A shot in the arm for everyone
Anyone who’s ever had a full-on case of influenza — regular old nasty flu — can tell you it’s something you want to avoid. While many people don’t have serious symptoms, those who do report being unable to work or participate in any activities beyond lying in bed feeling terrible for days and even weeks on end.
Our local health unit, now titled Lakelands Public Health, confirmed the first case of seasonal flu early this year, on Oct. 9. “The flu shot helps to prevent severe illness, especially among people more vulnerable due to age or other medical conditions,” Dr. Natalie Bocking, the organization’s deputy medical officer of health said in a news release. “Everyone can do their part to prevent the spread of infections during respiratory season by staying home when you’re sick and getting vaccinated.”
We tend to think of the flu as just a nuisance, but as health authorities at all levels reiterate, it can be extremely serious for babies, older adults and anyone who is pregnant, has compromised immunity or lives with other chronic health concerns. For instance, someone with a heart problem, diabetes or asthma is in much greater danger if they come down with the flu. Take a moment to think of all the people you care about who fit those categories, and about how much you want to keep them safe.
The good news is that free flu shots are widely available at pharmacies, in doctors’ offices and at public clinics. A quick poke from a professional and you’re at much less risk of contracting flu and, at least as importantly, of spreading it to others. (To everyone who stays home when they feel something coming on, or wear masks when they must go out while feeling unwell, thank you.)
If you’re concerned that this year’s vaccine is reportedly a poor match for the most recent flu strain, that professional will tell you that the shot will still protect you. It’ll help you stay out of hospital, as Matthew Miller, an immunologist and researcher at McMaster University told the CBC. “There’s still great value in getting the vaccine.”
And if you’re concerned about the whole idea of vaccines — of, as the skeptics say, putting something whose makeup you don’t understand in your body — consider whether you know every ingredient in the headache or blood pressure medication you take, or even the chips and pop you sometimes snack on.
Doctors and researchers of all kinds, with enormous expertise and vast scientific proof, recommend we get the flu shot. How strange that so many of us think we know something they don’t, when there’s such an easy option right in front of us.
Nobody enjoys getting a needle. But a few moments’ discomfort seems like a very small price to pay to reduce our own risk and that of everyone we meet, especially beloved grandparents and other seniors or folks with compromised health.
The nurse who gave me this year’s shots said that, since the COVID pandemic, so many new viruses have emerged that they are really just playing a game of whack-a-mole trying to hit all the viral targets.
I wish there was a vaccine for the norovirus, a really nasty one that makes you feel like you are dying. Extremely painful with simultaneous diarrhea and vomiting. Very messy.
A lot of people who oppose vaccines don’t understand risk management. They think if a vaccine isn’t 100% safe and if health professionals can’t guarantee no injury or death, it is a criminal offence worthy of trial at Nuremberg. I recently saw a post on Facebook that the https://allianceofindigenousnations.org/ “is the first tribunal (court) in the world to issue a Declaration that mRNA injections are, in fact, a biological and technological weapon!”
There is a paranoia around vaccines that has a life and a growing community of its own.
But all vaccines carry some risk. Their good is in the millions of lives saved, even if a relative few are lost. That can sometimes be a difficult calculus for idealists to accept.