The flu vaccine: what does it mean? Normally we would associate a vaccine with the idea that it confers protection against it’s intended pathogen (usually a virus, sometimes bacteria). This is actually, not the case with the flu vaccine. Well, at least not completely. The shot that you would get to protect yourself from “the flu” isn’t actually protecting you from “the flu”, or influenza as a whole. That’s because there are actually hundreds of strains of the influenza virus that have been characterized, and circulate within the human population. The shot that you are thinking about getting? It only works to confer immunity to THREE strains of flu each year the shot is issued. See, the pharmaceutical companies perform research, statistical analysis, and projected analysis on which flu strains they predict will be the most common to circulate during peak infection season. This is, as one would assume, generally reliable, because they are doing good science, but it is not a perfect system, because it is solely based on probability and projected analysis. Now, the strains of influenza have been categorized in three types: A, B, and C. Specifically the “flu” shot you would get contains “dead” virus particles of 2 strains of influenza type A, and one of type B. They do not include any vaccine for type C strains, which, generally, are the mild forms of flu that do not typically cause serious illness (e.g. these are characteristic of the “24-hour flu bug”, that people frequently contract). So, the vaccine is really intended only to protect against strains of influenza that pose a risk of being exceptionally dangerous to our health. But, this can only be accomplished against strains of influenza which are/will be currently known; this is where you find cases like the swine flu and avian flu which are new strains that evolve virulence previously unrecorded. Essentially, there is no way to protect against those scenarios except with antiviral medication, which is really only used to combat cases of acute illness (i.e. when actually necessary). Despite this, the flu vaccine is actually generally reliable, depending on the year, against the most common strains of flu. Unfortunately, the CDC has stated that this year the vaccine only confers around 40% resistance to the most common strains circulating this season. So, as a general precaution, is the flu vaccine good for a shot? Well, for a physically fit, healthy young, or even middle-aged individual, there is really no reason to get the flu shot. It’s most effective use is for people with compromised ability to fight off disease—the elderly, people with faulty immune systems, small children. And just something to marinate on: pharmaceutical companies that develop the flu vaccines each year stand to make a gigantic profit off of marketing and selling the flu vaccine to as many customers as possible. Let me also enlighten you further: pharmaceuticals push their products on doctors and medical professionals so they can use them as advertisers, usually with incentives. It’s a dog-eat-dog market, just like every other one. So there is a reason that the “general disposition” to the flu vaccine is that it is beneficial, and slightly short of necessary for people to get. But if you are 23, and healthy like me? You’ll probably get the flu anyway at some point in the year, even if you spent the $25 and got the shot! That’s the facts, Jack.
Addendum for those interested:
There is also a reason why the flu shot cannot provide protection for the hundreds of strains that we actually do know about. The biology behind a vaccine is a fairly fragile system. What you are doing is taking non-functional, or “dead” virus particles, injecting them into the body, the immune system creates antibodies as markers of these strains, and after these antibodies develop the body can recognize any foreign flu virus of the same kind, and “flag it” for “destruction” by white blood cells (phagocytes) easily. Two problems: sometimes (well, most of the time) the “dead” particles in vaccines actually still carry a small amount of functionality; i.e. you get a little sick. This puts a strain on the immune system for a time (about 2 weeks in the case of the flu) and can weaken it, so you could get sick easier from another pathogen. So injecting yourself with a cocktail of over 100 strains of flu could be really bad for your health. Secondly, the flu vaccine has to be manufactured anew each year to protect against the newly evolved forms of different strains. For a pharmaceutical to develop a product and produce it on a country-wide scale every single flu season is an intensely industrious effort, and next to impossible, because engineering a vaccine is a time-consuming process to isolate ineffectual virus particles. And now you know.
-the infallible voice of reason
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