Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: 27 Reasons Why You Should Get a Flu Shot

Episode Date: October 21, 2018

Dr. Sydnee and Justin asked why you, their beloved listeners, haven't gotten a flu shot and now they're taking 27 (yes, 27) of your most common excuses and blowing them to smithereens. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! I'm the the the

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the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the For the mouth Hello everybody and welcome to Saul Bones, a metal tour of Miss Guy and Medicine. I'm your co-host Justin McArolley And I'm Sydney McArolley folks at that time of year again the most wonderful time of the year

You you're singing that to reference flu season? Well, yeah, it's a time when we all get to take control of our health and Yeah, it's the time when we all get to take control of our health and do something good for ourselves, but also those around us that we care about and get our flu shots. Yes, I would venture to say that it's not wonderful that we have flu season, but getting a flu shot is the best way to deal with a bad situation. How about that? When on flu season, unless we have a deep understanding of influenza, how it works, how migrates, predicting it, there's thousands upon tens of thousands of millions of man hours of research that have had to go into those advancements and that understanding of that technology.

That is true. So I think it's caused worth celebrating. I do think that we can celebrate that flu shots exist while simultaneously bemoaning the fact that flu season exists. I think that's fine. I'll get any of them. But it is flu shot season, flu season, but I take the optimistic if you can call it flu shot season.

And we just got ours this week, which is actually a little late for us. It's been kind of busy with last week, actually. Last week, actually. But yes, it's been busy here. It's been busy a few weeks. We got our shots, which is a bad excuse, by the way. No, bad excuse. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about

on this week's episode, rather than telling you as much about the history, which we have done an episode on influenza if you want that, which we're going to prior return to. It's a big topic. There's more meat on that pervertial bone. But this week, we're gonna be, we asked you all on Twitter to tell us

why you haven't gotten your flu shot yet, because we wanted to give an all-encompassing, comprehensive, excuse exterminating episode of I Air FluShot. That is not the way I'm looking at it. Justin can look at it that way. As a physician, I feel like part of my job is to address concerns.

And that's what I was looking at these emails as. These are, you have not gotten your flu shot. Aside from the, by the way, thank you for the giant response. Hundreds of emails. Thank you all. Which is wonderful that you're all responding and interested and that you'll take the time to write to us.

That is a little worrisome, because that means these are all people who haven't gotten flu shots. Yeah, not great. But that means said, we do appreciate the response. And I have eliminated all of the responses that were just like, I haven't yet, but I'm going to. So thank you if you're planning on it

and you just haven't yet. I don't really have anything to say. I don't really have anything to say. Well, email a podcast to say, I'm gonna get it soon. Just go get it and don't email. I read every email and a lot of people were like, my work is coming to, they're coming to my work next week to give them. I have an appointment with my doctor in two weeks,

I'm getting it then. Like a lot of people had reasons that they specifically have a date in mind. And that's the most important thing. I think you could, and we're gonna make this comparison a lot, I think. It's like the best way to make sure that you'll vote is if you have a plan, win and how and where

and all that stuff. It's true for flu shots too. If you know exactly when you're gonna get it and you just haven't done it yet because that moment hasn't arrived, that's a little more comforting. But a lot of you had reasons that I think we can address because I consider them concerns, not excuses, concerns.

Yes. First of all, Justin. I'm gonna stick with excuses. My dad was kind of a bad boy, shock-jock time. So, excuse exterminating has a lot more heat than addressing concerns. You see? Yes, but I'm adopting the iteration,

the power in X, a 2X's, EX, EX, EX, yeah. I wanna address concerns. I, Justin, you and I got our flu shots at different places. I thought it would be helpful because a lot of the, and I'm generalizing, I read every email, but there were literally hundreds. So I'm generalizing the comments into like, a lot of people said this,

as opposed to naming every single person who said it. So a lot of people just simply said, I don't know how or where or what that is. Like I don't, I know people get flu shots, I know they're out there, I wouldn't even know how where or what that is. Like I don't, I know people get flu shots, I know they're out there, I wouldn't even know how to engage with that process. So I thought a good thing to start with would be just explaining what the flu shot is

and what the process of getting a flu shot is. Because that addresses a lot of concerns, I think. Yes. First of all, the flu shot is what we, or flu jab, I have learned jab. You jab? Is that the UK? Okay, jab.

Yeah, a lot of places in the world, it's the jab. Either way, it's the influenza vaccine, and it is a vaccine just like all the other vaccines that a lot of people in their emails admitted they were happy to get when they were younger and encouraged their children to get and their family members to get. It is a vaccine, just like those other vaccines. I think what people get concerned about is that the flu vaccine is something you get every single year and there's a lot of talk about whether or not it works. And so some insight into how they do that, I thought might be helpful. So every year, early, early in, like early this

2018, back in probably January and February, a lot of scientists were to spending a lot of time figuring out what strains of flu virus were out there, what strains of flu virus, people were getting, they can check pigs, they can check chickens, that's where flu virus has come from, that's why we call them things like avian flu or swine flu because they come from birds and pigs. You can check all these different places to kind of see which strains of flu seem to be most popular. And that's what we base next year's flu vaccine on because those are the most prominent strains out in the community. Now, obviously that means they can't cover every single strain. It would be impossible. So you make a vaccine out of the most common strains that are out there circulating. It's usually either a trivalent or quadrivalent vaccine and that means either three or four strains.

