About Me

Getting the flu vaccine each year is a given for me because I grew up with the stories of my grandmother who died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. When I was younger I used to think it wasn’t necessary until I had flu that developed into pneumonia one year. Since then, I’m practically first in line every fall. At first the flu vaccine was considered necessary only for the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Now, researchers have found that it’s good preventative medicine for almost everyone. Only those who are allergic to eggs can’t tolerate the vaccine. Here are some reasons why you should receive the flu vaccine.

FLU IS VERY CONTAGIOUS. More virulent than the common cold, flu spreads rapidly in warm, crowded rooms which is where most of us spend a lot of time in winter, the height of flu season. While a cough outside may do nothing more than startle the birds, inside, it can infect everyone within several feet of you. On a crowded airplane which recirculates air, your sneeze or cough may infect everyone in the plane. One of the reasons so many people died during the 1918 epidemic is that soldiers were jammed tightly together in transport ships and back home, infected people attended patriotic rallies.

COMPLICATIONS FROM FLU CAN KILL YOU. It’s not so much the initial onset of fever and chills that does you in (although in the very elderly and very young it can be lethal) but the bacterial infections that follow. Bronchitis and pneumonia kill thousands each year. The average death toll from flu in any given year is 36,000 in the U.S. The number of hospitalizations is many times that. The consensus of several studies is that persons over 65 who are vaccinated against the flu are 50% less likely to die in the winter months than their unvaccinated counterparts.

FLU IS EXPENSIVE. When you total the cost of hospitalizations due to flu, the cost of antibiotics and medical care needed to combat secondary infections, the rise in insurance premiums as a result of so many flu cases, the cost of time lost from work to both employees and companies, the amount is staggering. If children contract the flu, parents have to take additional time from work to care for them. If a person who contracts the flu is left with lingering susceptibilities to respiratory problems, the costs may become life long.

IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR HEART. This is a fairly recent discovery. Annual flu vaccinations can prevent death in adults and children with chronic conditions