they didn’t get the shot is that often the strain in the shot isn’t actually the strain making the rounds. Personally, I still prefer some protection over none. But new research indicates even if you catch a strain not in the shot, your chances of improvement and, uh, not dying, are significantly better if you were vaccinated. The CDC reported earlier this summer:
A new study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) showed that flu vaccination reduced deaths, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, ICU length of stay, and overall duration of hospitalization among hospitalized flu patients. This study is an important first step in better understanding whether flu vaccines can reduce severe flu outcomes even if they fail to protect against infection.
The study looked at hospitalized flu patients during 2013-2014 and compared patients who had been vaccinated to those who had not. The observed benefits were greatest among people 65 years of age and older, which is notable because people in this age group are at increased risk of serious flu complications and have the highest hospitalization rate among all age groups.
The study found that vaccinated adults were 52-79% less likely to die than unvaccinated flu-hospitalized patients. In other words, an unvaccinated hospitalized flu patient was 2 to 5 times more likely to die than someone who had been vaccinated.
And some scary information regarding kids, also written about on the CDC website,
Data this season is similar to what has been previously reported, including in a recent CDC study published in the journal Pediatrics showing that half of flu-related deaths in children from 2010 to 2016 occurred in otherwise healthy children, only 22% of whom were fully vaccinated. The same study also showed antiviral treatment was only given in about half of all pediatric flu deaths. Nearly two-thirds of children died within seven days of developing symptoms. Over one-third died at home or in the emergency department prior to hospital admission.
While flu vaccine can vary in how well it works each season, a CDC study published in Pediatrics in 2017 showed that flu vaccination can be life-saving for children. The study, which looked at data from four flu seasons between 2010 and 2014, found that flu vaccination reduced the risk of flu-associated death by half (51 percent) among children with underlying high-risk medical conditions and by nearly two-thirds (65 percent) among otherwise healthy children.
I got my shot a few days ago, as did my older two kids (the baby was sick at the time of the appointment, so we have to go back). Let’s keep Ricochetti healthy this winter – go out and get that shot!
Published in Healthcare
Sorry, but I’m one of those nay-sayers who doesn’t want any innoculation unless it is close to 100% effective. Anything less than 70% (picking a number out of thin air) tells me we don’t have a good handle on how flu works, much less how to prevent it. I believe the swine flu scare way back when turned a lot of people off from getting flu shots. The near-hysterical push by medical authorities these days turns me off even more. Will mandatory flu shots, enforced by armed CDC agents be next? Nawwwww, it can’t happen, right?
I haven’t had the flu in years. Now, it could be luck, but it could be because I take the Nietzsche approach when it comes to my immune system:
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
I get some bad colds some years, but they are nothing compared to the flu. I appreciate your concern for us and our well being, but I’m going to forgo the shot.
I have my Walgreen’s form here on my desk. I’ve only delayed getting the shot so that coverage extends well into 2019. I’ve been told that October is best time to get the shot for maximum coverage of the whole flu season.
Am in violent agreement. I did not even take my mandatory annual flu shot during the last 10 years or so of my USMC career.
P.S. Please don’t tell my former Commanding Officers.
Thank you for this vigilant post. I read that the flu season this year is supposed to be bad. I had a very bad reaction to a flu shot years ago so I don’t get one. I keep up in other ways and am self-employed, so not exposed as I used to be. That being said, I hear you. It is very scary and I urge everyone to prepare now. Boost your immune system – eat well, take Vitamin C and get your cough meds etc. now. Check expiration dates on your medicine cabinet items. Get Emergen C and other products, probiotics, etc. and soup broths. The old fashioned Jewish chicken soup is not a myth.
I don’t take the flu shot any more either, not for about 10 or more years. I used to get one every year without fail for 20 or more years in October and in Dec or Jan I would be down with bronchus or bronchial pneumonia. Every darn year. I finally connected the two, quit the shots and have not had bronchial pneumonia since, nor have I had the flu. I stay away from crowds, small children, and eat healthy.
Ricochet has a discussion about the flu shot every year.
I’m a firm believer in vaccines so I find it interesting that I have never been convinced of the usefulness of the flu shots. If they actually worked, it would be totally worth it, but every year I read as many things against as for with nothing ever more than slightly convincing either way. This year, as usual, I will get the shot to make my Dr feel better, and apart from an evening of nausea, it will have little no effect on me, or whether I get the flu.
My husband will continue to refuse it because every time he’s gotten it, it has made him sick for several days. So, gaurateed sickness vs. possible sickness, he goes for the possible.
Also, as a side note, I like getting shots. I prefer getting blood drawn, but shots are pretty neat too.
