It's flu myth season

It's flu season again, which means that in addition to the deadly influenza virus, flu myths are in the air. 

Dr. Ali Raja, executive vice chairman for the department of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, addresses some common patients misconceptions in this boston.com article.

Can the flu shot make me sick?

As Dr. Raja notes, the viruses in the flu shot are not active, so they can't make you sick. There are three types of flu vaccines: egg-based (the virus is grown in eggs), cell-based (the virus is grown in animal cells), and recombinant (the virus is grown using recombinant DNA technology). All methods are safe and effective in preventing the flu. The recombinant flu vaccine is the only egg-free vaccine. However, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology notes that even individuals with egg allergies may be able to safely get the flu vaccine. 

Why should I bother?  

For the 2018-2019 flu season, only 45.3% of adults over 18 got the vaccine. And while this was 2.0 percentage points higher than 2017–18, it's still not enough.

Beyond safety concerns, many patients skip the flu vaccine because it seems like a hassle. The trouble of visiting your doctor or stopping by your local pharmacy pales in comparison to the 5-7 days of fever, sore throat, muscle aches, and nausea that most people experience with an uncomplicated flu illness. The 2018-2019 flu season was particularly long, but the impact was mitigated by an effective vaccine and high early vaccination rates. Even so, there were an estimated 61,000 flu-related deaths.

Experts are predicting a potentially severe flu season for 2019-2020, so talk to all your patients about getting the flu shot, unless they are under 6 months or have a severe allergy to the flu vaccine.