The Effects Of Influenza Vaccination

The flu virus is a very common illness that has plagued the world in past years. Every year many people contract the virus and it seems to spread relatively quickly. The flu virus is spread by coughing and sneezing or being too near a person with the flu virus. The symptoms of the flu are often unpleasant for those who have to suffer through them, but the illness can be much more dangerous than most people realize. Many people do not feel that the flu vaccination is very effective, and consequently choose not to arm their immune system with the vaccination before the first wave of flu virus hits each year. While there are problems with finding an effective flu vaccine it is necessary. The flu virus is a constantly changing and dangerous virus, …show more content…
More people need to be vaccinated against the flu virus for the adverse effects of the virus to be minimized (Lu et al. 2013). Influenza vaccinations are the best protection from the flu virus (Li et al. 2016). There are so many adverse symptoms and effects of the flu virus if a person contracts it, there is no reason to risk a person 's health by not getting the vaccination. The flu virus has the most detrimental effects on the elderly, younger children, and pregnant women; flu related complications can cause premature labor and low birth weight, amongst other things, in pregnant women and their offspring (Lu et al. 2013). The risk to pregnant women and unborn infants, added to the high numbers of people hospitalized and killed by the flu, gives a view of how terrible the virus can be. Even though it is dangerous, the percentage of people being vaccinated each year is below the target of 80 percent (Nyhan and Reifler 2014). There are a few reasons that may keep people from getting vaccinated or vaccinating their children. Many people believe the flu vaccine to be ineffective, or even worse than ineffective, those people believe that the flu vaccine causes flu rather than prevent it.(Nyhan and Reifler 2014). This is simply not true. People may believe this because there are cases of people contracting the flu even after receiving the vaccine. This could be due to the many different strains of the influenza virus (Li et al. 2016). The people being diagnosed with the flu post-flu vaccination might have been vaccinated with an antiviral dedicated to a different strain of flu virus. The common misconception that the flu vaccine causes the flu virus results in people not receiving the much needed