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Not too late for the flu shot: ‘It’s safer to get the flu vaccine than it is flu’

This article appeared in Cadillac News. Read more here.

Peak flu season is approaching, and medical professionals still advise getting your flu shot if you have not already done so.

Dr. Joseph Santangelo is a practicing pediatrician and is the vice president for medical affairs for Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital. He said that almost every year the Cadillac community experiences deaths that are either directly or indirectly related to the flu. However, the Cadillac community has thankfully not had any flu-related deaths yet this year.

Peak flu season typically takes place sometime between the third and 13th week of the year. However, this varies year by year. “We’re not quite at the peak yet,” Santangelo said, as flu infections have continued “going up and up and up.”

Santangelo encourages anyone who has not received their flu shot to do so in order to prevent severe bouts of the flu. It’s important to understand that the purpose of the flu vaccine is not only to prevent getting the flu, but also to decrease the severity of the flu if you do get it.

Feeling a little under the weather after getting the flu shot does not necessarily mean that you have the flu. Having a reaction is normal. It is your body’s immune system reacting to the vaccine so that you are prepared to fend off the real flu. Santangelo said that normal reactions include feeling achy and tired. “You cannot get the flu from the flu vaccine,” he said. “The flu vaccine is not a live vaccine.”

Strains A and B are common strains of the flu that are around every year. However, this year health care providers in the area are seeing more of the B strain than normal. “Traditionally we would see B a little earlier in the season,” Santangelo said. B strains and A strains have several different subtypes and lineages as well. Sometimes it is difficult for those formulating flu vaccines to exactly predict which flu varieties will be most common. Santangelo said that the vaccine formulation for this year is “relatively well suited to the strains that are going around.”

Santangelo encourages anyone with concerns about getting the flu shot to have that conversation with their doctors. “Everybody is different,” he said. Your physician knows you the best and will be best-suited to assess the suitability of the flu vaccine for you. That being said, Santangelo said that in general the flu vaccine is “very, very safe.” People die from the flu every year. He said, “It’s safer to get the flu vaccine than it is flu.”

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