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Influenza


My whole family has gotten ours, with a minimal amount of crying and a maximal amount of stickers, so now it's your turn.

Early reports show that this could be a particularly bad influenza season.

There's also mounting evidence that your risk of a heart attack after getting influenza is 6 times higher than it otherwise would be.  Vaccination gets rid of that.

A few misconceptions I've heard over the years are:

- "I'll just wait a few months so I can get the updated formulation" - FALSE.  The vaccine that's been made is the one we have for this upcoming influenza season.  Because of how long the process is of guessing what the influenza virus will mutate into year to year, there is no way to course-correct the vaccination during the middle of the season.  Also, it takes a few weeks to build up a response so the sooner you can get the vaccination, the better.  The CDC recommends getting it by the end of October if possible

- "I don't work around people so I should be fine" - if you are within 6 feet of anybody at any time, you are at risk for getting sick from an airborne contagious disease.  People can spread it 1 day before having symptoms and 5-7 days after being sick.  You can catch influenza from people who seem fine and you can spread it to others before you start feeling badly.

- "I haven't had the flu in 30 years, I'll take my chances" - a recent study showed that people over 65 are the most likely group to get the worst complications from the influenza.  Last year was the longest influenza season in a decade and the year before that it was the deadliest.  This is not a good trend.  This isn't a pass for people under 65 not to get the shot because see the myth above - you can still pass it along to friends and loved ones in that group.

My old infectious disease mentor was a very sarcastic guy and a constant blogger and he has updated his flu vaccine rant - be warned he curses a little bit but overall it's funny and true to the point.

He also has a more in-depth review of influenza and the vaccine if you're interested
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