Current NYC flu/ RSV reports A lot of medicine is just probability! The more prevalent an infection is within the community, the higher the likelihood of actually having the disease.
- How many people die from the flu/ covid? In a bad flu year, like 2017-2018, the flu killed 52,000 people in the US, and hospitalized 710,000. The average number of flu deaths is about 20,000 deaths per year. This is mainly in the older, sicker population, but the flu kills about 5-50 kids each year, 50-500 young adults, 500-5000 older adults and then the rest are the really old, really sick population (like the nursing home population/ current chemotherapy patients). Covid in 2024 killed about 40,000 people
- Can I get the flu or covid 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? There are some live virus vaccines, like the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and chicken pox vaccine. The polio vaccine used to be live. There is a risk of acquiring the actual infection from LIVE vaccines, but not “dead” vaccines.
- 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!!!
- 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 infections that are now preventable. We were so close to eradicating measles, mumps, rubella, and polio, (all of which were considered eradicated in the US), and we were so close to be eradicating polio globally, at which point, we could have RETIRED the polio vaccine) but there were pockets in the Mid East that would have outbreaks of polio. Now with vaccine decliners, measles outbreaks have started in the US, and there is basically no hope of eradicating diseases anymore like small pox and there will continue to be outbreaks that increase given the increasing rates of vaccine decliners.
Pediatric Vaccine schedule or Catch up Adult — Adult vaccine schedule