Faith in a Needle
It's winter, and we're at the height of the flu season. This year, between summer and fall, the type of virus changed slightly, and the vaccine is being less effective than other years. Since the epidemic began some weeks ago, thirty-eight people in this region of Galicia have died.
It doesn't sound like a lot, out of a population of a few hundred thousand, but it's still sobering that a little virus you've suffered from many times can still take you out. Eighteen of those that died didn't get the vaccine, yet they were within the group in which it is recommended. I, with my asthma, have been getting the flu shot for years. So far, I haven't had the flu, though a cold or another some other year might have been the flu virus attacking me, though attenuated by the vaccine.
The last time I knowingly had the flu, was the year the A virus erupted onto the scene. I had been vaccinated for the usual B virus, but I fell ill one weekend. So did my husband and daughter, yet my father didn't. The A virus had been absent for so long, that those who fell ill were those who had never come in contact with it because of their age. Since the A virus had been the more common one when my father was young, his body remembered it and wasn't affected by it.
Nowadays, the flu seems an innocuous enough illness to scoff at getting vaccinated for it. Yet, it can complicate other long-term illnesses to the point of becoming hospitalized. It can also compromise the body's defenses enough to kill someone whose defenses are already compromised through age. Most people don't bother to get vaccinated because the flu virus changes so much that the vaccine, modelled on the viruses circulating in the other hemisphere during their winter, can be completely ineffective. There are various viruses, less than those which cause the common cold, yet too many to always predict accurately which will affect the most in a given winter. So people say, "I got the vaccine last year, and then I got the flu. The vaccine is no good." But perhaps the vaccine prevented the infection from being caused by two or more viruses, and made the illness less intense than it would have been otherwise.
It seems a minor thing to be vaccinated for, yet that disdain spreads to other vaccinations which do save lives. Two years ago, an unvaccinated boy contracted diphtheria in Catalunya. After twenty-five days in the hospital the boy died. A check was made of his fellow camp-mates, and ten were found to be infected. Yet, because they had been correctly vaccinated against the illness, they had not developed it, and they were fine. It was the first case of diphtheria in Spain since 1987. Universal vaccination had almost eradicated the illness. Yet, the virus can still be carried without doing any harm until it finds the first unvaccinated person.
Many people believe all the folderol put out by anti-vaccination groups that claim vaccines cause autism. That has never been proven. The mercury that used to be in vaccines as a preservative is no longer used as such. From studies made by many different scientists, various other origins have been discussed, from genetic problems in one or more genes, to heavy metals in the environment, or heightened sensitivity to environmental contaminants. But the vaccines have been proven to not be a cause. Yet, conspiracy theories still abound, and hatred of government interference have led people to believe theories so nutty as those that claim the "government" is injecting people with cancer cells or brain-washing chemicals. But these folks never stop to see that those who are vaccinated don't develop these illnesses except in non-virulent forms that do not leave them incapacitated or dead. And many older people who have died from cancer probably had few or no vaccines in their lives.
These days, people tend to forget that smallpox has been eradicated from nature precisely by widespread vaccination all over the globe. We no longer receive the scarring vaccine because we don't need it any more. That might never happen with the flu or other viruses, because of their make-up and how they are disseminated, yet why risk one's health just to avoid a jab with a needle once a year? Even if it's not a very effective year, I'll get the jab.
It doesn't sound like a lot, out of a population of a few hundred thousand, but it's still sobering that a little virus you've suffered from many times can still take you out. Eighteen of those that died didn't get the vaccine, yet they were within the group in which it is recommended. I, with my asthma, have been getting the flu shot for years. So far, I haven't had the flu, though a cold or another some other year might have been the flu virus attacking me, though attenuated by the vaccine.
The last time I knowingly had the flu, was the year the A virus erupted onto the scene. I had been vaccinated for the usual B virus, but I fell ill one weekend. So did my husband and daughter, yet my father didn't. The A virus had been absent for so long, that those who fell ill were those who had never come in contact with it because of their age. Since the A virus had been the more common one when my father was young, his body remembered it and wasn't affected by it.
Nowadays, the flu seems an innocuous enough illness to scoff at getting vaccinated for it. Yet, it can complicate other long-term illnesses to the point of becoming hospitalized. It can also compromise the body's defenses enough to kill someone whose defenses are already compromised through age. Most people don't bother to get vaccinated because the flu virus changes so much that the vaccine, modelled on the viruses circulating in the other hemisphere during their winter, can be completely ineffective. There are various viruses, less than those which cause the common cold, yet too many to always predict accurately which will affect the most in a given winter. So people say, "I got the vaccine last year, and then I got the flu. The vaccine is no good." But perhaps the vaccine prevented the infection from being caused by two or more viruses, and made the illness less intense than it would have been otherwise.
It seems a minor thing to be vaccinated for, yet that disdain spreads to other vaccinations which do save lives. Two years ago, an unvaccinated boy contracted diphtheria in Catalunya. After twenty-five days in the hospital the boy died. A check was made of his fellow camp-mates, and ten were found to be infected. Yet, because they had been correctly vaccinated against the illness, they had not developed it, and they were fine. It was the first case of diphtheria in Spain since 1987. Universal vaccination had almost eradicated the illness. Yet, the virus can still be carried without doing any harm until it finds the first unvaccinated person.
Many people believe all the folderol put out by anti-vaccination groups that claim vaccines cause autism. That has never been proven. The mercury that used to be in vaccines as a preservative is no longer used as such. From studies made by many different scientists, various other origins have been discussed, from genetic problems in one or more genes, to heavy metals in the environment, or heightened sensitivity to environmental contaminants. But the vaccines have been proven to not be a cause. Yet, conspiracy theories still abound, and hatred of government interference have led people to believe theories so nutty as those that claim the "government" is injecting people with cancer cells or brain-washing chemicals. But these folks never stop to see that those who are vaccinated don't develop these illnesses except in non-virulent forms that do not leave them incapacitated or dead. And many older people who have died from cancer probably had few or no vaccines in their lives.
These days, people tend to forget that smallpox has been eradicated from nature precisely by widespread vaccination all over the globe. We no longer receive the scarring vaccine because we don't need it any more. That might never happen with the flu or other viruses, because of their make-up and how they are disseminated, yet why risk one's health just to avoid a jab with a needle once a year? Even if it's not a very effective year, I'll get the jab.
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