The Man Behind The Mask: Why I Choose To Not Receive The Flu Shot
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The Man Behind The Mask - David Boman, OTR/L, MBA
advice.
Background:
In the summer 2010 I had just changed jobs, moving from Hawaii to Texas, and during the winter of 2010 I received an email from Employee Health regarding the upcoming flu season and the availability of the flu vaccine from my employer. In addition to being required to sign a form either declining or accepting the flu vaccine, as a leader in the organization I was also tasked with ensuring that all of my staff were made aware of the flu vaccine and the process for obtaining or declining. I dutifully went to the employee health office to let the nurse know that I would not be receiving the flu shot for the following reasons: I had never seen it work, I had treated people who contracted Guilllian Barre Syndrome (GBS) shortly after receiving the shot, and that my father had also contracted GBS. Additionally, the only time in my 20+ year career in healthcare that I received the flu vaccine I became violently ill. All of this to say that I was skeptical and because of my skepticism I would decline. I was told that day that while it was optional that year, the following year (2012) in Texas, statutes had already been approved requiring employees of healthcare organizations to be vaccinated for the flu. I was shocked. We bantered back and forth but to be honest, I knew little about the flu vaccine and nothing of the law. All I really had was a feeling that this didn’t seem right.
A definition of flu or influenza:
The flu or influenza virus is complicated. It produces a series of symptoms that are also produced by some 200 other agents (Jefferson 2006). The term used to describe a set of flu-like symptoms (which mimic those of the flu) is influenza-like illness
or ILI. Both of these virus classifications (flu and ILI) cause fever, headache, fatigue/weakness, body aches, chills, sweating, runny nose, and/or a sore throat. The distinction between influenza and ILI is made through a special test of the blood or secretions from the nose. This is the only way to accurately tell the two categories apart. The flu shot is only designed to work on certain viral strains of influenza, types A and B (CDC-Seasonal Influenza-Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine 2013). One flu shot, the trivalent, purportedly addresses two type A flu viruses and one type B, while the quadrivalent addresses two type A and two type B (CDC-Seasonal Influenza-Key Facts About Seasonal Flu Vaccine 2013). With over 200 other viral strains creating similar symptoms it would stand to reason that:
The odds of contracting the flu are low. An individual would be likely to contract only 1 virus at a time of the greater than 200 viral types, which leaves a very small chance that the viral strain creating the sickness would be laboratory confirmed influenza type A or B vs. ILI.
If the quadrivalent shot was effective and the guesswork of which influenza strains were forecasted to be the most prevalent was accurate, that would eliminate only 4/200 viral strains from infecting the body.
Either way, the odds of either infection with influenza or effectiveness of the shot in preventing it are very low, based on the number of viral strains presenting with the same symptoms and the number of viral strains for which the flu shots were designed to address (only 4). These points are helpful to keep in mind before moving forward.
To summarize, the probability of contracting laboratory-confirmed influenza is low.
How big of a problem is the flu?
There is an old proverb that says, The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.
(Proverbs 18:17). As a manager and later an administrator within a large healthcare system working across several service lines, I learned quickly, and through failure, the need to hear the second case before even considering whether or not a problem truly exists. More than once I moved forward based upon the one or a small group complaint only to realize later that the complaint was not that big of a deal and really did not need the type of interventions required of either