Dear Young, Healthy and Unvaccinated,
Why are you choosing not to get a flu shot? Is it because you are a busy college student who “ain’t got time for that?” Perhaps you insist that getting a flu shot actually gives you the flu? Maybe you heard that it only protects against some strains of the flu, and therefore you shouldn’t waste your time with something that might be ineffective? Or are you just not that worried about catching the flu?
One of the more reasonable excuses for avoiding the flu shot is time and money. You are a busy college student. Taking time to get a flu shot isn’t the first thing on your to-do list. But to be honest, if you are that busy, you don’t have time to get sick either.
Also, flu vaccine clinics are everywhere. They are on the Boston University campus, at various CVS Pharmacy locations and even at your door. On Oct. 24, the car service Uber tested a flu vaccination program that delivered a nurse to your door to administer vaccines. With today’s innovations, access to vaccinations is only getting easier.
As far as money goes, flu shots sometimes can be costly, with or without health insurance. Mine was $38, because I wanted the convenience of not leaving campus. But I see it as an investment, because hospital bills or staying home sick from school and work is much more costly.
If you are one of the many people who believe that the flu shot will make you sick, allow me to bust that myth. A flu shot is made from an inactivated (read: dead) virus that cannot get you sick. You can, however, catch something before you get the flu vaccine (or a few days after) and suddenly become symptomatic after the shot.
This seemingly cause-and-effect relationship may be misleading, but the flu shot is the confounding variable. The reason you got sick was because you were going to get sick anyways because it’s cold season, completely unrelated to the vaccine.
For healthy adults, the worst the vaccine is going to do is make your arm sore. And believe me, as someone who was paranoid they had nerve damage the day after this year’s flu shot, I know it can be painful. But it isn’t permanent, and in the end does a lot more good than harm.
It’s true that the flu vaccine only prevents against some strains of the flu, but it is still helpful if the predictions are wrong. The flu vaccine can make your illness milder when you do get sick. But why wouldn’t you want to protect yourself from a terrible illness? If there were an Ebola vaccine, people would be lining up, even though they are much less likely to contract it.
Although not Ebola, the flu is an ugly thing. It is much more intense than a normal cold. In the third grade, I had the flu and pneumonia at the same time and was hospitalized on Christmas Eve. At eight years old, I spent my Christmas Eve in the hospital connected to an IV drip and feeling incredibly sick. This was after suffering multiple days of extreme sickness at home. I have received a flu shot every year since, because it was not an experience I want to relive.
Last year, the City of Boston declared a flu emergency because there were about 700 confirmed cases of flu and four flu-related deaths. That is 10 times more confirmed cases than the previous year. Not to mention, there were probably more unconfirmed cases because people didn’t go to the hospital or doctor to get checked.
Getting a flu vaccine is not just about protecting yourself. It is even more important to remember that getting a flu vaccine protects those around you. It’s about people in the community that can’t get a flu vaccine or are at risk for getting severely sick if they catch the flu.
As college students who share living spaces, public transportation and public spaces with others, it is our responsibility to protect the community we live in. If getting the flu doesn’t bother you, it could bother your best friend who has a million and one things to do and doesn’t need to be sick, the boy sitting next to you in class with the weakened immune system or the little old lady on the train who will be hospitalized for days by the flu.
Even if you don’t have flu symptoms, you can still spread the illness. In fact, 20 to 30 percent of people carrying the influenza virus have no symptoms, and you can be contagious to others up to one day before and five to seven days after becoming sick, according to the Community Health and Social Services website. Without the flu shot, you are putting others at risk.
Choosing to forgo the flu shot, which is a minor inconvenience to you, is a selfish choice. So I ask that you please think about the community you are a part of and take the time to get a flu shot.
