Every year when flu season starts, I have several conversations over and over. I thought it might be helpful to tell you about some of these discussions to hopefully help you see these vaccines in a different light. For entertainment purposes, my responses below are likely more sarcastic than I would say to a patient, but the basic point behind them remains the same!
Patient: I don’t need the flu shot - I never get the flu.
Dr. Fisher: Despite your history, you still have human biology. You are not immune to the flu, but likely either lucky or have had it so mildly you didn’t think it was the flu. Also, the flu kills 30,000 to 80,000 people a year. This is the outcome we are trying hardest to avoid. Saying you never get the flu is a little like me saying I don’t need to wear a seatbelt because I have never been in a fatal car accident. My point is you only get to die once, so wearing that seatbelt is a good way to avoid your chance to die in a car accident, just like getting that flu shot helps decrease your chance of dying from flu by 75% (if you are a child).
Patient: I don't need the covid/flu shot - I don’t have risk factors.
Dr. Fisher: That is fantastic for you. Through a combination of healthy choices, parents with good genes, and luck, you don’t have any risk factors that you are aware of. I agree that someone healthy like you is unlikely to get very sick from covid or flu. But, since you are so healthy, you are also more likely to think you don’t have flu or covid when you have a mild cough and congestion, so you are more likely to go to work, or into a store, movie theater, etc. What happens when you cough at the grocery store and your virus that isn’t bothering you, spreads to an elderly person with serious health problems who is in line behind you? Maybe they had their shots, but unlike you, with your robust immune system, it didn’t work, and now they are infected with a virus you didn’t even think you were spreading. If they die 2 weeks later in the ICU, you will have no idea that your decision not to get the vaccine and to go out with “just a cold” cost them their life. Personally, for me, this is the most convincing reason for healthy people to get vaccinated - to help protect those that are not as fortunate to be healthy and “low-risk”.
Patient: I am not getting the flu shot this year, last time it gave me the flu!
Dr. Fisher: What were your flu symptoms when you got the flu after the shot?
Patient: I had diarrhea and vomiting, it was miserable.
Dr. Fisher: You didn’t have the flu, you had gastroenteritis. What many people call the “24 hour flu” is a stomach virus that has nothing to do with influenza. Flu is fever, body aches, headache, muscle pain, chills, fatigue, terrible cough and congestion. It is not common for the flu to cause diarrhea or vomiting. Now sometimes people will get the actual flu right after getting the flu shot, but that has nothing to do with the vaccine. They likely were already exposed or infected when they had the vaccine, and it takes 2 weeks for most vaccines to give you protection. The flu shot is protein, not an actual virus.
Patient: I heard on the news that the flu shot is only 50% effective this year (or sometimes they say the flu shot doesn’t match), so what is the point?
Dr. Fisher: Well, 50% less chance of something terrible is still better than 0% isn’t it? This common news headline is very misleading. Those percentages are based on how well the flu shot will stop you from getting any severity of flu. But what really matters? The type of flu that hospitalizes you, puts you in the ICU, and potentially kills you. So even when it doesn’t “match”, it still decreases your chance of getting severe flu in the high 70s percentile or more.
The last conversation applies to all vaccines, and goes something like this:
Patient: I saw a study on the news/facebook/my cousin’s instagram post/my mom’s group/my uncle’s barber quartet that this shot causes infertility/autism/cancer/immune system problems, etc.
Dr. Fisher: That seems unlikely, I have given thousands of these shots and never heard of that side effect. I have also reviewed the studies and that was never mentioned. That said, I realize that I may have missed something important like that so please bring me the study or tell me where I can look it up, and I will review the data for you and get back to you about what I find out.
Patient: Ok, I will send it.
To this date, 20 years later, I haven’t had a single one sent to me that was an actual scientific study. Remember, anyone can say anything on the internet.
Hopefully that convinces some of you to get a flu and covid vaccine this fall, to protect yourselves and family, but possibly even more importantly, save the life of someone you don’t know who is vulnerable. If you have any specific concerns about vaccines, make sure you let me know! Especially in the last few years, when flu and covid have spiked right after kids go back to school, it is never too early to get your vaccines this fall!
Until next time, good luck parenting!
Dr. William Fisher MD
Fisher Pediatrics
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