Numbers vary, but with some 50,000 deaths a year, flu is a leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the CDC—far less than diabetes, but more than nephritis.
So how did it come to be regarded as “just” the flu?
Up to 20% of us can expect to get the flu this year. Some 200,000 of us will end up in the hospital, ringing up bills in the billions. Those who succumb will see the flu destroy their lungs or touch off other catastrophic problems like septic shock or organ failure. The flu hits the old, the young, the pregnant and the already ill hardest, but no one’s holding a get-out-of-flu-season-free card. If you get it, best-case scenario is a week of feeling miserable.
Yet a full 20% of Americans do not consider the flu a big deal, and fewer than half of all Americans plan to get their flu shot this year. A National Foundation for Infectious Diseases survey found people who shrug about the flu insisted flu vaccines don’t work, were scared the vaccine would actually give them the flu, were worried about side effects from the vaccine or claimed never to get the flu.
Well, to address those in order …
- The flu vaccine works. It’s not perfect, due to a bunch of reasons having to do with when and how the vaccine must be created each year. But “recent studies show that flu vaccination reduces the risk of flu illness by between 40% and 60%,” says the CDC. If you had a 40-60% chance of winning the lottery, you’d take it, right?
- The flu vaccine doesn’t give you the flu. “The flu shot is made from an inactivated virus that can’t transmit infection,” says Harvard Health. If you get sick right after getting the shot, you were already on your way to being sick anyway. It’s a coincidence, or you’re mistaking side effects of the shot for the flu itself. Which leads us to …
- Yes, you might get muscle aches, a headache or that feeling of getting sick from the flu vaccine. This is your immune system ramping up as it’s supposed to. Some 37% of shot takers will have a side effect, and three-quarters of those will be mild. Not always mild: the flu itself.
- As for some people never seeming to get the flu—well, you got us there. Some folks seem to have a natural immune response others don’t have, a bit of a mystery that researchers are studying now. So are you one of those people, or have you just gotten lucky? The flu vaccine can hedge your bets.
COVID-19 seems to have further polarized people’s attitudes about whether or not to get the flu vaccine. Here’s one thing we know for sure: The flu doesn’t care what your politics are.
We care about YOU, and so we encourage you to come get your regular or high-dose flu vaccine during our special walk-in hours 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Fridays. Bring your friends and family! Just check in at reception through our main entrance. We’ll meet you there.