The Low down on The Flu Shot

I’m going to post something today that is a little off the wall for my blog - - it isn’t a post about Toby’s latest development OR my father’s most recent memory lapse OR my mother’s literary graces. It’s a post about the flu shot. Go figure. (You may stop reading here if you like - -I won’t be offended. In fact, I’ll never know…)

I’m not writing this to preach or tell anyone what to do. I’m writing it because it’s at the forefront of everyone’s mind right now and something I am asked about 100 times a day. In fact, when I die, I think I may calculate up the number of hours of my life that I have spent discussing “the flu shot” and “vaccines” and the fact that they are NOT LINKED TO AUTISM, and ask The Man with the Authority for those hours of my life back.

In an attempt to preemptively salvage some of those hours, I thought I’d post all 2 of my cents on my blog for those of you who care to know my opinion.

The flu is coming. It is not just the sniffles and runny nose or vomiting and diarrhea as we so colloquially refer to “the flu” as. This flu is “the influenza”. As in the bug that leaves you feverish, achey, nauseated, short of breath and bedridden for about a week. As in the bug that killed 50 % of pregnant women in 1918 when it last reached pandemic proportions. As in the bug that we are STILL not very well equipped to treat despite the “marvels” of modern technology.

I very much respect the influenza and urge you to do the same.

Respecting “the influenza” means washing your hands, buying a thermometer, coughing into your forearm and not going to work if you are sick. It also means sucking up the fact that your arm may ache for a few hours afterwards, and getting the flu shot.

The flu shot is not perfect, but it’s not going to hurt you. And at the very least, it will protect your more vulnerable loved ones from contracting the influenza virus from you. A great analogy that I once heard was comparing the flu shot to your seatbelt. It won’t protect you from getting hurt, but in the event of an accident, it sure is better than NOT wearing one.

This season there are 2 influenza vaccines.

If you’re over 65 read this paragraph :

Lucky you! You’ve probably already encountered some form of the H1N1 influenza virus in your lifetime so you likely have natural immunity to it. You are less likely to contract the H1N1 virus BUT if you do, are more likely to have a worse outcome. People who have poor outcomes from “the flu” often do so because of a secondary pneumonia that they contract while their body is busy fighting the virus. In fact, 30% of mortality from H1N1 has actually been because of a bacterial pneumonia. My first word of advise to you is to you is to make sure you’ve had your pneumococcal vaccine. It’s offered to everyone over the age of 65 and is good for 10 years. My second piece of advice – get the regular flu shot. It’s still lingering around the corner, waiting for H1N1 to step out of the spotlight so it can have its annual moment of glory, and you are still it’s biggest target.

And last but not least, once your arms have recovered from the pneumonia vaccine and the regular flu shot, wait a bit and then get the H1N1 shot. Just for good measure.

If you are under 65 :

You are eligible for the H1N1 flu shot. The priority goes to pregnant women, children under the age of 5, health care workers, people with underlying medical conditions, and people in contact with any of the above. If you are not listed in the above group of people -- Welcome to Earth! I hope your return flight to Mars is uneventful.

There are 2 types of H1N1 vaccines available –the adjuvant and the non adjuvant. That’s a fancy name for “The kind we are stockpiling and the one we are not stockpiling”. Basically, the adjuvant kind is one that is mixed with a concoction that boosts our immune system so that we only require a small amount of it to reach the desired level of protection against it. The derivative that does the immune boosting is a natural ingredient of Vitamin E and some other compounds. The adjuvant vaccine, because it is dispensed in multi-dose vials, may also contains the preservative Thimerosal.

SHOCKED SILENCE

NO ONE PANIC. It’s not as bad as you think.

Thimerosal is a small small small (as in, if you put it on the table you wouldn’t be able to find it unless you put your Grandpa’s coke bottle glasses on and got your grade 8 microscope out and looked as hard as you could and then pretended the speck of dirt was it because you were tired of wearing your Grandpa’s glasses and squinting through a lense to see something that is so small it’s invisible) amount of mercury that is used to preserve the vaccine when dispensed in multi-dose vials. Probably my mother-in-law’s pickles have more thimerisal in them and I eat them by the jarful. I’m telling you - -marry into a family who knows how to pickle things and you’re set for life.

Anyway - -back to this tiny amount of thimerosal. This is the CULPRIT in the world’s STUPIDEST and LONGEST STANDING debate – that vaccines cause autism. It has been disproven COUNTLESS times, yet still parents are worried sick that the MMR vaccine causes autism. I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? Your kid turns 4 and before he starts kindergarten he gets is “pre kindergarten vaccines” (which, previously, contained a MICROSCOPIC amount of something that you had trouble spelling) and then he goes into kindergarten and 2 weeks later the teacher says, “Hey- this kid doesn’t socialize normally” so OBVIOUSLY it’s either what he had for dinner the night before or the particulate amount of the chemical that is hard to spell that he got 2 weeks ago. Couldn’t POSSIBLY be due to the fact that he is being faced with his first real socialization-under-pressure-experience. Nope - probably that Thimerosal. Even though we’ve disproven it a million times over.

We (the collective WE) even went as far as taking Thimerosal OUT of childhood vaccines and yet still, I find myself explaining this OVER and OVER and OVER again to patients. No, your child will NOT get autism from their childhood vaccines.

I don’t actually mind when patients do ask about this topic. I’m just using the monotony of the repetitive explanation to prove my point to you; that the flu shot is benign and the fact that it may contain thimerosal is not a good enough excuse NOT to have the H1N1 flu shot.

I suspect my post is long enough. I leave you with these concluding words :

We don’t know WHAT is in store for us this year as flu season approaches. Hindsight will be 20/20 and I bet you’d rather say, “Gee, that wasn’t a pandemic after all - -too bad I had to get an extra vaccine this year for nothing” vs. “Wow. My whole family is dead. Maybe I should have had the H1N1 vaccine…”

Nuff said.