Certain stories make the headlines every year, like updates on influenza outbreaks during the winter months and public health officials urging the nation to get the vaccine. No one needs to be reminded to put on an extra sweater or a warm coat to ward off winter's chill. So why is it necessary to remind Americans every year to get vaccinated? We should get vaccinated for the same reason we put on that extra sweater -- it just makes sense because it provides good protection.
Every year, thousands of Americans die from influenza and its complications, and hundreds of thousands more are hospitalized. Millions take sick days, lose paychecks and can't meet their daily obligations because of the flu. With safe and effective vaccinations available this year, much of this death and suffering is preventable.
Knowing these grim statistics should move people toward vaccination, but vaccine-shirkers continue to play the odds that they won't get sick. Some of you will win the bet, but some of you won't. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently reporting that influenza activity is on the rise across the country. The fever, sore throat, extreme fatigue and muscle aches caused by the influenza virus are starting to appear more frequently, meaning the window for protection through vaccination is starting to close.
If you haven't been vaccinated against influenza this year, there is still time to protect yourself. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to become fully effective, so anyone who hasn't received it yet can still benefit. If you wait until everyone around you is sick with the flu, it is too late.
There's no shortage of vaccine this year, and it is widely available -- not just from physicians, but also at local pharmacies. It's probably easier to find the influenza vaccine than a great --but -- inexpensive restaurant. We don't have the problem of last year, when the vaccine was a red-hot commodity in limited supply. So why, with a plentiful supply of vaccine, have the same people who stood in line for hours for the vaccine last year not felt compelled to put "flu vaccination" on top of their to-do list?
Influenza vaccination is a win-win choice for keeping ourselves, and society at large, healthier. Influenza is highly contagious. And it's contagious before you have symptoms, so even if you avoid others when you're sick, you won't know to avoid them before you're sick. And that means you're threatening the health of everyone who breathes the same air. One person's illness puts the health of the entire community at risk.
This year, the national struggle to revamp our health care system has spotlighted the link between personal and public health. The failure to look at one's own health results in huge costs, not just for the individual and family, but also for the nation's strained finances.
As individuals, we take action to protect ourselves and others at times of overwhelming danger or in reaction to widespread suffering, sometimes when it is just too late. What we should be doing is engaging in activities that proactively assure our own good health, as well as the health of our nation. Such actions need to become so routine that they are automatic.
If everyone took the simple step of getting vaccinated each year, individual and societal suffering from influenza would be greatly reduced as a public health issue.
Getting vaccinated against influenza is a responsibility we have to ourselves and others. If you have already been vaccinated, we thank you, and hope you urge others to do the same.
William Schaffner, M.D., President of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, 17th Surgeon General of the United States (2002-2006)
Mark Hyman, MD: Flu Shots: Panacea or Propaganda?
=============
Here's a familiar scenario. Meet John and Harold.
John, a vaccination opponent (not AnimlNitr8) visits his 75 year old parents at their home. Mom and Dad had been vaccinated. Mom got influenza, dad did not. Mom got it from him. The vaccination opponent is fully aware of the dangers of influenza in the elderly. But John was feeling fine.
Unfortunately, John is infectious before the first symptoms appear. John gives Mom influenza.
So why didn't the vaccine work on Mom? Because Mom has a weaker immune system, which didn't respond to the vaccine. Mom ends up in hospital and is very sick, She does recover, but isn't the same afterward.
Harold has a strong immune system. He is immunized from influenza through vaccination. Harold .(not AnimlNitr8) visits his 75 year old parents at their home. Mom and Dad had been vaccinated.. But only Dad is protected. Harold has a nice visit. Mom and dad are fine.
See this paper:
http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXIX3/patterson.pdf
----------.
Influenza is dangerous to newborns and they are too young to be vaccinated.
How to protect them? By having everyone who comes into contact be vaccinated. Even better, vaccinate in pregnancy. That protects the mother from influenza. As recent studies have shown, the mother passes on her immunity to the baby for a few months.
Influenza Immunization in Pregnancy — Antibody Responses in Mothers and Infants
"These observations suggest that maternal immunization results in the presences of antibody titers against influenza A vaccine subtypes in a high proportion of mothers and their newborns. Our 6-month follow-up data show that passively acquired protective levels of serum antibody for A subtypes may be significantly greater in vaccinees than in controls up to 20 weeks of age."
