Juniper Risk, sophomore, closes her eyes; she feels a sharp pain in her upper arm, then it’s over. Just like that she are no longer at risk of getting sick from the flu, or is she?
The flu shot works by injecting a few weakened or dead virus cells, exposing the human body to the harmful flu so that the body can create anitbodies within the blood. The reason for putting the flu inside of a person’s body is so that the person’s antibodies can learn to fight off the flu when exposed to a strong version of it in everyday life experiences. The person who has recieved the flu shot will have a better defense against influenza than someone who hasn’t. However students who have never gotten the flu but receive the shot are often raising their risk for getting the flu because they are disrupting their bodies natural defenses.
“When I was in seventh grade I got the shot and got sick from it. It was horrible; I got hives, and could barely move after I got sick from the shot,” Risk said.
However there is a reason for getting the shot every year; the flu is an adapting and changing virus, and changes from year to year, so the shot is changed as well. For example: last year’s flu shot didn’t have H1N1 (or swine flu) prevention in it, this year’s does to stop the virus and protect people from it.
“Its very important to get a flu shot every year, because there are people out there that can’t get the flu shot, and some of those people can die from the flu,” Jessica Garza, Roosevelt LVN, said.
The flu shot is an excellent idea to get when you have gotten or been exposed to the flu before, or even if you haven’t been exposed to it.
“The year that I got sick from the flu was a year that i skipped the shot,” Gurkan Bekar, World Studies teacher, said.”The shot helps prevent the spread of the flu.”
There is also a chance that students will get the shot and have never gotten sick from the flu or been exposed to the virus and not getting sick at all.
“In my personal opinion, I think no one actually gets sick from the shot,” Garza said. “They were already sick when they got the shot, then when their symptoms show up more obviously they blame the shot.”
However people claim to have gotten sick from the shot. They end up with flu like symptoms appearing only after receiving the flu shot.
“I think some people end up getting sick from the shot because it contains the the flu in it,” Bekar said.
However getting the shot is still important, it helps contain the flu during flu season and stop the spread of new strands of the flu.
“Not many students get a flu shot,” Garza said. “But if everyone got the shot then the number of sick kids will go down.
However there are still students who believe that the shot is a bad idea.
“Some people have weak immune systems, like me, and can’t handle being exposed to the virus at all when they first get the shot,” Risk said.
Whether the shot causes its victims to get sick or they are already sick, is not he only way to prevent getting the flu.
“The best way to prevent getting sick is sanitary behavior,” Bekar said. “Like washing hands or coughing into sleeve.”
