I’ve been quiet for a couple of weeks now, and it’s because I had the flu. Yes, I got the vaccination, and promptly fell sick; sick as a whole pack of dogs. I recall that last time I had a vaccination, seven or eight years ago, the same thing happened. At that time I also gave in to the hype about professors and teachers needing to be vaccinated. The moral of this tale seems to be that flu shots don’t work for me.
Since I’ve been back at work I’ve told people about getting sick from the shot, and a huge number of my colleagues have told me that they had the same thing happen, or that they don’t get shots anymore for exactly that reason. Only one person said that she gets a flu jab every year and has no problems.
Admittedly this is a small and biased sample, but…. well, you make the connection. So then I went to the Guardian on-line (a British newspaper) where one of the stories was that the National Health Service was considering ordering its doctors and nurses to have flu shots. Why? Because the word in the wards was the shots don’t work or make those who have them sick. Some 80% of health care professionals weren’t getting the vaccination.
The real moral of this story? There’s a lot of hype out there about a lot of things, and it amounts to fear mongering. I’m ashamed to say I got sucked in.
Hi Dr. Hunter,
I remember getting my first or second flu shot, ever, and got sick, like a day or two later, and, thought, it might be because of the vaccine, but, since it was that time of the year, fall, where kids start school and promptly come home sick within weeks I wasn't so sure about blaming the flu vaccine. I have gone on to get a flu shot every year, simply becuase my fellow co-workers NEVER stay home if they are sick, no, they bring their gift to work and share wholeheartedly with everyone. I always got sick and promptly stayed home, needless to say, my attendence record was not as wonderful as my fellow co-workers so I decided to start getting flu shots and I have not been sorry.
There is no doubt a lot of fear mongering going on with this H1N1 flu which I am really sick of listening to since they will not have enough vaccine to cover the majority of folks who would want one, and, by the time they do, we will all have had this flu and then we will not need a vaccine anyway…
Now, I do know folks who get a flu shot every year and are very happy campers.
So, imo, they should get enough vaccine to the public or just be quiet about it.
Your point is a good one, Rann Bae, and I don't know if I can rightly blame my illness on the vaccine. Perhaps the vaccine weakened me enough to cause me to catch another strain of flu? Or perhaps it was my mental fear that caused my resistence to drop? Who knows? Normally I almost never get sick, despite being surrounded by literally hundreds of students who all seem to get sick on a very consistent basis.
And you are absolutely right about the fear-mongering. Why don't we spend less time creating fear and more time creating joy and light?
Your point is a good one, Rann Bae, and I don’t know if I can rightly blame my illness on the vaccine. Perhaps the vaccine weakened me enough to cause me to catch another strain of flu? Or perhaps it was my mental fear that caused my resistence to drop? Who knows? Normally I almost never get sick, despite being surrounded by literally hundreds of students who all seem to get sick on a very consistent basis.
And you are absolutely right about the fear-mongering. Why don’t we spend less time creating fear and more time creating joy and light?