Snouts, Sniffles and Sneezes

When notebooks and back packs are relocated towards the front aisles of stores, and when kids scan through folders, binders and prices, summer warns us that the season is closing as it reminds us that another school year calendar is about to unfold. And while a green foliage is kicked out by yellow leaves, we have a sense that the rhinovirus is also about to enter our lives. So we are back in this seasonal dilemma of whether we should allow dead pathogens to intrude into our biological systems or not. Marketing campaigns will again nag us about the flu and the shot that comes with it. Flu shots in this bastion of democracy seem to have slipped through the cracks of dictatorship. It is gradually inserting itself as a legislative mandate, and not as a healthy option. Flu shots in other parts of the world are not even discussed. Back in the Philippines, a nice bed rest, kalamansi juice, and a hot lugao with chicken are a welcome alternative to the dreaded syringe with a flu vaccine.
Sometime last year, workers of a certain health institution in New York were threatened to lose their jobs if they did not get the flu shot. In Illinois, many hospitals and nursing homes threaten their workers to receive the shot; refuse it and don a mask, or refuse it and leave altogether. In nursing schools, students are obliged to receive the flu vaccine lest they couldn’t do clinical.
With all these tales and allegations to the preponderance of the flu shot as a mandate and not as a choice, it is now at the cusp of being an employment requirement rather than as a benefit to those who want it. With an average cost of $30.00 a shot, and without the guarantees that its recipients will not have the flu, it is understandable for people like me to reject it and spend that cash for something else that is more organic and natural than chemicals.
There are a number of allegations that perhaps trigger fear among those who are obliged to take the flu shot like health care workers. Some think that flu shots give us the influenza. The fact is, flu shots do not give us the flu. Most probably, if a patient suffers from fever right after the shot, it is possible that a patient is allergic to eggs, the base through which most drugs are manufactured.
On the other side of the fence, regarding the benefits of the flu shot, there are no guarantees that it could eradicate the flu in as much as there is no certainty that we could catch the flu. The only claim out there is that it decreases our chances to have the flu. The whole spectrum is within a fifty-fifty probability of sickness and health. Without the flu shot, I may or may not have the flu this season. And with the flu shot, I still may or may not have the flu this season. This will happen not because flu shot is ineffective, but because it is effective only when the right antibodies match with the proper antigens. In the microscopic world of virulent creatures, there are strains of flu shots that are brilliantly effective in as much as there are different types of flu strains that have not yet met its specific immunization. Not getting the flu even with the flu shot is like winning the lottery. There are no guarantees and the odds are at a fifty-fifty possibility.
Then why this frenzy? Most educational materials and informational brochures about the flu have either come from pharmaceutical companies or from physicians with a vested interest. And most consumers who defy the need for a flu shot are the ones who have been sick with flu or are currently ill. There are very few of those who battle against the flu shot from a healthy standpoint. And the number of those who protest it as a mandate is climbing its peak.
My point is, no one should mandate anyone to have a flu shot as a condition for work. Workers should have always the option of taking it or not. The flu shot is not a question of life or death. For companies, it is nothing more than a good source of revenue. And the classic excuse that health care workers must take the flu shot as a preventive measure to avoid being a carrier is still an excuse and not a convincing guarantee.
No one should decide for anyone about the need of a flu shot, except for the individual involved or another individual under his or her care. If work places insist on a mandated mode of a flu shot, the controversy may be elevated to a civil rights issue. No one has the right to force anyone with a vaccine. Anyone has the ability to stay healthy without a mandated vaccine. And everyone would like to have the sole authority towards their health at least until they start to lose cognition and the critical ability to judge things. In worst conditions, if it ever happens, the flu shot will be like a chemical warfare; a segregation of the sick from the rest will constantly be executed until the maximum outcome is reached.
Flu shots or not? That is the question. As for me and my household, we will not allow dead virus to enter our system. And since no one can promise us that flu shots will really protect us from flu, then we cannot guarantee to take it either. To replace any strand of flu virus, we opted for French Orange Juice plucked out directly from oranges. As for pills, vitamins and minerals are our choices. And as I end, be healthy, wash your hands, eat right and cover your mouth when sneezing and you will not need to worry about other people having the flu or taking the flu shots. Enjoy the rest of summer’s brief leftovers.