Flu Shot Versus Flu–The Lesser of Two Evils

This year, New York State sent down a mandate that required people who work in healthcare facilities either to have the flu shot or they would be required to wear a mask the entire time they were at work.  Not just when in contact with patients, but the entire time they were on the clock and on the premises.  The purpose of both options was to stem the tide of the flu season.  Okay, that didn’t work out as well as everyone might have hoped ‘cause the outbreak of flu here in the U.S. qualifies as epidemic.

Not absolutely requiring the shot is said to be an attempt to give people who don’t want to get the shot for whatever reason an alternative.  Nobody’s fooling me.  If you ever had to wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth for 8-10 hours straight, you already know how annoying and even inconvenient it can get.  If you had to wear it every day you worked, the words “absurd”, “ridiculous” “silly” and “stupid” might wander through your brain on a regular basis.  Yet, the mask must remain regardless of the mantra that those words become in your head.  Yes, it’s an alternative to getting the shot, but the inconvenience of a masked existence is also a way of getting people to comply without actually insisting on it.

Some object to the flu shot for religious reasons.  Even though I’ve heard the arguments as to why someone’s faith says that they shouldn’t take any vaccination, I still don’t get it, but I’ll respect their right to be flu shot-free.  There are also those who work in hospitals, etc. who object to getting the flu shot because they just don’t want it.  There are also some in that group who think it’s absurd to insist they get the shot when the public is still being exposed to the flu out in the great wide non-hospital world.  They’re right about that, but there’s something to the argument of taking extra steps in a hospital, nursing home or similar healthcare setting where some patients’ immune systems might not be up to par due to age, disease, or medications.

Truth is, anyone who objects to getting the flu shot, unless they’re allergic to some portion of it, is really doing so because they don’t want to be told what to do, either by a government entity or in general.  I can relate.  I’m a quiet little maverick myself and. up until a few years ago, I never got a flu shot, either.  It was when New York State required that everyone who worked in a healthcare setting get the adjunct shot for the H1N1 flu virus a few years ago that I reluctantly started lining up for the flu shot ow-ee.  Granted, my decision to cave in at that time was partly based in wanting to keep my paychecks rolling in, but compliance is compliance.  My argument was that I didn’t like the reaction I always had to every vaccination/immunization I got.  Yup, with every single shot, regardless of what it was for, I’d run a fever of over 101°F, get muscle aches and just get generally bitchy for 24-36 hours.  Then, I started to look at it from the perspective of people who got the flu and were so sick with it, some to the point of dying from it, and I decided that I could put up with my side effects on a once a year basis.  Now, I just get the shot on a Friday so no one has to listen to me whine the next day or so.

Many years ago, I had the flu.  It was just over a week of a 102-103°F fever, body aches, coughing, sneezing, sinus and chest congestion, and feeling like an 18-wheeler had run me over, slammed the truck into reverse and ran me over one more time for good measure.  Used up all my sick time and didn’t get to enjoy a hooky day from work for quite a while after that.  And yet, it wasn’t until 20 years later that I started to regularly get the shot to minimize the risk of repeating anything similar to that episode ever again.  Through the luck of the draw, I never came down with another strain of flu.  Oh, you didn’t know there was more than one?  Ha-ha – silly reader.

Some think that because they got sick after getting the flu shot that the shot gave them the flu.  Uh, no.  Anyone who understands the immune process and how modern vaccines do their thing will tell you it doesn’t work that way.  It takes about two weeks for the immunity to kick in to the max.  If you got sick during that time, either you’re like me and had side effects which weren’t flu, or you had something that was flu-like but wasn’t influenza, or somebody already exposed you to the flu, you were destined to get it and the timing just sucked.  Get over it. 

I understand the reluctance, fellow mavericks, and if you can live with wearing a mask all the live long day, then more power to you.  But, if you have to comply with getting immunized to get into school and college, or even travel the world,  what’s having one more needle once a year?  When you stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking about the people who can’t fight the flu fight as well as you, you might want to reconsider for their sakes.  Give it some thought.