5 Flu Vaccination Myths

[okarol]

5 Flu Vaccination Myths

Tuesday , December 02, 2008
By Marrecca Fiore

No one looks forward to getting stuck with a needle at the doctor’s office. But the flu vaccination is one shot that everyone should get each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is because influenza is one of the most common and most deadly viruses spread throughout the fall and winter months. About 200,000 people are hospitalized and 36,000 people die each year from flu-related complications.

Generally speaking, symptoms of the flu are worse than those of the common cold and may include high fever, headache, coughing, weakness and muscle aches. Even in mild cases, the flu can leave sufferers bedridden for several days.

The CDC recommends that everyone age 2 and up get vaccinated each year, but annual shots are especially important for age groups 2 to 18 and 65 and older, and people with compromised immune systems. In addition to the flu shot, a nasal spray vaccine is available for people under 50. Unlike the shot, two doses of the nasal spray are required for sufficient protection against the virus.

Still, many myths prevent people from getting vaccinated each year. Here are five of the most common ones:

1. I’m healthy, I don’t need to get vaccinated. It’s true that most healthy people are not at risk for the most severe flu-related complications, but the people around them may be.

Anyone who has regular contact with very young or elderly people, or people with weakened immune systems, should be vaccinated to ensure they don’t get sick and spread the flu virus to those who may not be able to fight off its deadly effects, said Dr. Anthony Fiore, a medical epidemiologist with the Influenza Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“You should get it just because you don’t want to get sick,” he said. “Even if you get a mild case, you’re still going to have a high fever and miss work, possibly infect others. It’s not an expensive way to avoid a lot of misery.”

2. The flu vaccination might give me the flu. This is a myth, said Dr. Su Wang, assistant director of medical affairs for the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in New York City.

The flu shot contains three strains of inactive flu virus. Because the virus is dead, it cannot reproduce in the body, but it can stimulate the body to build immunity to the virus. Similar to the chickenpox vaccine, the nasal spray vaccination, called FluMist, contains a weakened live virus. The weakened virus is not potent enough to sicken the body, but will help it develop antibodies that protect against the flu.

“I hear it over and over again, it’s going to make me sick,” Wang said during a recent roundtable discussion on influenza hosted by the CDC. “We have to keep emphasizing to people that it doesn’t make you sick. I think that’s one of the most important things you can do.”

3. I got vaccinated last year and still got sick. Many times people confuse a cold with the flu. Although a fever always accompanies the flu, it rarely accompanies a cold. Likewise, the sneezing and stuffy nose that always seem to accompany a cold are not symptoms of the flu. Unfortunately, the flu vaccination does not protect against a cold, which may be bothersome but is rarely fatal.

4. It’s December, you need to get vaccinated in September or October. The flu may surface in United States as early as September, but it sticks around through March, which means that it’s too late to get a flu shot only when the season is over.

“A lot of people get busy with the holidays and forget about it,” Dr. Tyra Bryant-Stevens, founder and director of the Community Asthma Prevention Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said during the roundtable discussion. “But flu season peaks around February, so you can get [vaccinated] after the holidays, through February and even in March.”

5. Sometimes the vaccination doesn't work. I read that people got vaccinated last year and still got the flu. Last year’s flu vaccine was 44 percent effective in preventing the flu in the general population and about 54 percent effective in preventing the flu in healthy people, according to Fiore. In a good year, the vaccine is about 70-90 percent effective in preventing the flu in the general population.

Last year’s vaccine failed to cover two strains of the virus that surfaced late in the season. But even if the vaccination doesn’t prevent someone from getting the flu, it still prevents the severity of the illness overall, Fiore said.

“We didn’t hit it right on the spot, but getting it still wasn’t a waste of time,” he said. “It’s still undoubtedly the best way to prevent flu-related illness and death.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,460645,00.html

[kidney4traci]

