Vaccines: Let Nature Do Its Thing or No?
Parents must continually make decisions for the well-being of their kids and themselves. Similarly, older Americans are often on fixed incomes and must plan their dollars and medical decisions carefully. Whether or not to vaccinate has, remarkably, become something that millennial parents weigh right along with what to feed their kids and what daycare to choose. The annual flu season brings with it a new opportunity for us to decide – to get the flu shot or not? Are we better off – resistance-wise – letting nature take its course?
Saavy adults know that the body builds its own ‘natural’ immunity once it has endured and healed from a viral infection such as the flu. In fact, this natural immunity following a viral infection can potentially last decades. As Dr. Alicia Fry of the CDC explains in a recent New York Times article, “people who were infected back in the 1930s still have immunity to those [flu] viruses.” In stark contrast, Wang et al. (2011) showed that patients who received the H1N1 Flu vaccine in 2009 showed significantly decreased antibody resistance just 6 months later, while those who were actually infected with (and suffered through) the flu virus still had antibodies to protect them from a repeat infection. In short, letting nature “run its course” results in a body that is more protected and resistant to a future flu infection. Sweet, you’re done with those pesky flu vaccines!
But, wait, you ask, this means I have to actually get sick with the flu, right? Right! To reap these antibody rewards, you have to be willing – and able – to endure days of chills, fever, nausea, time off work and school, and a whole host of pains. If you are an older adult, this also means you might not live through it all, or, if you do, you might need a hospital stay to get through it. If you are a student, you will miss school and potentially infect others and spread your flu joy. If you are a parent, you will necessarily lose time at work taking care of your kids, lose sleep, and, best of all, deal with a cranky, suffering child for a few days while they and you recover.
So, as you roll the flu dice, know that to beat the flu vaccine’s effectiveness, you have to be willing to get and suffer through all of the costs of actually having the flu. For those of us with demanding lives and kids and jobs, the vaccine takes the guessing out of it and saves lost time, money, and Kleenex. For most of us, the vaccine is the way to go and the risk of not getting vaccinated – and getting sick – does not pay off.
Mccarthy, K. (2016, Oct 28). Does the Flu Provide Better Immunity Than a Flu Shot?. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/does-the-flu-provide-better-immunity-than-a-flushot/rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=73&pgtype=sectionfront
Wang M, Yuan J, Li T, Liu Y, Wu J, Di B, et al. (2011) Antibody Dynamics of 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Infected Patients and Vaccinated People in China. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16809. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016809