People often say that they do not get the flu shot because they believe or have heard that the flu shot will cause a person to get the flu, along with other complications. But is this fact or fiction, and where are people getting this information from? Below is a media clip of Dr. Joseph Mercola, who is a natural health expert, who posted a video blog, providing information that the flu shot does not prevent people from getting the flu. He also states the number of people reported by the CDC, who die each from the flu is false information.
The following media clip is from a popular internet news show. The clips provides information pertaining to studies that were conducted in Canada, showing that people who had received the flu shot multiple years in a row were more likely to catch the flu, than someone who only had the flu shot that one year.
This last clip is provided by CNN. It shows Pierce Morgan receiving information from the famous Dr. Oz about how the flu shot works, and if he will get the flu from the flu shot. He then receives the flu shot, then one week later, he comes down with the flu. If he really had the flu is up for debate, without taking a rapid flu test, there is no way to tell for sure if he did indeed contract the flu. He might of just had a bad cold.
There are also cases of the flu shout causing different complications. Wei-Ti and Yi – Chen (2016) complied and published a case study of the flu shot causing acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), which is a rare inflammatory disease that attacks the central nervous system. This disease has been known to be caused by vaccination is associated with several different vaccines such as rabies, diphtheria-tetanus-polio, smallpox, measles-mumps-rubella, Japanese B encephalitis, pertussis, influenza, hepatitis B, and swine fever. The highest incident occurred in children, but is also known to happen to people of all ages. Another case of complications occurring from the flu shot was a forty-two-year-old woman, who received the flu shot each year, received it in 2013. Seven days later her legs became numb, as well as her abdomen became tender to touch. After three weeks, the numbness the spread upper body to abdomen and hand. A few days later she developed a positive Babinski and hyperactive reflexes. She then went to the emergency room, where she went into respiratory failure. The patient was diagnosed with ADEM, received treatment and made a full recovery after a couple of months. Although this is incriminating data proving that the flu shot does cause some very serious complications, there are many studies that prove the exact opposite.
Tracey, Regan Mak and Effler (2015) compiled data from met-analysis of health care providers (HCP) that refuse to get the flu shot. Information was collected via text message. After a HCP received the flu shot, they also received a text message a few days later asking if they experienced any adverse effects. If they did experience any adverse effects, then they were sent a short survey. The results of the survey showed that the only adverse effects the HCP encountered was fatigue, headaches or respiratory symptoms. Lastly, Zeng, Newcomer, Glanz, Shoup, Daley, Hambridge and Xu (2013) conducted and published a self-control study that investigated whether a vaccine like the flu shot could cause adverse effects. Five hundred case were studied, the results showed that adverse effects like hypotension, rash and sepsis was very rare in occurrence. Simulations were also conducted in the study, these simulations helped prove the same results. It is unclear whether the information about catching the flu from the shot is true or not. I feel that further investigation needs to be conducted in order to determine if the flu causes people to get sick.
Being an advocator for patients, and a pro-vaccine believer it is concerning to review data that a vaccine that is taken by millions of people yearly could possibly cause severe complications in an otherwise healthy individual. Even though there is some data proving that the flu shot has caused these complications in people, there is also a high number of resulted studies proving that the worst complications that the flu shot will cause is fatigue, headache and respiratory complications. The data is inconclusive since everyone’s immune system is different, which causes different reactions to vaccines, medications and even environmental conditions.
References
Tracey, L. E., Regan, A. K., Mak, D. B., & Effler, P. V. (2015). Adverse Events Following Influenza Immunization Reported by Healthcare Personnel Using Active Surveillance Based on Text Messages. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 36(5), 608-610. doi:10.1017/ice.2015.16
Wei-Ti, Chen, and Huang Yi-Chen. 2016. “Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis After Influenza Vaccination: A Case Report.” Critical Care Nurse 36, no. 3: e1-e6. CINAHL Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 1, 2017).
Zeng, C., Newcomer, S. R., Glanz, J. M., Shoup, J. A., Daley, M. F., Hambidge, S. J., & Xu, S. (2013). Bias Correction of Risk Estimates in Vaccine Safety Studies With Rare Adverse Events Using a Self-controlled Case Series Design. American Journal Of Epidemiology, 178(12), 1750-1759. doi:aje/kwt211