And it's usually two strains of A flu and one strain of B flu or two of A and two of B. two strains of A flu and one strain of B flu or two of A and two of B. That makes sense. And if you hear, by the way, I thought this was interesting. You know how we talk about H and N, H1 and two, H17 and 10, all these different. You know, have you heard that? Do you know what that reference is?

No. Okay, I thought this might be helpful to understand what we're talking about. Those are all referencing specific strains of flu, and they're based on two proteins that are on the outside of the virus, two little things that kind of stick off the outside of the virus, called hemagglutin and nerminodase, HN. That's where those come from. And the reason those are important is that that's what we target.

Those are the things our antibodies can latch on to and like kill the virus. So we need those HN things to decide, hey, these HNs are circulating the most. Let's make vaccines that will help you make antibodies to those HNs. Does that make sense? Yes. That's where that comes from. Yes. When you want to get a flu shot, I went to my office where I work.

So that's easy. So for your physician, you can go to your place of business and get a flu shot. Well, yes, but this is also where we go for primary care, where our family doctor works. And it is this easy, and this is true at a lot of places. I went up to the front desk and said, hi, I didn't have to say my name because they knew me, but let's say I did Hi, my name is Sydney McRoy here are my two children and we would like to get flu shots Mm-hmm. They said great and they signed me in and then they took me back into a room and then they gave us flu shots

Yep, no appointment needed. Yep. That's true a lot of places. Yep. It's that simple. Justin, where'd you go? I went to CVS. And what do you do over on 20th Street, if you want to get the same flu shot as your podcasting here, I just am acro, I hit up that 20th Street CVS and I went to the back of the pharmacy and I said, I don't even have, I never even felt prescription there, but I was already there to get diapers. And I was like, I went to the back of the pharmacy, I went to the counter, I said, Hey, can I get a flu shot? And it was literally five minutes later. I filled out a form. And then that said, I didn't have any auditors to stuff. And then I gave

the form back and they walked me over and gave me a shot. Yes. ours at the office was covered by our insurance. So we were very lucky in that regard. So we didn't pay anything for it. Justin, how much did it cost you? We're getting into some of the questions that people, we're getting into some excuses. We should hold off. All right. We should hold off.

We're getting ahead of yourself. Let's excuse number one. Excuse number one, Sydney, that we heard from people is I am afraid of needles. By far, next to, I just haven't yet, this was the biggest reason people haven't gotten their flu shot. I get it. I feel you.

I used to be very afraid of needles. Then I went to med school where they make you get lots of shots and I eventually got over it just because I had to. It was either that or kind of give up my career path and I wanted to be a doctor, so that was it. Here's what I can say. I can't tell you don't be afraid of needles. You're still going to be afraid of needles.

I will tell you that getting the flu can be way worse than a shot. And I can also tell you that there is this year, it is approved to use the nasal spray flu vaccine. Now, there are some other things that come with that that we'll get into, but there is a nasally administered spray influenza vaccine that you can get this year. Now, could it be more expensive maybe? And do they always have it at every place? No, there are some offices,

like I don't even know if our office had it necessarily. Because the flu shot's just easier to stock for everybody and you can give it to a wider variety of people. There are some other restrictions that come because the nasally administered just easier to stock for everybody and you can give it to a wider variety of people. There's some other restrictions that come because the nasally administered vaccine is a live virus. Live but can't get you sick, but still live virus so there's some other precautions. So there is a spray.

So if you absolutely can't bring yourself a good shot, you can still be vaccinated against the flu. I will also say that whatever they use for the flu shot is a very small gauge needle. I rarely felt it. Our baby is eight months old and she didn't cry. I'm crying when she got the shot. It's like, it's an unreasonable fear because trust me, this shot does not hurt and you will

be fine. If you dig it, the shot gets really bad. You'll have to put in like lines and stuff. It can give you IVs and stuff like that, which is like huge needles that stick in your arm and, ugh, can you imagine? IVs are way worse, blood draws are worse, the T-dap is worse, if you've ever gotten a test shot, this is nowhere near the tetanus shot.

