I’m not a fashion beauty queen but trust me when I say that this season’s hottest accessory is a flu shot.
Flu season is here, people! It’s time to prepare ourselves. Every year there’s massive hype over getting flu shots so I’m here to use the 4 (painful) years of my biopharmaceutical science degree to tell you everything you need to know about flu shots and why you should get one.
The Basics
“The Flu” is short for Influenza Virus. If you have the flu, you might actually mistake it for a cold since they share some of the same symptoms, but the flu and the common cold are not the same things despite the fact that they are both caused by viruses.
A virus is this really small particle that contains genetic information (DNA or RNA) but cannot live autonomously and needs the help of a host cell to live in and thrive. In the case of the flu, they try to find a nice cozy host cell in the respiratory tract to replicate using the resources from the host cell (kinda like that nightmare roommate you dread). Once they’re ready, the virus attacks other cells and continues to replicate.
We’ve all heard of the immune system, but what is it really? Essentially, your immune system is like your body’s personal military army to make sure you’re protected from the inside. It will try to detect viruses before they cause damage but if that’s not possible, they fight off the virus and try to eliminate it after the damage has been done. A key component of your immune system are antibodies which are proteins created by your white blood cells that can detect viruses by binding to them and call on complement proteins to fight them off.
The beauty of the immune system is that once you’ve been infected, your body keeps specific antibodies for that virus on-hand so that you never get affected by that virus ever again.
The downside is that antibodies are specific to only one specific molecule, so if you get sick with a virus, and your body doesn’t have that one specific antibody on hand, you’re doomed to a few days of sickness.
Fun fact: as you age, your body keeps more antibodies on hand which explains why you get sick less often as you grow older.
The Vaccine:
The flu vaccine is essentially dead viruses being injected inside you to try and build antibodies to prepare you in the case that you do get sick. When making the flu virus, scientists try to predict which flu strains will be popular for that given flu season based on tests and calculations.
“People say there are bad things in vaccines, what’s in it?”
Health Canada would not allow toxins to be in our vaccines. Some people like to believe in conspiracy theories that the government actually wants to make us sick but trust me, the regulatory process for drugs and vaccines in Canada is actually suuuper strict. Certain things added in vaccines are added in such low quantities that they can’t harm us at all. They are usually adjuvants or preservatives to help with the manufacturing process or the shelf life of the vaccine.
“But I got the vaccine last year?”
The vaccine changes every year based on trends so you need to get it every year.
“I got it last year and still got sick so clearly, the flu shot doesn’t work”
If you got influenza last year after getting the flu shot you either:
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Got sick within 2 weeks of getting the vaccine. Because it takes 2 weeks for you to reach full immunity after getting a flu shot, if you got sick within that 2-week period, you weren’t immune.
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Got a different influenza strain than the one in the vaccine.
Why you should get your flu shot:
If you belong to vulnerable populations like the elderly, pregnant women, or people with a chronic condition like diabetes or asthma, you are at a higher risk for complications from the influenza virus. What might just seem like a mild sickness can turn into something ugly really quickly. Even if you don’t belong to these groups of vulnerable people, the flu shot is the best way to prevent illness. Flu shots are available almost everywhere–even on campus! Lastly, by getting a flu shot, you contribute to herd immunity, a proven theory that if we all get our flu shots, we have a lesser chance of passing it onto others and getting others sick.
It’s not too late to get a flu shot, flu season runs from November to March and you can get it just about anywhere at no cost. Stay safe, keep your friends safe, and get your flu shot to keep you feeling fresh all winter long.