What does "effective" mean?  The CDC states that it means the antibodies are produced, not clinical effectiveness.  There is often no correlation between antibodies and resistance to disease.  What's in a vaccine?  In addition to live and killed bacteria, viri and their toxins, children are injected with some of the most lethal poisons known: formaldehyde, mercury, aluminum, phenol (carbolic acid), borax (ant killer), ethylene glycol (antifreeze), dye, acetone (nail polish remover), latex, MSG, glycerol, polysorbate 80/20, sorbitol… monkey, cow, chick, pig, sheep and dog tissues and cells (may be contaminated with animal viruses), gelatin, casein, human fetus cells, human viruses, antibiotics, genetically modified yeast, animal, bacterial and viral DNA (may affect recipient's DNA). Formalin is a dilute formaldehyde solution.  Nearly 50 studies have shown a link between formaldehyde exposure and leukemia and brain, colon and lymphatic cancer.
Aluminum is a neurotoxin that crosses the brain/blood barrier. Neustaedter R. The Vaccine Guide, Berkley, CA: North Atlantic Books. 1996.The mercury used in vaccines is ethylmercury.  However, the toxicity research that has been done is on methylmercury,  not ethylmercury. It’s worth noting that mercury moves readily across the placenta into fetal tissue. Regardless of the chemical form administrated fetal tissues attain concentrations of mercury at least equal to those of the mother. (Doull J., Klassen CD and Amdur MD (Eds.). Casarett and Doull's Toxicology. (3rd Ed). New York: Macmillan Co. Inc. 1986; 606.)
At an October 2001 Institute of Medicine conference, Thomas Verstraeten of the Centers for Disease Control (who had since left and is working for GalaxoSmithKlein) stated that it is "biologically plausible" that thimerosal causes autism.  This study was not released to the public, it was repressed.  About a year later it was discovered and released. False information about mercury levelsDuring an investigation into the mercury issue, HAPI learned that Thimerosal, a 50% mercury compound, is still being used to produce most vaccines and that the manufacturers are simply "filtering it  out" of the final product.  However, according to Boyd Haley, PhD, Chemistry Department Chair, University of Kentucky, mercury binds to the antigenic protein in the vaccine and cannot be completely, 100% filtered out.  All four vaccine vials tested contained mercury despite manufacturer claims that two of the vials were completely mercury free.  All four  vials also contained aluminum, one nine times more than the other three, which tremendously enhances the toxicity of mercury causing  neuronal death in the brain. It is the position of Dr. Haley as well as HAPI that if mercury can be detected in any vaccine using standard instrumentation, the  content should be disclosed in the product insert and manufacturers should not be allowed to call the product "mercury free". Vaccines Are Not Mercury Free


I do not want that injected in my body, to "guess" wheither or not they got the strain right this year. 

[kellyt]

When I got my flu shot late last year my Doctor said that basically it's like saying "This shot will keep you from getting hit by all Volkswagens.  It doesn't, however, keep you from getting hit by other cars."  There are many flu strains, but the shot does help with the severity in which the "flu" can hit you.  I've never really had the "flu" (knock on wood).  Colds and allergies (mainly allergies) are get me down.  I hope to remain in this category. 

[KarenInWA]

I've been faithfully getting the flu shot ever since late 2005.  In Jan of 2005, I got the type B flu (which is common in children. I have none and I do not hang around them much!) and ended up in the ER after collapsing in my bedroom.  My Dad took me to the ER (thankfully, my parents have a key, and by the time he got there, I managed to get dressed and walk down the stairs on my own) and I had to get 2 liters of IV fluids in me.  Being that I never want to live through *that* experience again, I now get the flu shot every year.  I am happy to report that I have not had the flu since (knock on wood) and have only had mildly irritating colds.  So, until some gawd-awful thing happens to me as a result of getting the flu shot, I will get one every year.  This year, I got mine at work, so it was very convenient.  I have never had any side effects, so I know I am lucky in that regard.  I just don't want to be dehydrated again!

And that leads me to ask - how is dehydration treated in a dialysis patient?  I am in late Stage III/Early Stage IV CKD.  I'd imagine in the case of dehydration and the flu, they probably wouldn't do IV fluids?

KarenInWA

[aharris2]

And that leads me to ask - how is dehydration treated in a dialysis patient?  I am in late Stage III/Early Stage IV CKD.  I'd imagine in the case of dehydration and the flu, they probably wouldn't do IV fluids?

Just the same as with anyone else (i.e. - drink more fluids if you illness is causing fluid loss, in the hospital it would be IV), just more carefully. The actual weight will be below the dry weight and electrolytes will have been lost and needing to be replaced.

Watch out for the hospital setting though, they can be very indiscriminant in the use of IV fluids taking a patient from dehydrated and needing fluids to fluid overloaded.