If you've ever had to have a tuberculosis test, that's way worse. You were barely even feeling it. This is not that bad. This is among the lesser painful, and it really like, promise yourself a a treat if I can get through this I get a treat again a treat promise yourself a treat you can do this. I believe in you Number two. I can't afford it

Okay, now as I said we were lucky because our insurance covered the flu vaccine Just in how much did it cost you at CBS zero because they have my prescription card. I gave my prescription card Okay, so you might be you might be in a situation where a pharmacy or your doctor's office, it will still be free. Now, maybe you're not, maybe you don't have insurance. I didn't get a referral or anything. I just like I was filling prescription there. I gave my insurance card and they, and they, sure. A lot of pharmacies will cut deals. So it might still cost you something, but it may not be as expensive. I know there were some places advertising $ you something, but it may not be as expensive. I know there were some places advertising $5 flu shots, so it can be pretty cheap.

The other thing to check into is your local health department. At our Cabel County Health Department, they are $0. They are free. So check your local health department. They may have absolutely 100% free flu shots for you to go get even if they don't do adults for free most every health department I think does free kids are kids and elderly people yes, I was reading so so check your local health department you might be able to get a shot completely for free That is absolutely we're checking out number three I heard a better shot comes out later in the season.

Oh, wait, can I make one at the point? Yes. If you don't have insurance, getting the flu, if you got really serious, would be monumentally more expensive to have to go and be hospitalized to be treated for the flu. That is a great thing to consider the alternative. The alternative is that you might get the flu. I mean, you might anyway, but you might consider the alternative. The alternative is that. You might get the flu. You might anyway, but you might get the flu.

To say nothing of missing days of work, that's definitely going to cost you more than 30 to 35 bucks. I think you are ensuring yourself, I think, buying yourself a little bit of peace of mind. Also, a plan parenthood gives flu shots. Oh, okay. So, there you go. There's another place that you can go get a flu shot. Planned Parenthood. What's our next one? I heard a better shot comes out later in season. Okay. Generally speaking, we only come out with one flu vaccine per season. Like I said,

there might be like a three-strain version and a four-strain version and a nasal spray version versus a shot or a higher dose one for older people. But generally, it's all the same flu shot that comes out once a season. In weird years, like the year we had the H1 in one outbreak that was like in April, we did end up coming out with that vaccine later, but that was in response to a new strain that it wasn't replacing the old one.

You still should have gotten the old one and then got the other one. So don't wait, there's no better shot coming. Get the shot now. I wanted to save them for higher risk people slash a concern about shortage. A lot of people were, I think, had this altruistic thought that like I don't want to get it because I'm healthy. And so there are people who need it more, younger people older people, people who have illness, that kind of thing. And I understand that. There have been years where there have been shortages. By and large, that doesn't happen.

That's the number one thing. By and large, we have flu vaccine to spare. So I wouldn't put that high on your list of concerns. And number two, you are protecting those people by getting the shot yourself. They are protected by herd immunity. So all those little kids that you're worried about, all the elderly people you're worried about,

you're taking better care of them when you protect yourself as well. Because let's say that neither of you get the shot and then you get the flu. Now you're putting them at risk because you've got the flu. It's so herd immunity depends on healthy people getting the shot to. I thought it was too early.

A lot of people are concerned that it wears off. And so you have to get it like at a certain time in the flu season. So it will last the whole flu season. And there've been a lot of studies to see like antibody titers and how they drop over time. And yes, it does the your immunization against the flu does wear off over time. Generally speaking though, it in most people will last the entire flu season if you get it as soon as it comes out. What we recommend is that if you haven't gotten it by October, go get your shot. I heard a lot of people ask about mid-November. There's no recommendations I could find that say mid-November. Everything and the CDC will tell you just

get it. If you're somewhere and they offer it in its July, it's August, it's September, get your shot now. But get it by October. There's a two week period that it takes to sort of incubate inside you, right? Yes. We'll get moving. It takes about two weeks to build up effectiveness

and you don't know when flu season's gonna start. There have been some cases of flu, sporadic cases already. So you don't know when it's going to kick in You're better off just getting it when you got the chance Let's say it gave me the flu The flu shot gave me the flu I guess in the past so here's the truth about the flu shot It cannot give you the flu. It's impossible unless it's impossible, it's impossible. What about the nasal thing? So in, okay, the live virus vaccine, we do not recommend for

people who are immunocompromised. So the nasal spray, for people who have certain conditions that make them immunodeficient. If you're on medications that can, you know, suppress your immune system because you've had transplanted organ or on chemotherapy maybe for cancer. If you have something like HIV, your immune system may be compromised and we don't recommend any live virus vaccines typically for people in an immunocompromised state. But the shot's fine. The shot is fine for everybody.

You will not get the flu from the flu shot. It's impossible. It doesn't have the actual flu virus that can make you sick in it. It just is not possible. So if you got sick after you got the flu shot, it wasn't the flu. It wasn't the flu shot. It was just bad luck. And we tend to associate those kinds of things more strongly because we hear about people

getting sick from the flu shot. And so if we get sick after the flu shot, we remember like, all the flu shot made me sick. But it's just an error of attribution. It was not the flu shot. I promise you, it cannot, cannot, cannot give you the flu under any circumstances. All right, we have about 21 more of these to get through after the break. We are going to, so we will pick up the pace considerably. It's going to be a lightning round. Some of these will be a lot faster. Some of these will be a lot faster, but first, let's take a trip to the building department.

