{"id":64758,"date":"2017-11-14T11:59:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T17:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=64758"},"modified":"2017-11-28T10:53:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T16:53:48","slug":"fake-news-about-flu-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/fake-news-about-flu-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fake news’ about flu shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yvaine Ye<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Baby boomers, Gen X-ers and millennials hardly ever agree with each other on the same issue, but more than half of them have found common ground on the flu vaccine. They are not fans.<\/p>\n

More than 7,000 people died as a result of flu and flu-related disorders such as lung disease from 2010 to 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus also sent approximately 2 million people to the hospital in the same time period. Sure, everyone hates getting the flu, but only 43 percent of U.S. adults received a flu shot last year.<\/p>\n


\nEven though the flu vaccine remains the one of the most effective preventive measures for staving off the virus, whose severity ranges from \u201ccall in sick for work\u201d to death, why do so few Americans get one yearly? Much of this has more to do with \u201cmistrust of the vaccine and a lot of misinformation about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine,\u201d said Michael Ison, an infectious disease professor at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n

\"CVS
Chicago resident receives flu vaccine at local CVS (Yvaine Ye\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For many the biggest sticking point of the vaccine, besides the needle, is the idea of injecting yourself with precisely the thing your body is trying to avoid.<\/p>\n

Yet that\u2019s exactly how the flu shot is designed to work. In order to train your immune system to become more efficient and effective during an actual infection, dead virus pieces are injected into your body. This is why many people feel a little bit sick after the flu shot \u2014 the body is going through a military exercise to prepare for future attacks.<\/p>\n

To many, introducing virus into health body for future protection is unnecessary and counterintuitive. \u201cThe body can handle just about everything,\u201d said Amy Sherwood, 41, who hasn\u2019t received a flu shot since she was a kid. \u201cWhy put a dead virus inside you to fight off a live virus? That\u2019s what white blood cells are for. Let them do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherwood is not alone \u2013 the numbers among her age cohort tell a similar story of flu shot reluctance. Only 32 percent of people age 18 to 49 received a flu shot in the 2015-2016 flu season, according to the CDC. That\u2019s the lowest vaccine coverage of any age group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 25 years old, I\u2019m healthy, and I take very good care of my body,\u201d said Michael Levi, a student at Tufts University in Boston. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m really at risk of coming down with the flu or spreading it to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, for reasons that scientists have yet to find out, younger individuals who have lower risk of being infected, tend to experience the flu more profoundly when they do contract it, said Ison. \u201cIt\u2019s quite clear that H1N1 still is causing severe disease in otherwise healthy young adults,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The CDC estimated that a 5-percentage-point increase in vaccine coverage among adults aged 18 to 64 could slash the flu illness number by 300,000 during the 2015-2016 flu season.<\/p>\n

Rumors and Risk<\/h3>\n

Thanks to social media, old wives\u2019 tales and outright falsehoods, the flu shot is perhaps only slightly more popular than the flu itself. For example, much digital ink has been spilled about the miniscule amount of mercury present in the vaccination.<\/p>\n

Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that can damage human nerves and organs. Functioning as a preservative, a mercury-containing compound called thimerosal is added to vaccines to prevent the growth of bacteria. Because the amount of thimerosal is so minimal, and thimerosal \u2014 different from other mercury-containing compounds \u2014 \u201cdoes not build up and reach harmful levels,\u201d according to the CDC, doctors see little cause for concern when it comes to vaccine safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou expose yourself to more mercury eating a tuna fish sandwich than you are getting a flu vaccine,\u201d said infectious disease professor Michael Ison.<\/p>\n

However, many remain skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be risk,\u201d said student Michael Levi, \u201cand continually exposing yourself to it might place you at a greater risk of developing an adverse reaction or potentially weakening your immune system when the intention of the flu shot is to protect you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not so fast, medical experts say. Vaccinations, rather than weaken your immunity, are building the body up for future fights. In fact, those who eschew flu shots are not just putting their health at risk, but also the health of those around them.<\/p>\n

Herd Mentality<\/h4>\n

The virus is less able to spread within a community where most of its members are vaccinated. Such community, or herd, immunity provides greater protection to those who are at higher risk for the flu, such as young children and the elderly. However, the lack of conversation on community responsibility contributes to the lack of awareness in getting the flu shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are also not thinking of this as a choice that might matter to other people around them\u201d \u2014Jennifer Reich<\/div>\n

\u201cPeople are looking at this as an individual benefit and an individual risk,\u201d said Jennifer Reich, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver, who studies the anti-vaccination movement. \u201cThey are also not thinking of this as a choice that might matter to other people around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not an easy gap to close. Despite the CDC\u2019s relentless effort, the flu vaccine coverage among U.S. adults has remained flat since 2010, with slight year-to-year fluctuations between 38 to 44 percent. The numbers fall woefully short of the 80 percent coverage target set by the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

Mistrust of the vaccine, and a host of misinformation about its safety and efficacy, will remain as an ongoing battle for health care professionals when they urge more to get a yearly flu shot. Until then, all they can do is to keep spreading the word.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinue to have the conversations,\u201d Reich said of the communication gap. \u201cYoung adults think about how things would change for them if they were incapacitated for 10 days, which is about how long influenza lasts. If we have more conversations like that it may shift people\u2019s understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

PHOTO AT TOP: Even a slight increase in the number of people who receive the flu shot could have a significant impact on the spread of the disease according to the CDC (Yvaine Ye\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yvaine Ye Medill Reports Baby boomers, Gen X-ers and millennials hardly ever agree with each other on the same issue, but more than half of them have found common ground on the flu vaccine. They are not fans. 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