Current NYC flu/ RSV reports A lot of medicine is just probability! The more prevalent an infection is within the community, the higher the suspicion of actually having the disease.
- Can I get the flu from the flu vaccine? NO! The flu vaccine is simply some proteins deposited into your deltoid muscle; your body’s amazing immune system then makes antibodies to those proteins. How incredible is that? Even if someone had HIV/AIDs, where their immune system works very poorly, that person would not get the disease. We do not recommend LIVE vaccines (MMR/ VZV -measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox) for people with compromised immune systems.
- Does the flu vaccine work? This is the unfortunate part of the vaccine that I have a problem with, it does not always work well due to the flu constantly mutating (it’s a single stranded RNA virus that is always reshuffling, double stranded DNA viruses mutate less due to enzymes that repair DNA), and that it takes time to make the vaccine. The new mRNA vaccines have the capacity to dramatically reduce the wait time, so eventually when flu vaccines are made with this technology, they should be a lot more accurate!
- Why can’t they make a vaccine that works? Because influenza is unique, in that it’s surface proteins, hemagglutinin and neuraminidase reshuffle themselves, so that each year, it is essentially a new virus, and it is a single stranded RNA virus.
- Why do I have to get it every year? See answer to #3. Scientists are trying to make a vaccine to the stable part (not the rearranging part of the virus) but it has proven difficult. If you want to complain about that, then I recommend that you study science and figure it out yourself!!!
- How many people die from the flu? In a bad flu year, like 2017-2018, the flu killed 52,000 people in the US, and hospitalized 710,000. This is mainly in the older sicker population, but kills about 6-60 kids each year, 60-600 young adults, 600-6000 older adults and then the rest is the old old, sick sick population (like the nursing home population).
- Do you take the flu vaccine? Do you give it to your kids? Yes, Yes.
Historical figures who have died, due to what are now entirely preventable diseases. Babies, kids, young adults and older adults used to ROUTINELY die to diseases that are now preventable. We were sp close to eradicating measles, mumps, rubella, and polio, (considered eradicated in the US) and could have retired ALL these vaccines (like smallpox) but there were pockets in the midEast that would have outbreaks, and now with vaccine decliners, there will be no hope of this. Don’t be stupid and not get your or your children’s vaccines. Don’t be selfish and rely on herd immunity.
Pediatric Vaccine schedule or Catch up Adult — Adult vaccine schedule