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October 15, 2010
While dry leaves fall and temperatures descend, we chase a running nose behind annoying sniffles. Meanwhile, the likes of Jewel’s, Walgreens and Wal-Mart welcome the changing season with a commercial slogan reminding us that flu shots are available. Yes, we are back in this seasonal dilemma of whether we should allow dead pathogens to intrude our biological systems or not. Flu shots in America are controversial. Flu shots in other parts of the world are not even talked about. Back in the Philippines, I wonder if people there would allow a nice bed rest, kalamansi juice and a tasty lugao to be replaced by a serum brewed from a chicken egg. Sounds like a no brainer.
Some time back, a deadlier version of the flu, the H1N1 (more popularly known as the Swine flu), created a stir that led to an oversupply of vaccines and a reluctant group of consumers. Apparently, it also caused the death sentence of so many pigs, the alleged carrier of the suspected pathogen.
Last year, in New York, workers of a certain health institution were threatened to lose their jobs if they did not get the flu shot. In Illinois, a hospital in a Northwest suburb recently mandated their employees to get a shot by next month lest they be forced to wear a mask at work. To elucidate further, in “Chicago Tribune’s” October 13th issue (Section 1, page 23), there was this story about the Supreme Court grappling to decide whether Congress left parents with an option to sue a pharmaceutical company for selling vaccines with fatal side effects.
With all these tales and other allegations to the preponderance of the flu shot in contrast to possible side effects, we the people are lost in our own inconvenience with Theraflu and Benadryl. Should we get a flu shot or not? Do hospitals have the right to oblige their workers to do the same?
While the swine flu vaccine raked in around $1.5 Billion of profit last year, there is a survey indicating that 40 percent of adult Americans will skip it this year and thirty percent of moms intend not to vaccinate their kids this time.
With an average cost of $20.00 a shot, considering the rate of unemployment and foreclosed homes, not wanting to have a flu shot could probably find a culprit from our current economic malaise. However, the rates of moms not wanting to vaccinate their kids seem to be a concern. After all, aren’t children considered a vulnerable sector considered to have a special priority on flu shots? Yes and no. Yes they are vulnerable and no, flu shots are not the answer.
There are so many allegations. To begin with, flu shots do not give us the flu. They do not even contain a live virus. Most probably, if a patient suffers from fever right after the shot, it could probably be that the patient has allergies to the vaccination and not necessarily a reaction against the artificial immunity.
However, on the other page of reality, there are no guarantees that flu shots could eradicate the flu in as much as there is no certainty that we could catch the flu. The whole spectrum is within a fifty-fifty probability of sickness and health. In simpler terms, without the flu shot, I may or may not have the flu this season. With the flu shot, I still may or may have the flu this season. And it is not because flu shot is ineffective, but 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 brilliantly work in as much as there are different types of flu that have not yet discovered a specific immunization. In other words, not getting the flu even with the flu shot is like winning the lottery. There are no guarantees and the odds are fifty-fifty.
Then why this frenzy? Most educational material and informational brochures about the flu have either come from pharmaceutical companies or from physicians with a vested interest. On the other end of the spectrum, most consumers who defy the need of a flu shot are the ones who have been sick or those who are currently sick. There are very few of those who battle against the flu shot from a healthy standpoint. So let me try.
I am not demonizing the flu vaccine. It has its purpose. It has its function. And I am not telling anyone not to take it either. I don’t, but it does not mean that I have to tell my readers to follow my suit. That depends on the way their own bodies talk to them. What I would like to emphasize is the fact that no one should mandate anyone to have a flu shot as a condition for work. The flu shot is not a question of life or death. Just as there are so many things of convenience for Americans, there is almost nothing from people who live across the oceans.
No one could decide for anyone about the relevance and need of a flu shot, except for the individual involved or another individual under his or her care. And just like other vaccinations that have purportedly caused some unidentified anomalies, the flu shot is not exempt from causing unwanted side effects. The CDC has a long list of recommendations with profiles of people who need the flu shot.
However, there is not a list of people whose profiles seem to escape the rottenness of flu. Either they believe that we can all have the flu or not everyone will ever have the flu at all.
If work places persist in insisting a mandated mode of a flu shot, the controversy will be elevated to a civil rights issue. No one has the right to force anyone with a vaccine. In worst conditions, like a chemical warfare, segregation of the sick from the heavy will be constantly 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. To replace any strand of flu virus that could be good, we opted for French Orange Juice plucked out directly from oranges.
As I end, be well, be healthy and don’t worry about flu shots. You probably do not need it anyway?