Oh, You Got The Flu? You Should Have Stayed Away From Those Flu Shots!

This blog post/written assignment was completed for University of the sciences BS415 Modern Issues in Vaccinology lecture. This in no way reflects Buzzfeed or what it supports.

Wait...Whaaaat?

Yeah, you read that right! The seasonal flu shot could be making it easier for you to get sick, and your symptoms worse! According to National Vaccine Information Center they said, “CDC is admitting that flu shots don't prevent influenza most of the time. In fact, studies show that a history of seasonal flu shots can even make people more susceptible to getting sick with a fever, headache, body aches, and a terrible cough for weeks.” This means that when someone asks you, “Did you get your flu shot?” you don’t have to walk away in shame.

Via replygif.net

Okay, okay, okay. Now, we can’t just go ‘round willy-nilly saying these types of allegations! We must learn to investigate what we hear and no follow blindly. So, I went and did some of my own research. I want to share with you the story of a little girl. Her name was Mackenzie Coyne. Mackenzie, like her siblings and thousands of other kids, got her flu vaccine every year. However, tragically Mackenzie died on Valentine ’s Day last year at the age of 8 years old. She got the Flumist, the vaccine that is sprayed up the person’s nose, to protect against the strain of the flu known as H1H1. Although, instead of protecting her from the strain, the flumist actually did not off enough protection. Mackenzie was celebrating her birthday when she began to feel “under the weather.” Her parents rushed her to the hospital, and within 20 minutes, their little girl passed away in their arms. The cause of death was deemed from contracting Influenza A H1N1. Mackenzie was thought to have been protected after receiving her flu vaccine in November of the previous year, in the form of Flumist. Although, Flumist was thought to be the most effective way to protect against the flu, the CDC released a statement that the Flumist vaccination was ineffective. The parents of this little girl have be distraught to have their daughter slipped away from them after trying to protect her from a virus.

Via gofundme.com

A thing that is common in a flu vaccines is that it changes most of the time because the flu changes most of the time. Each year it’s always a little bit different. There were several studies completed looking at how well the flu vaccine could do its job at protecting people. In 2011 to 2012 the flu vaccine was reported to have a low effectiveness (meaning actually working in the real world). One main reason for this was because of residual protection from the previous year. Those who got the flu shot before, got more flu like symptoms because some protection over lapped while some of it didn’t. In 2016, the CDC wanted to find out how well this year’s flu shot protected people. There was actually less visits to their doctor due to the flu, however, people still reported having flu like symptoms *sniff* *cough*. They just didn’t go get it checked out. Meaning that it was actually kind of effective at its job…well not kind of, it was!

Via newhealthadvisor.com

In the past, scientist wanted to see that if those who were extra good at getting the shot every year, actually showed issues from that. And what they found was, yes! There was a high correlation from the patients who religiously got the flu shot and symptoms they experienced. This means that if you constantly get the flu shot every year, you are more likely to get the dreaded flu-like symptoms. However, it doesn’t mean you’ll get sick.

Wait…what? But I thought you said that it does? This means I shouldn’t get the shot anymore, right!?

Well, no. Like I said, the flu vaccine changes every year, just as the flu changes every year. Some year’s flu vaccine may be better at protecting you than other years. It’s like playing darts. The vaccine may hit the bulls-eye and have great effectiveness, or miss the board completely and hit the wall behind it. Therefore, not effective at all.

Via google.com

It is tragic what happened to Mackenzie, may she rest in peace. But we take risk every day to protect ourselves and each other from many things that can harm us. Which is why even though getting the flu shot every year may make our symptoms worse, we should still protect ourselves for that year. We should still get our yearly flu vaccine because each year is a new battle and we won’t know what we are up against until it’s too late. The “It’s better to be safe than sorry” mentality. I hope that you understand vaccines are here to protect us, each year they change just like you change. Which is why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. However, getting protected is better because the benefits outweigh the risk.

Reference

# Flannery B, Chung JR, Thaker SN, et al. Interim Estimates of 2016–17 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness — United States, February 2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:167–171. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6606a3

# Ohmit, C., Thompson M., Petrie J. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in the 2011–2012 Season: Protection Against Each Circulating Virus and the Effect of Prior Vaccination on Estimates. Clin Infect Dis 2014; 58 (3): 319-327. doi: 10.1093/cid/cit736

#Fazylov VK., Sitnikkov IG., Silina EV. Treamtnment for acute respiratory viral infection and influenza in daily clinical practice: Results of the multicenter international observational FLU-EE study. ncbi. (2016). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28005034

# Utah’s response to 8 year old girls death by flu vaccine. [ 8 year Old Dies After Getting Flu]. Park City, UT. Good4Utah. Nexstar Broadcasting Inc. 2017. Website http://www.good4utah.com/news/local-news/8-year-old-dies-after-getting-flu/372768765