Let's go. Yeah, one of us has to say, let's go. It's a superstition. Okay. Yeah. All right. Are you ready, Sydney? Justin, hit me. The lightning ground. Let's see where we

leave off. Okay. Never said I never said, but I have a cold slash bronchitis slash other mild illness. Okay. Generally speaking, if you have some sort of mild self-limited illness, you can still get the flu shot. If you have a fever, sometimes they'll discourage you and say wanting to come back when you're... For more flu shot, right? No, just like a prescription. Just like an elevate, like over 100. You're more powerful.

Temperature, fair and high, like. Have you heard this one? Yeah, I've heard it. Anyway, just a fever. We're trying to move fast. Even if you had the script, Justin, even if you had that fever, you probably still could get the shot, but which fever?

Barring a temperature over 100.4, you can be coffin, you can be snotty, you can be sneezing, you can still get that flu shot. It's okay. So there it is. If you want to wait, I mean, just make sure you come back,

but this is not a reason that you can't number eight. It makes my arms sore slash makes me achy slash elevated temperature slash mild your eye symptoms The only answer I got to this is it's way worse to get the flu Everybody it's so worse than I agree it made my arm achy for about 24 hours to I Profen was helpful. I be profan was helpful. I think I think that Cooper was a little more irritable that night, a little fussy year. Yeah. And then she was fine the next day.

I mean, really like, these are mild, self-limited, common symptoms that might come with the flu shot for about 24 hours and that's it. And listen, mine didn't hurt at all. So I'm telling you, CVS on 20th, they're gonna take care of you. I don't think I got great, better needles. I don't know. My shot, the shot didn't hurt. My arm was a little sore the next day. Yeah. That was bad.

This one's tough. My parents haven't taken me and I'm a minor. The best advice I can give you is one, don't be afraid to advocate for your own health, whether that's to your parents or anybody else. So one thing you might want to do is just sit down and say, like, mom, dad, guardian, whoever is in charge of your health. Here's an episode of a podcast that I'm going to make you listen to the entirety of. And this is really important to me. And I'm going to be making these decisions for myself someday. And this is the decision I'm going to be making.

And I'd like you to respect that. And let me make that decision now. If they say no, they say no, maybe play them this episode. Maybe try to reassure them. Take them to the CDC website. Every question, concern that you guys have brought up, it's on the CDC's website, and they answer them thoroughly. Take you to your doctor and talk to them about it.

Maybe have the doctor engage with them. That's a great idea. Make them a deal that you'll drop it if you'll listen to the entirety of this episode, and hopefully we'll address whatever lingering concern is there in their mind. You know, kids, you figure out how to get cigarettes, you figure out how to get pornography,

you can do this, teens, you snap Chad to get your flu vaccine. I don't know how it works, just do it. And parents, if you're minor in your house has gotten you to listen to this episode because they want the flu shot. Your kid just wants a flu vaccine. That's a good kid you got.

Yeah, it's good. Think of all the things kids do and your kid just wants a flu vaccine. Good day with great case and podcast. Number 10, I never get sick. I get that. I don't, I always say that too, but I still get my flu vaccine

because I don't want to get the flu. The idea that because you've never gotten sick means you never will get sick. When I say it like that, I think you already know it's false logic. Right. I mean, there are lots of things I've never done that I recognize I'm still at risk for. I've never been in a car accident, thank goodness, but I still wear my seatbelt. Right. Exactly.

Just say nothing of the other people like that you are helping preserve. Like even if you aren't necessarily, you know, if you can tough it out, yeah. I'm going to address that. Oh good. All right. Well, I won't get ahead of myself. But yes, even and so even if it's not for you, what about everybody who does get sick? Hey, I know you know someone who has gotten sick. Here we go. I'm not high risk. I can handle the flu slash the flu is no big deal. Yes, so a lot of people have said, I wanna save it for healthy people because even if I get the flu, whatever.

So I'll be fine, the flu is not that bad. Okay, here's how bad the flu is. The CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses that it varies year to year. That's why there's such a huge range some years It's not as bad between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010 per year the flu can kill you

It probably won't but it can and. And it does not discriminate. While yes, in many years, the commonly circulating influenza strains are more deadly for the very young, the very old and people with chronic illness. There are years, H1N1 is a good example, when healthy adults died from the flu. Healthy teenagers died from the flu. You teenagers died from the flu. You can die from the flu. You probably won't. And I'm not saying this to heightened your anxiety, but a flu shot reduces your chance of dying from the flu.

