Come With A Grocery List, Leave With A Flu Shot

Will you and your family be getting flu shots this year? This is definitely a heated topic and we wanted to know where you stand.

Let's start with some facts:

This year's flu vaccine protects against 3 strains, including H1N1. Supplies are plentiful enough that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone older than 6 months receive a flu shot this year. The only exceptions are elderly people with compromised immune systems and people with severe allergies to eggs (because eggs are used in the production of the vaccine).

We checked the CDC's website for the risks of getting a flu shot. "The viruses in the flu shot are killed (inactivated), so you cannot get the flu from a flu shot. The risk of a flu shot causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small. However, a vaccine, like any medicine, may rarely cause serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. Almost all people who get influenza vaccine have no serious problems from it."

Then we heard this story on NPR which further sparked our interest on the topic:  Come With A Grocery List, Leave With A Flu Shot

" 'For very young infants, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, the vaccine simply won't be effective,'  says [Dr. Gregory A. Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group]. These groups cannot produce the antibodies they need after getting the vaccine.  So, he says, the only way we can protect them is to have the people around them protected against influenza.

The vaccine is now available at grocery stores, retailers, pharmacies and work sites. 'There are places where you don't even have to get out of your car. You can drive through, stick your arm out the window and get vaccinated.' " 

I asked my co-workers if they were going to get a flu shot this year. I got a wide array of answers. One person said that she never gets the flu shot and that getting sick is a natural part of life, followed up by not wanting to intentionally put something foreign into her body. While another gets one every year and swears by it. This year, the flu vaccine is as available and as accessible as ever. Will you and your family be getting it? What is your stance?