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc0912599
A vaccine creates the damaging immune activation, just like an infection. A vaccine will CAUSE the same damage that an infection does. The vaccine does not prevent it.
If you had read the paper I posted, you would understand this.
There are a lot of other ways to support a healthy common life besides accepting pharmaceutical injections. It is all in the framing :)
I hope you get better soon.
Randomized trial of vitamin D supplementation to prevent seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren1,2,3
Objective: We investigated the effect of vitamin D supplements on the incidence of seasonal influenza A in schoolchildren.
Design: From December 2008 through March 2009, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing vitamin D3 supplements (1200 IU/d) with placebo in schoolchildren. The primary outcome was the incidence of influenza A, diagnosed with influenza antigen testing with a nasopharyngeal swab specimen.
Results: Influenza A occurred in 18 of 167 (10.8%) children in the vitamin D3 group compared with 31 of 167 (18.6%) children in the placebo group [relative risk (RR), 0.58; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.99; P = 0.04]. The reduction in influenza A was more prominent in children who had not been taking other vitamin D supplements (RR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.79; P = 0.006) and who started nursery school after age 3 y (RR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.78; P = 0.005). In children with a previous diagnosis of asthma, asthma attacks as a secondary outcome occurred in 2 children receiving vitamin D3 compared with 12 children receiving placebo (RR: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.04, 0.73; P = 0.006).
Better to increase overall health and resistance and trust in the body's innate defenses.
---------------------------
IWhat matters is whether the strains are antigenically similar enough that the vaccine works. This years there is a 100% match for the H1N1 and the new H3N2 and a very good magch for influenza B.
From Canada:
"Antigenic Characterization
Between September 1 and March 3, 2011, the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) has antigenically characterized 352 influenza viruses that were received from provincial laboratories: 180 A/H3N2 from .... 74 pandemic H1N1 2009 from ... and 98 B viruses from BC, AB, SK, ON, QC & NB. All 180 influenza A/H3N2 viruses characterized were antigenically related to A/Perth/16/2009, which is the influenza A/H3N2 component recommended for the 2010-11 influenza vaccine. The 74 pandemic H1N1 2009 viruses characterized were antigenically related to the pandemic vaccine virus A/California/7/2009, which is the recommended H1N1 component for the 2010-11 influenza vaccine. Of the 98 influenza B viruses characterized, 91 were antigenically related to B/Brisbane/60/08 (Victoria lineage), which is the recommended influenza B component for the 2010-11 influenza vaccine. Four viruses tested showed reduced titer with antisera produced against B/Brisbane/60/08. Seven influenza B viruses were characterized as B/Wisconsin/01/2010-like, which belongs to the Yamagata lineage. B/Wisconsin/01/2010-like viruses are antigenically and genetically different from the previous Yamagata lineage vaccine strain B/Florida/04/2006."
http://origin.phac-aspc.gc.ca/fluwatch/10-11/w08_11/index-eng.php
"Hey, this ebola virus vaccine is garbage! It didn't stop me from catching the common cold!"
Could you lift more weights?
Could you run faster?
Please explain the physical benefits of having influenza.
But there were certainly physical benefits as well. The first was simply feeling cleansed, right down to the cellular level. It was like my body, in expelling the flu, had also expelled every single toxin in my body. The second was the workout my immune system got; I really do think that we benefit from going through on occasional bout of sickness. And as I said, I haven't gotten the flu since.
http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/2010/12/15/vaccines-prevention-or-poison/”
For people that would like to make an informed decision.
-----------------------------
If you want to learn about vaccines, then DO NOT first go to web sites of vaccination opponents. I think they are wrong. More importantly, for those starting out, they don't explain the basics.
First learn the basics at web sites such as www.cdc.gov or www.phac.gc.ca. Wikipedia is pretty good. THEN take a look at the web sites of those who oppose vaccination.
www.vaccinationcouncil.org
LOL OK, I'll mention it. I felt like a kid having an "authoritative" finger waggin in my face and telling me, "you better do it, or else!" Or else what? They going to fire me or exile me to Madagascar?
Would you prefer just one point of view on this?