No matter how healthy or tough you are, it's not worth it. To say nothing of the other people, again, tardom unity. Yes. My doctor didn't have them in. So even if your doctor doesn't have them in now, they might have them in later. And as we've already said, you don't have to get them at your doctor's office. You can get them at a pharmacy, you can get them at the health department. There are health fares in your community. Our hospital has health fares where you can just come in and get flu shots all day. Just Google flu

shots in whatever your hometown is. I guarantee you there are multiple places you can get it if you can't get it at your doctor's office. I like missing school slash work. Here, can I handle this one? Yeah. This seems like I can as a layman. Go ahead. Here's a thing, folks. Your employer does not unless, by the way, a lot of employer, I don't think we mentioned that in the cost section, did we? A lot of employers will offer it. Yeah. So if you check it, because they don't want you missing more. Yeah. Yeah.

You want you missing more, but your employer, other than that, doesn't need to know if you get the flu shot or not. Fake it, folks, how much more fun is that kind of basic? Oh, I got the flu. Oh, Pukin and Pupil go now. Then you stay home, play Assassin's Creed Odyssey for a week, and you feel great. And you can order a week and you feel great. And you can order genos and like check it. And you're not going to actually have the flu.

It's the best of both worlds. You know what, I'm going to let that be. I'm actually the kind of person who I would advocate that if you need to miss work, that badly fake it for a week. I mean, you don't need to miss work. You just want to miss work. I mean, if you, I mean, like seriously fake it and get the flu shot, I'm, I'm actually in favor of that discussion.

I feel bad about when. That's a win, win, baby. That's a win, win. That's a win, win. That's win, win, lose. The lose is your employer. And you know what? If it's about school and your a minor, your parents would rather you try to fake being sick or talk them out of sending you to school a day, then you get the flu and risk your health and safety.

And convenience of time, slash travel, et cetera. I can help with this one a little bit. I'm not kidding when I said it was five minutes at CVS. I filled out a form. They walked around the counter. We went in this little room. They jabbed in my arm. I left. I mean, it was like nothing. I even finished getting after I told them I wanted to flee shot. I went and picked up a couple of things. Checked out the register, took the groceries out to the car, walked back in and got the shot. I mean, it was an extra five minutes literally. At most doctors offices, it's that quick too, because again, most places do not need an appointment.

Unless you specifically want to discuss it with your physician, a doctor usually isn't involved in this. You just go say you want a flu shot, they have you fill out a little form, and then someone there gives it to you. So it's very quick. The other thing is, if you end up one of the unlucky people who is hospitalized from the flu, that's a lot more inconvenient. A lot more inconvenient. A lot more inconvenient. And also the flu will knock you out for a while.

So again, inconvenient. I also, by the way, I looked this up while we were talking about it, you can actually get the shot for 20 bucks at Costco. If you want a same a few bucks, it looks like that is your cheapest option. But again, check out things like the health department and plan parenthood where there are places you may be able to get it for free. I mean, really, I googled free flu shots in Huntington and found that out. I mean, I knew it, but I wanted to see if you could get it by googling it. Perfect. I have a bad slash weakened immune system.

I paired this with the next one. I have a great immune system. I saw both these reasons for not getting the flu shot. Either I am worried because I get sick a lot and so I don't want to get the flu shot. I think, if you think about it, and after everything I said, I hope you know what I'm gonna say, you actually then should get the flu shot. If you get sick a lot and you think you're more likely to get the flu,

you should get the flu shot. You're somebody who needs it and there's no reason you can't. There is nothing in the flu shot that is going to like because you have a weakened immune system make you sick. It just doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. I can't say that enough. It's just, it's a dead virus. It can't make you sick. It just doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. I can't say that enough. It's just, it's a dead virus. It can't make you sick. So if you think you have a bad immune system, you should get the flu shot. If you think you have a great immune system, you should get the flu shot because no matter how infrequently you get sick, the flu is a roulette. You get the flu by being exposed to the flu virus and enough viral particles getting inside of you and making you sick.

That's it. It's chance. It's chance and exposure and it has nothing to do with how robust you feel like your white blood cells are. It really doesn't or how unrobust you think that they are. It's just exposure and no matter. I mean, most of us just have an immune system that isn't like weekend or unweek. I mean, it's just that's usually it is what it is. You're just getting sick because you're getting exposed. Whatever you think of your immune system, you should still get the flu shot. Um, let's see.

Next up, I have a family member who can't get it. More reason to get it. I saw this a lot before. People were concerned that if they got the flu shot, they could somehow, and they had a reaction, they could somehow make their family member sick. But that can happen. It's a different. Again, one, you can't get sick from it.

And two, it's actually the opposite. If you have a loved one who has, I think some specific mentions were like, my loved one has a lung disease, like a chronic lung disease, like COPD, and if they get sick, it's really bad. Even more reason that you need to get it. And if your family member is not getting it because they have asthma, COPD or any other chronic lung disease, they actually should get it.

Just talk to their doctor. I guarantee you, their doctor wants them to get it. If you're not sure, you can always ask. Is it okay for me to get the flu shot? And they'll tell you. But if you have a family member who can't get the flu vaccine and is ill, more reason for you to get the flu vaccine. Uh, I don't trust the pharmacy to give it to me.

