Everybody is talking about it. It’s shaping up to be one of the worst flu seasons in years. And, with all the commotion It never fails, we hear it every year - “Nah man, I don’t mess with the flu shot! The last time I got it, it gave me the flu!” Or, the always classic “Why would I get that shot again? Last year I got it, and still got the flu!”. With that being said, we decided to sit down and put together a short article on why getting the flu shot won’t give you the flu, but also why it can’t guarantee you won’t get it either.
THE BASICS: Without getting too “sciency” on you, lets talk about the flu shot itself. When you get a flu shot, what you’re actually getting is what’s known as a “dead virus”, which means the virus in the shot is, well, dead. “There is simply no way that the flu vaccine can give you the flu,” says Christine Hay, MD, assistant professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “It’s impossible” (we’ll explain why it’s impossible later).
“WHERE MY DOGS AT?”: At this point, you’re probably wondering to yourself, if what’s in the flu-shot is “dead” then what’s the point of getting it, right? Fair question, and here’s a simple way to think of it. Your body has its own defense against “intruders” (i.e. your immune system), you can think of these as guard dogs, running throughout your body, attacking suspicious looking characters who might otherwise do you harm. These guard dogs have been trained to sniff out your run-of-the-mill “home intruders”, so most of the time when an intruder (playing the role of a virus in our scenario) tries to make its way into your body, your dogs are on the prowl and ready to handle your dirty work!
There’s only one problem in this hypothetical scenario. Every year the home intruders get a little more clever, and they switch things up. Maybe they ditch the ski mask, its too obvious. Instead, this year they decided to roll with the hoodie instead, it’s a little less suspicious. Now imagine the intruder makes his way inside your house, and it isn’t until he starts wrecking shop that your guard dogs realize “Aww snap! We have a problem here!” at which point they jump into action and try their best to control the situation. But, they’re a little late to react to the intruder (they didn’t know what to make of their new disguise at first), and he was able to break a few things and got away with some property.
Granted, the dogs eventually sprung into action, but the damage had already been done. They only upside to this scenario is that if the home intruders come around again, dressed similarly to the recent intruders (i.e. wearing hoodies), your dogs will be ready to spring into action.
FLU-SHOT IN TRAINING: What the flu shot does is basically offer up “training” for your guard dogs. The three most common “looks” for home intruders in your neighborhood are identified, rag-doll versions of them are made, and dressed to look exactly like them. The dogs are then introduced to the rag-doll intruders, and trained to attack them on sight! Even if it takes them a little while to be trained (just like it takes the flu shot a few weeks to “kick in”), it’s okay because the rag-dolls pose no threat, they’re not real, just as the dead virus in the flu-shot is not a threat.
The idea is this: Now that the guard dogs know what they’re looking for, if and when the actual intruders show up, there will be little to no delay in attacking, and shutting them down! With no time to wreck shop, the bad guys stand little chance to do any harm to the home or the people inside!
SO, WHY DID I STILL GET THE FLU LAST YEAR?: Now that you (hopefully) have a little better understanding of why we get flu shots, and how they work, lets talk about why some people still get the flu, despite having received their shot. One explanation is simply that (again, continuing with our guard dog and home intruder analogy from above) the home intruder was not dressed like one of the three included in the vaccine. Makers of the the flu-shots do their best to identify the top three strains they think will most likely be infecting people in your area. However, there is no way they can possibly account for all of the flu strains (just like it would be impossible to guess what every potential home intruder would look like). But, life is all about percentages and odds, so the idea is to stack the odds in your favor: If you’re at risk for catching the flu (which we all are), here are the most likely critters to get you, and here is a vaccine against those strains. It’s that simple.
A more obvious explanation can be that you were exposed to the flu virus before you received your shot, or in the two weeks it takes for the shot to start protecting your body. Lastly, some people just love a good conspiracy theory, and at the first sign of a sniffle or a cough, will mistake their symptoms for the flu instead of what it actually is, a simple cold.
Injury-Duty Insight: There you have it. Now you know how the flu shot works, and even why it sometimes doesn’t. Keep in mind that flu season in the United States tends to start around November and continues to peak all the way through April, so there’s plenty of reason to still go out and get yours, should you want it. Also keep in mind that children (over 6 months) and elderly (over 65 years old) should be first in line to get their shots, because the babies, well their guard dogs are just puppies (they need all the training they can get!) and the older folks, well their guard dogs don’t react as quickly as they used to, so they need all the head-start they can get!
