Does The Flu Shot Give You The Flu?

Flu shots, also known as influenza shots are vaccines that protect people against being infected by influenza viruses. It’s typical of these viruses to keep changing. This is why the flu vaccines are usually developed twice in a year. The vaccination against influenza has a lot of benefits. This includes protecting people from sickness, frequent hospital visits, and even death. The world health bodies recommend vaccinating people under the age of six months, annually. Some of the people that should be vaccinated yearly include pregnant women, old adults, children between the age of six months to five years of age. In addition, those who work in the hospital, or health centers need to be vaccinated every year. This is to protect them from catching the infection,

Contrary to some people’s opinion, flu shots are safe. There has been little cases where it had adverse effects on people. As a matter of fact, about 5 to 10%, of children that got this shot, had a fever. This includes symptoms like fatigue and transient body pains. Also, there are cases where some people developed the Guillain-Barre syndrome. However, this occurs in about one in million cases of vaccination. However, vaccines should not be given to those that have serious allergies to eggs, and also those that have reacted to vaccines in the past. This vaccine comes in two forms. There are the inactive, and the weakened viral forms. The inactive vaccine is more suitable for pregnant women.

What Are The Pros Of Taking The Flu Shot?

1. Sometimes, people can get infected from the viral strains different from the one you got vaccinated for. In such scenario, your vaccination might still work for you, and protect you from this virus. If it happens that you still get infected with it, you’d present with less severe symptoms, and recover within a short period of time.
2. Influenza vaccines usually last for up to one year. This vaccine can protect people that got the shot for up to a year after they’ve received it. The vaccine would protect you against the virus that was included in the vaccine you received.
3. Receiving the seasonal flu shot is capable of significantly reducing the chances of being affected by the virus, especially during winter, when the rate of spread is usually high.
4. According to statistics, it has been noted that deaths related to influenza usually occurs in people above the age of 70.
5. Lastly, it’s important to state that receiving the flu shot, do not cause people to become infected with influenza. The influenza vaccines contain weakened or dead viruses. These viruses have no virulent factor; they possibly can’t cause or infect anyone with influenza. Cases, where people feel sick after receiving the shot, can be attributed to the fact that these set of people possibly were already infected with influenza.

What Are The Cons Of Receiving The Flu Shots?

1. Influenza vaccinations can have some adverse effects. Some of these side effects include headache, body pains, fever, fatigue, and some swelling might occur at the site of injection.
2. There have been some rare cases in which people that received the vaccine developed Guillain-Barre syndrome. This is a severe autoimmune disorder in which the immune system fails to recognize the nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system as part of the body and proceeds to attack and injure. This leads to the impairment of the nerve cells. This might eventually lead to symptoms such as weakness of muscles, paresthesia, and tingling sensations in the extremities. According to statistics, this occurs in about one in a million cases of vaccinations.
3. Getting an intradermal shot may lead to the hardening and itching, especially at the site of injection.
4. In situations where people react to the vaccine, they can present with symptoms such as tachycardia, problems with breathing, fatigue, paleness of the skin. These symptoms usually occur some minutes to hours after the vaccination shot had been administered.

Who are the people that can receive the flu shot?

1. Children can take the influenza shot. This includes children from the age of six months and above.
2. Pregnant women can also influenza vaccine. However, pregnant women should take the inactive form of flu vaccine.
3. People with long-term diseases or chronic disease can receive the flu vaccination.

What set of people can’t receive the flu vaccination?

1. Children younger than six months cannot receive the vaccine. This is because their immune system isn’t fully developed yet.
2. People with allergies should not receive the vaccine.
3. People below the age of 18 or more than 65 should not receive the intradermal vaccine shot.
4. People below the age of sixty-five should not receive the high-dose vaccine shot.

Does Medicare pay for flu and pneumonia shots?

Medicare does cover some immunizations and some vaccines. The Medicare Part B covers the following type of shots;

1. Influenza: The Medicare covers the influenza vaccination. Included in this package is the seasonal flu shot. It also covers the swine flu vaccination.
2. Pneumonia: This is usually administered twice a year.
3. Hepatitis B vaccinations.

Medicare will take care of the cost of immunization if the individual is exposed to the disease or a virus. Other vaccines apart from the ones stated above belong to the Medicare Part D.

Are Flu Shots Safe?

Flu shots are safe. Although there have been very few cases where people developed some serious complications such as the Guillain-Barre syndrome. This occurs in about one in a million cases. Other side effects that might be experienced are headache, fever, and so on. This might occur some minutes after receiving the vaccine.

Symptoms After The Flu Shot-What’s Normal?

People don’t usually react to the vaccine, however, there have been cases where presented with some complaints after receiving the flu shot. Some of the common symptoms presented after receiving the influenza vaccination shot include tachycardia, problems with breathing, fatigue, paleness of the skin.

References

Maurer, J. and Harris, K. (2016). Learning to Trust Flu Shots: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic. Health Economics, 25(9), pp.1148-1162.

The Austrian Vaccination Paradox: Tick-borne Encephalitis Vaccination Versus Influenza Vaccination. (2015). Central European Journal of Public Health, 23(3), pp.223-226.

Venter, A. (2001). Flu shots under investigation. Trends in Microbiology, 9(3), p.111.

Webster, R. (1999). Potential Advantages of DNA Immunization for Influenza Epidemic and Pandemic Planning. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 28(2), pp.225-229.