And all the doctor offices are busy slash far away. I thought this was interesting. It never occurred to me that a pharmacy might be seen as like a sketchy place to get a flu vaccine because they rolled their sleeves up. I think that makes it. Sometimes the pharmacist rolls their sleeves up. And it's like, okay. I, I, I really never considered this,

but I will tell you that giving a flu vaccine, like the idea that there's a huge risk of like contamination or infection or being dirty or something, it's, it's not. I mean, it could come in a vial that they're drawing out of with a syringe. Sometimes they come in preloaded syringes. Probably preloaded sy out of with a syringe sometimes they come in preloaded syringes There's a lot of preloaded syringes. So they're just they just open the package and and jabia

and like the the pharmacist know how to do it just as well as the RNs LPNs MAs. I mean physicians usually aren't given flu shots and folks are not looking for vein No, they just pop it in the must honestly at our office a lot of med students give flu shots. And folks, they're not looking for a vein. No. They just pop it in there. They just pop it in the, must honestly, at our office, a lot of med students give flu shots. I mean, if the patients agree, they ask, they say, I'm a med student, can I give you my flu shot? I let the med students give me flu shots constantly. I let them do any immunizations on me because they need to learn. You don't have to, but you don't want the doctors doing it.

We don't give shots almost ever. We can. Like, I understand how to, but the nurses at my office? Way better. Yeah. Cause they do it all day long. Trust the pros. Those pharmacists are given tons of flu shots.

They know what they're doing. Yeah. You're fine. They're pros. Uh, they have been wrong in the past and the shot hasn't worked. Fair. We've been, we've guessed the wrong strains in the past. Yes. That is a fair point.

But what I would say is, we've also guessed the right strains in the past. We've also had years that the flu shot has definitely saved lives. Actually, probably every year the flu shot has saved some lives, some years more than others. And even if we guessed the wrong strains, sometimes you are still less likely to get fatally ill if you've gotten the flu shot, even if we guess the wrong strains. And why, you know, maybe we'll guess the right ones. I would say the flip side of that argument is more powerful. So if we guess the wrong strains, you got to shot you to need big deal.

If we guess the right strains, we might save your life. I've never got one before and I've never got the flu. This is your car. This is your car wreck argument again, right? Again, yeah. If you, if just because I mean, how many years do you drive around in a car before you say I don't need to wear a seat belt anymore? Because I guess I'm fine. It doesn't make sense. No, just, I mean, this could be the big year. I did. you know when I got the flu? What? Last year. Last year. Yeah, I've gotten a flu shot every year.

Got the flu last year. It was miserable. It was miserable. I never miss work and I had to miss work and it wasn't fun, miss work. It wasn't like, cut it up and read a book and eat chicken soup. It was lay there in agony because I've never felt so bad. Misswork. I'm not around people a lot. I will give you some, I'll give you some leeway on this one in that if you're never around anybody

as the flu, I don't know how else you'd get the flu. So that's fair, but maybe you will go around be, go be around somebody and at the height of flu season, it could be anywhere. You could make one quick trip out to the grocery store, to the movies, to wherever, to the library, and that could be the moment that you're exposed. I mean, it's just, it's that widespread by the height of flu season. Even if you leave your house once a month, it's still worth it.

Maybe you have a great awakening and you you decide you wanna get out there more. You never know. Now you have to wait two weeks, cause you didn't get your flu shot. Let's see, I didn't know I needed it. Slash, didn't know the season for it, slash, don't know how to find it. I think we've covered all these.

By the way, flu season is October to April, generally. It can vary, but October to April. I've already've covered that. By the way, flu season is October to April generally. It can vary, but October to April. I've already had the flu. Well, first of all, there are a lot of viruses that can be like the flu. So you may have had something that you thought was the flu and it wasn't. There are tons of viruses out there

that have similar symptoms. So number one, unless you've actually been tested and proven to have the flu, you may not have. Now let's say you were tested and proven to have the flu, you may not have. Now, let's say you were tested and proved and have a flu. Which also, I think, fold into why people often think that the shot has made them sick or given them symptoms because I've had a weird virus we passed around that I got like a week after the flu shot. So, this is the time of year for these sorts of weird things. Exactly. This is the time of year for Rhinovirus and coronavirus and

interim virus and every other virus out there that can make you feel lousy like the flu does it might not have been the flu too Let's say that you did actually get tested and you did did absolutely have the flu You probably didn't have all three or four strains that the flu shot protects you against You still get protection from other strains of the flu than the one that you got It's still worth it to get the flu shot I was told not to get a live vaccine. Fair. As I mentioned, the nasal spray is a live vaccine.

And if for whatever health reasons, you cannot get a live vaccine, get the flu shot. It's not. They're just a way to make money. We lose money on vaccines. Our office loses money on vaccines. There is not a ton of money being made on vaccines. Look at the, look at the expensive drugs. Like the flu vaccine wholesale is like, I think worldwide like five bucks or something. Pretty cheap in the in the grand scheme of things. There's a way to make money off drugs and it's not vaccines.

