Posted on October 24, 2009 - by J Lane

Flu vaccine: to be or not to be

There’s been a pile of debate about whether or not people should get the flu vaccine.  It’s probably been fuelled by the media’s hype of the “life-threatening” H1N1 strain of the flu virus.  Today, I came across this video via. a friend on twitter:

At one point, the reporter tosses out the stat of a “one in a million” neurological disorder.  That might seem like pretty good odds.  According to the US census bureau, the current population of the US is 304 million — so if everyone in the US got vaccinated, 304 of them would no longer be able to talk or walk normally.  Huh.  It would suck to be one of those 304 just because I wanted to avoid getting the flu.

I’m neither pro nor anti vaccines in general.  There’s no doubt that they’ve contributed to wiping out some absolutely horrifying diseases.  That said, I don’t know whether I’d be willing to gamble the inconvenience of a flu with a one in a million change of having a permanent, life-altering condition.  With our first son, we started out getting him vaccinated on the normal routine.  He had a horrible reaction to the first round though (high fever, listlessness), so we opted to hold off on the next few shots.  He’s all caught up now, as is our younger son, but we waited until they were over the age of 1 to finish it off.  I was talking with my Doctor about it at the time (a really great, practical guy), and he pointed out that we live in Canada where the chances of catching most of the diseases you’re being vaccinated against is pretty low.  He asked if we were planning to travel anywhere in the future (no), and said that we were probably fine.  He did say that there is that risk though (one in a million?)

I pretty much get the flu at some point or another every year.  I never have an easy time of it either.  Am I going to get a flu vaccination?  Nope.  There’s a couple of factors in play in that decision:

1. I work from home, and live on an island of about 1,000 people.  Sure, people come and go from the island every day, and I make trips over to the city on a somewhat regular schedule, but I think my risk of exposure is pretty minimal.  I doubt we’ll see H1N1 make an appearance on Mayne.
2. Coughing, sneezing, and flu symptoms suck, but personally I’m not likely to die from them.  I’m not likely to become permanently impaired from the flu.  I might have a couple of weeks of low productivity (sorry in advance clients, I appreciate your patience).
3. A significant portion of people that get the flu vaccine, end up with the flu.  The way a vaccine works is that it actually hits your immune system with a low dose of the virus being vaccinated against.  Your body then generates it’s own antibodies to deal with future exposures to that virus.  If you’re a bit under the weather, or if the vaccine dose is off a bit, you could end up with an all-out flu from the vaccine.