Hello Everyone,
We are ¡VACCINATE!, a health organization, and this is a new community health and wellness blog that we are just starting today! Our purpose is to educate individuals in the community on the positives of vaccines. So, welcome to our first post!! Today we will tackle the flu vaccine, and more importantly, how is it that a person can get the flu vaccine but still get the flu?
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| What's New with The Flu |
The word flu is short for Influenza, a type of virus that infects humans and causes a lot of different symptoms, as shown in the picture on the right titled, Flu Signs and Symptoms. As the picture shows, while the symptoms of the flu are HIGHLY uncomfortable, they are not unmanageable. Now, this is good, because the flu is a virus that is around all year long. If we’re going to have a virus be around all the time, it’s good that it is a manageable one. It would be bad if we had a virus as deadly as Ebola infecting people all the time. So, better be the flu.
But even the flu has times of the year when it infects people more. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in “The Flu Season” a section of their wide ranging information on influenza, “The exact timing and duration of the flu season can vary, but influenza activity often begins to increase in October. …flu activity peaks between December and February, although activity can last as late as May.” As the flu season starts growing around October, we unsurprisingly start seeing an increase in organizations, healthcare or otherwise, encouraging their employees and clients to get the flu vaccine. Inevitably, it is also during this time that we start hearing stories of individuals who received the vaccine, but still got the flu.
So, why is that? Why is it that a person who received the influenza vaccine can still get the flu? The simple answer is that the virus that causes the flu mutates or changes frequently; and because the virus changes so much, it is hard to create a vaccine that targets all its potential forms. Scientist cannot see into the future, so they cannot create a medicine for a form of the virus that does not yet exist.
To explain this further, let's create a hypothetical scenario. Let's say that a person did not get their flu vaccine and they get the flu. We will call this person Jesse and the flu type that he got, we will call FLU1. The vaccine that the scientist created was designed to attack FLU1; however, FLU1 mutates inside of Jesse and becomes FLU2. Believe it or not, this happens a lot with the influenza virus.
Two things can now happen to FLU2, it can die or spread. Jesse can be responsible and stay home, wash his hands, and avoid crowds. This would allow his body to fight and destroy FLU2 without spreading it to other people. Or, Jesse could not be careful, and end up infecting several other people with FLU2. If that were to happen, then FLU2 would start spreading throughout the population, and people would be getting infected with two different types of flus, FLU1 and FLU2.
Now, let's say that someone went out and got their flu vaccine, this vaccine can ONLY attack the FLU1 virus type. The scientist could not tell the future, and they did not know that FLU2 was going to exist. So then, even though someone got their FLU1 vaccine, if they get infected with FLU2, then they could still get the flu. To reiterate, the vaccine only works for the virus type that existed when the scientists created it. For different types of explanations, please watch these short videos below or check out our list of additional information under resources at the end of the blog.
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| Infection spread: Sneezing or coughing |
Now, let's say that someone went out and got their flu vaccine, this vaccine can ONLY attack the FLU1 virus type. The scientist could not tell the future, and they did not know that FLU2 was going to exist. So then, even though someone got their FLU1 vaccine, if they get infected with FLU2, then they could still get the flu. To reiterate, the vaccine only works for the virus type that existed when the scientists created it. For different types of explanations, please watch these short videos below or check out our list of additional information under resources at the end of the blog.
Video 1
Video 2
The workings of the flu are more complicated than the hypothetical scenario that we just went through, but simplifying the issue often helps people understand a complicated topic. We at ¡VACCINATE! highly encourage members of the community to get their flu vaccines. Some people may believe that the flu vaccine is making them get the flu, that is simply not true. Vaccine.gov explains clearly in their section titled, "Flu (Influenza)," how, "Flu vaccines can't cause the flu." This means that while there are a lot of reasons why a person gets the flu, that reason is NOT the vaccine. In the same section, Vaccine.gov also explains that, "Getting vaccinated every year is the best way to lower your chances of getting the flu." The vaccine can only help protect everyone from the influenza virus, it cannot hurt. So please go out and get that flu shot!!
Resources
Disclaimer: This is for a class assignment. It is not a real blog.