People are not making boo-coo dollars off the flu vaccine. It's not a conspiracy. The government isn't behind this. Good indicator that it's if people are giving it away for free, it's probably not a big profit center. Exactly. The interest on my end as a doctor is keeping you and everybody as healthy and from a public health perspective, it's avoiding a pandemic. Getting the flu will strengthen my immune system.

There is, okay, here is what getting the flu will do. You will create antibodies to that exact strain of flu that you have been exposed to. And if that exact strain of flu tries to invade again, you have antibodies against it already. Except that as we know, the flu strain changes every year. Every year it's something different. So your immune system is not inherently any stronger for having survived the flu. You've just made antibodies to that exact virus that you were invaded.

That's it. So I found that kind of misconception that like you can strengthen your immune system by being exposed to more illnesses. No, you just have antibodies to those things. And that doesn't even necessarily confer lifetime immunity depending on what virus you were exposed to. One that I thought was interesting said

that I actually didn't run away into the answer to somebody said that they didn't want to mess up their blood donation schedule. They're on like that regular. I guess it's every eight weeks or whatever it is. You can donate and they thought they couldn't donate if they got flu shot. I read that and I actually went and checked at the American Red Cross because I had never heard that before and there is no reason that if you've gotten a flu shot, you can't donate blood as far as their website.

Unless they're telling you something different when you go in person, the official word from the American Red Cross is that you can get a flu shot and still donate blood. They don't want you to be symptomatic of the flu when you donate blood. So if you come in with a fever or something, I don't think they'll let you donate blood,

but the flu shot doesn't do that. So like the flu shot does not give you the flu. So I don't see any reason they specifically say there's no contraindication to donating blood after you've had a vaccine. Is it the needle thing? No, because it's generally accepted that, I mean, from shots, you're not being exposed to anything.

I mean, the incident of viruses being passed through blood transfusions and shots and things like that, I mean, it's almost nothing nowadays compared to what it was prior to our testing and the rigorous procedures we used to screen blood products and everything. Are there any good reasons for not getting your flu shot? Here's a common one that we used to have more caution and actually isn't one anymore, but I am allergic to eggs. I'm not, but that's a common excuse that I have heard. We actually now say that even if you are allergic to eggs,

you should get the flu shot. If you have had an anaphylactic response to eggs in the past, you might want to consider getting the flu shot at your doctor's office, like at a medical office instead of going to like the pharmacy or something like that. I'm going to like it a health fair. I would recommend that. I would say, you know, to my patients who are allergic to eggs wanting to come into the

office, we'll give you a flu shot. They used to recommend like watching you for 30 minutes. They don't even recommend that anymore because they've done a ton of studies and what they found that even in people who have documented allergies, documented antifalaxics, two eggs, they have not been able to find a case where they've had antifalaxis to the flu shot.

There have been sporadic cases throughout the years that people have reported where maybe there was a connection, but studies have not ever been able to replicate that. So even if you're allergic to eggs, you can get the flu shot. There are some people who said, I'm currently very sick. And yeah, if you are really sick right now,

if you're hospitalized, if you are on medications and your doctor has said, I think that you should wait till you're better to get the flu shot, well, sure, just get it when you're better. We usually give it to people actually when we're discharging them from the hospital. So if that kind of gives you a perspective of what we think, when you're first admitted and you're sick, we don't give it to you, but before you leave, we do give it to you. Guiambare. Guiambare is an autoimmune reaction,

so like your own antibodies are attacking the nerves in your body and it can cause paralysis. It's a temporary condition. It resolves, and it can happen usually after viruses like certain cold viruses or stomach viruses or certain bacteria like Campola Bacter, there are different things that can cause it, but in 1976 they found some cases that seemed to occur after a flu vaccine, and theoretically they thought maybe Guillain-Barré was connected to getting the flu vaccine and theoretically they thought maybe Guillain-Barré was connected to getting the flu vaccine. Since then they've done all these studies and what they found is that at best it may be

one out of a million people who might have this reaction. And that's not even 100% certain. We're still not sure that it actually was the flu vaccine, but it is theoretically connected. So for people who have had Guillain-Barré within six weeks of receiving a flu vaccine in the past, if you personally have, then we recommend caution. You might want to have a conversation with your doctor before you get the flu vaccine. It's actually not an absolute contraindication. It just means that you should talk to your doctor about it. Now, I did make the point that there were some reasons why like the live vaccine, you might not get the nasal spray. So with the live vaccine, you can't get it if you are a kid,

age two through four four who has asthma. Okay. So asthma is a reason and kids that we don't give it. People who are immunocompromised again can't get a live vaccine so that people with HIV or who are on medications that suppress their immune system, pregnant people can't get the live vaccine. If you have, oh, contacts or caregivers. This is where if you have somebody in your house

who is immunosuppressed, somebody that you take care of or somebody that you're with every day, who's immunosuppressed, don't get the live vaccine, get the shot instead. And then the other thing for all vaccines, the only absolute contraindication of the flu shot, this is true for any of the flu shots, if you've had a severe allergic reaction to the flu shot. Yep. I mean, that's it. Yeah. So for the flu shot, the only reason that you absolutely cannot get it is if you've had an allergic reaction to the flu shot before. Barring that, it's at least a conversation with your doctor.

