Flu Shot Notes
Flu Shot
After the excitement of the Halloween festivities, we’ve all come down with colds in the past week or so. And I say “colds” in the plural because there have been more than one, when we seem to have gotten over one, another arrives.
I still can’t get over the fact that my two elder kids, who both had the flu shot this summer, seem to get over it incredibly quickly or don’t get it at all. For example last week, Ollie simply had a runny nose for a day or two, and Nat was fine. This week Nat had a cough for a couple of days, and Ollie a runny nose for a day. Today, both kids are fine. What matters was that nothing really came of it, no prolonged symptoms or worse, fever. Poor baby Wills, who obviously couldn’t get the shot, has had it pretty bad. Coupled with heavy teething (his top two came out this week, and one more is breaking too), he’s had a tough time. And so has Mommy, with a bad cold last week and again this week for round two.
But back to the flu vaccine. The Moms at my son’s preschool are divided on this. And until last year, I agreed that it made sense to go “au naturel”, of the let-them-get-sick-it-builds-their-immunity kind of thinking. But last year was a particularly bad flu season for us, with my son missing A LOT of school days which did him no good at all. So when a Mom raved that her son got through the season virtually unscathed because of the vaccine, I thought I’d try it out this year. Now I’m a convert. Even my husband, who’s had a miserable week coughing and sneezing, has grumbled,”why didn’t you make me get the shot??!” Well, next year one thing is for sure, we’re ALL getting flu shots.
Here are some key facts about the vaccine:
The single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each year.
There are two types of vaccines:
* The “flu shot”— an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.
* The nasal-spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for “live attenuated influenza vaccine” or FluMist®). LAIV (FluMist®) is approved for use in healthy* people 2-49 years of age who are not pregnant.
Each vaccine contains three influenza viruses-one A (H3N2) virus, one A (H1N1) virus, and one B virus. The viruses in the vaccine change each year based on international surveillance and scientists’ estimations about which types and strains of viruses will circulate in a given year.
About 2 weeks after vaccination, antibodies that provide protection against influenza virus infection develop in the body.
Photo via P. Swansen
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November 11th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Just because your child got flu like symptoms last year does not necessitate the lack of vaccine is the culprit.
Often time parents believe if I vaccinate, I am therefore 100% immune to getting that infection. This is entirely not the case. The Flu vaccine has only a maximum of 3 to 5 individual strains of Influenza virus in it, when it is known that there are over 200 different types of Influenza viruses. Coupled with the fact that they have to forecast what the strains are going to be in America for this year. The likelihood of the CDC guessing the correct strain of flu is obviously 3 to 5 out of 200+ known variants. Lets also couple the fact that drug companies love this time of year because they get to fear you into getting something. Flu shots are a multi multi billion dollar industry and if you are not getting the shots drug companies would be not making their earning potentials for the year.
I have now seen Kroger ads (national grocery store) on TV and heard on the radio in Sept, Oct., and Nov, not even advertise groceries but strictly advertising their pharmacy and FLU shots! the adage says “come to Kroger and get your Flu shot and 10 dollar drugs” not ” come to Kroger and get apples and oranges for 5lbs for 2.99″ It is silly! I DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THE GERM THEORY. Which means if there is a room of 100 healthy individuals and 1 person comes into the room who has the flu all 100 other people will get the flu. Some people will have a very strong immunity some people will have already gotten what that person has and some will get sick. This does not mean everyone will get the FLU.
So to say the lack of Immunization or vaccine caused my kid to be sicker is not based on a fact. In reality your childs Immunity last season was depressed and they were playing around kids who were really sick… my job as a parent and a Doctor is to relay this message to my patients and let them know that with a strong immunity your body will be able to stop the onslaught of germs this and every cold season!
November 14th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Well, I think Dr. Michael has a chip on his shoulder about something. We all get the flu shot at our house and we’ve all been able to celebrate healthy winters for years. Thanks for presenting some facts and your opinion. What other mom’s have to say is invaluable.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:11 am
I think that flu shots are always discussed around this time of year among parents. Thanks for sharing your story, everyone has different experiences when it comes to getting and receiving the flu shot.
Kevin
http://www.kidsdesk.net
November 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Nice one.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Thanks for your comments everyone. I see what you are saying, Doctor, and in fact, our pediatrician gave us the same information before we decided on going for the vaccine. However, I don’t agree with your presumption, that my kids were merely ” playing around kids who were really sick”.
I agree with Kevin in that, it is different for everyone, and in this instance, for my family in particular, it had a positive effect.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I wonder if moms at schools will still be divided or not when the next flu season comes up.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
I’m totally agree with Dr.Michael. It’s a huge business for pharmaceutical companies and they intend to sell as much vaccines every year. I had discussions with doctors from different countries and most of them don’t have flue shots by them selves or their family members. Strange, isn’t it? Why doctors do not support flue vaccination themselves? The answer is clear. Flue vaccination doesn’t give such effect as pharmaceutical companies declare, because every year flue bacillus mutates, and it is impossible to create vaccine, because nobody knows what bacillus will be next year. Moreover flue vaccination reduce immunity. Few years ago my wife had a flue shot, but she also got a flue the same winter. So, I think children don’t need flue vaccination, it is better to use more vitamins to strengthen immunity.