TO THE EDITOR:
A worldwide flu pandemic occurred it 1918-1919, leaving between 50 and 100 million people dead- three percent of the world’s population at the time, historian Dan Jones noted in a recent article. There was no vaccine at that time.
No one can predict how long the flu season will last this time around. But, we have vaccines to help significantly reduce the number of people who can become infected with the influenza virus.
In fact, even if you get the flu after being vaccinated, the shot will significantly reduce its symptoms among those who had recently received influenza vaccine as compared to those who had not, says American Society for Microbiology.
Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.
The Centers for Disease Control issued a statement at a news briefing on January 12 in which Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of CDC’s Influenza Division, said that while “not everyone needs to get antiviral drugs, but there are certain people that should.
CDC recommends that people who are very sick or people with flu symptoms who are high-risk for serious flu complications should be treated as soon as possible with flu antiviral drugs. Who are those people? That means people that are 65 and older.
It means young children. It means people with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease or asthma. It means pregnant women and others more vulnerable to serious flu illness.”
Weber points out that several recent studies have shown that the flu vaccine reduces the risk of catching the flu by 40 percent to 60 percent among the general population.