And for the vast majority of us,'s not even that you just get it. I think the number one thing that you saw and this was was people just said like they just hadn't. They were lazy I think was the number one thing. A lot of people said and I mean kudos for being honest a lot of people said that they were just lazy or apathetic or just weren't going to bother. We hope hopefully by listening to this episode you have seen a lot of the reasons why, you know, it is important in the time that it took you to say email a beloved podcast about why you weren't getting

the flu shot, you could have got your flu shot is maybe what did you get it going with. One of my favorite emails was actually someone who said that they started to type out all the reasons that they hadn't gotten it yet. And when they read it back, they realized that it sounded kind of lame and they went and got their flu shot. And I love that.

Thank you. Fantastic. So, uh, it was a favor, share this episode, uh, around help people to see that this is something really important. If you maybe were on the fence and you'd get your flu shot, tweet us a picture. Let's see a hashtag flu shot hero. Let's see those flu shots. And hey, if you're holding the copy of the solbona's book and that picture even better, bit.ly4s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s.s. on with the bandage right there. If you are pro, a lot of people said, wanted to like preface with, I am pro vaccine,

but if you're pro vaccine, the flu vaccine is a vaccine, it's just right in there. It's right in there with the other ones. I, as a doctor, it's hard for me to see why it's so separate. I understand all these reasons logically, but for me, it's all the same. It's all there and together. If you're pro vaccine, this is a vaccine, get it.

Please share this with people who are anti vaccine or anti flu vaccine, this is a vaccine, get it. Please share this with people who are anti vaccine or anti flu vaccine, maybe, because this is really, it's a public health service. It's for you and it's for everybody else and it's so important that you do it. It's one of the biggest things you can do for your fellow humans is protect yourself from disease so you don't make other humans sick.

It takes just a minute to do. It's not that big of an inconvenience. You're helping yourself, hopefully, and those around you who need protection the most, you know, it's basically like voting. It is. It's not unlike voting, which achieves all those things. It's part of being a good citizen of the world. And we trusted, if you're a listener of our program,

you're a good egg and that is important to you. So please go get your flu shot and you'll feel better, or at least you won't feel worse. Yes, hopefully. Hopefully. No, not hopefully. It won't make you feel worse, didn't it?

We've just been 45 minutes. It's way more. Hopefully you'll feel better. I mean, hopefully it will prevent the flu. I'm not gonna promise people that it's gonna prevent, it's just, it probably will. Okay, either one. It won't make you feel worse.

It won't make you feel worse. It will make you feel like a better human. How about that? Emotionally, it's, it's, I try to be very scientific. You're just, I don't wanna, getting the flu vaccine is great and everybody should do it, but I, I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna, I don't wanna misle and everybody should do it, but I'm not gonna lie.

I'm gonna, I don't wanna mislead. Okay, that's fine, I will. This is not a lie, we're part of the Maximum Fun Network, it is a network of beloved podcasts that care about you as much as you care about them. MaximumFun.org is the site for those shows. I did briefly mention the Solborn's book. You can get that at Amazon or your favorite local bookstore.

Please, if they don't have it, ask for it, and pick it totally up. But you can get, I just looked at Amazon to see what they, to make sure the book is available. It is, you can buy it. And if you already have, please leave a review. Also, see there's an audio CD of the Sawbuns book for sale here. I'm not sure what that is.

What? But, I don't know. There's not an audio CD of this book that I know. I'm so stick with the hard cover. Um, thank you so much to everybody who's bought that book and is tweeting pictures at us and leaving those reviews and everything. Thank you so much. That means the world to us. Seriously, it's like, it's thank you so much. And thank you to the taxpayers for using our song medicines as the intro and outro of our program. And thank you to you for listening. We're going to be back with you in another week. Sorry missed our Friday

Self-imposed deadline, but hopefully we'll try to catch it next time and until then Yes, that's the audiobook Justin. What is the audiobook? It's on pre-order. Oh, okay, you pre-order We did we did yeah, we did Yeah, apparently it's gonna be on CD which is wild. Okay, fine. P32. It's gonna be three. Yeah, it's just not out yet apparently it's gonna be on CD which is wild. Okay fine. It's an MP3 to it's gonna be three Yeah, it's pretty honor so thanks That's gonna do it for us until next week. My name is Justin McAroy. I'm Cindy McAroy and as always don't drill a hole in your head Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artists Don't Listen or Support It