Nothing is 100%, but the flu shot does a good job keeping you from getting infected, and mitigates the effects if you do get it. It also creates a herd immunity, so people (like my wife) who are allergic to the flu shot are protected.
What are the disadvantages?
Cost – it is inexpensive to free, depending on your insurance or employer.
Side effects – Soreness, redness and swelling at the injection site. Usually transitory and treated with ibuprofen and Benadryl.
Some people have other minor symptoms: Headache, body aches, nausea, and fever. Some people, a few hundred a year, get something called Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder. A very few people, fewer than ten a year, die after the flu shot, usually from anaphylaxis.
Flu shots don’t cause the flu, but some people may get the flu after the shot. Again, it’s not 100% perfect.
Remember what I said about Guillain-Barré Syndrome? You’re more likely to get that after a flu infection than after the shot. A handful of people die from a reaction to the shot, 10,000 to 50,000+ actually die from the flu every year.
Think of it the same way you think of car safety. Some people don’t wear their seatbelts, and drive cars with bald tires, bad brakes and defective airbags. There’s a technical term for those people: Morons. Most of them are not killed in crashes. Still, you don’t to be their passenger, and you don’t want to be on the highway with them.
My son was hospitalized with bacterial pneumonia brought about by “The Porker,” as we refer to swine flu here in my household after it struck down five out of eight of us and could have killed one of us but for the miracle of antibiotics. (The bacterial pneumonia was a secondary sickness brought about by the swine flu.)
I, my husband, and our younger children won’t be getting the shot, however. My older children can decide for themselves.
Thanks for your efforts, though, Bethany.
Moms of the world, unite!
You have only your messy rooms to fear!
Full disclosure: I didn’t used to get the shot, as the first time I did maybe 20 years ago, I didn’t like how my arm was inflamed for almost a week afterward. However, now that I have school-age grandkids, it seems more prudent.
One dodge for germs that I have no scientific evidence for but which has seemed to be true for me: I carry my own reusable bags to the grocery store, as it seems like every time I use a shopping cart–whether I’ve (thoroughly!) rubbed the handle (and any other part I might touch!) with the sanitizing wipe or not–I come down with a cold. Those things must be germ magnets.
After a science experiment several years ago, we at Toad Hall discovered that the most disgusting, filthy, germ-infested thing in our house was not the toilet seat, the bathroom faucet, the kitchen sink, or the vegetable bin, it was the children’s computer keyboard. The petri dish for that one was a veritable jungle…
I shudder to think what lurks on the shopping cart, which is why I almost never put my kids in them (they were trained from an early age to march directly behind me in single file in age order on the command, “Ducks in a line!”) and always wash my hands after arriving home from the grocery store.
skip the flu shot, just eat your boogers. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eating-boogers-may-boost-immunity-scientist-suspects/
Be very careful with the flu. The flu does not actually kill people usually. Instead, a virulent fast-moving secondary infection attacks the weakened flu patient. If you or someone you are caring for gets the flu, watch like a hawk for signs of a secondary infection such as a cough that is much worse upon lying down (bronchitis) or a cough that seems to disappear (pneumonia occurs below the cough reflex).
Flu and pneumonia symptoms are very similar. That’s why you have to be careful during flu season. If you see a doctor and the doctor says that the illness is a viral issue and that antibiotics are not called for, be sure to ask what changes to watch for in the patient. Ask the doctor to be as specific as possible–color of mucus, temperature range, or cough sounds. Pneumonia can move fast.
There’s significantly more evidence for for the value of seatbelts and for vaccines in general than there is for the flu shot specifically so this analogy fails at the first point.
We get it, but the cost benefit analysis is quite different.
Yes, it is quite different. If you don’t have a a flu shot, you’re four times as likely to die from the flu. Cost: Minimal or free vs. several hundred dollars a year to keep a vehicle properly maintained.
I’d like to see the evidence for this assertion, ’cause I don’t believe it.
I find evidence that old people who receive the flu shot are less likely to be hospitalized with life-threatening illness, but four times more likely to die? Four times? Really?
From the OP:
The study found that vaccinated adults were 52-79% less likely to die than unvaccinated flu-hospitalized patients. In other words, an unvaccinated hospitalized flu patient was 2 to 5 times more likely to die than someone who had been vaccinated.
a recent CDC study published in the journal Pediatrics showing that half of flu-related deaths in children from 2010 to 2016 occurred in otherwise healthy children, only 22% of whom were fully vaccinated.
That study is done with hospitalized patients, not with everyone who catches the flu. That does not translate to “if you don’t have the flu shot you’re four times more likely to die from the flu.”
Still don’t believe it. It’s not true.
This is relative risk, not abosolute risk. I think I will write an entire post on it.