"I Never Get the Flu"

by Rod Moser PA, PhD, a primary care physician assistant with more than 35 years of clinical experience.


When someone uses the word "never", there is something in the universe that seems to hear it, and quickly dispute this definitive statement. When it comes to human afflictions, the word "never" is never used.

"I never give my kids the flu shot, because they never get sick. I never get them either and I have never gotten the flu."

This statement is just about as logical as, "I have never been in a car accident, so I do not see a need to wear seat belts", or "I have smoked for twenty years now, and I have never gotten cancer. My father smoked for 50 years, and he never got it either. I think our family is "immune."

I had a chiropractor as a neighbor several years ago, that told me that his three children had NEVER been ill - not one day. Why? Because he did regular adjustments of their necks in order to improve their immune system. He was convinced that his kids could kiss a person with drug-resistant tuberculosis without getting it. Whoa!

Vaccines are not unlike insurance. We have car insurance just in case we are involved in an accident (that, and the fact that it is required by law). We have health insurance (some of us) just in case we need it. The same goes for fire insurance, earthquake insurance, flood insurance, or alien abduction insurance. Some people are willing to take chances; others are not.

As a firm, anti-smoking zealot, I tend to challenge close friends or relatives who smoke. One response that sticks in my mind over the years was from my old college roommate: "Anyone can stop smoking, but it takes a MAN to face cancer!" Yes it does.

We never know what the flu season is going to be like until it is upon us. The experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work feverishly trying to anticipate the seasonal strains. Sometimes, they get it; sometimes they do not. This is usually due to the rapid ability of the influenza virus to change (adapt). Once the flu batch is in the cooker, this will be the vaccine for a particular year. If the virus changes - even a little bit - the vaccine will be less-effective, or even worthless. This is not a perfect or exact science, but it is the BEST we have, and influenza vaccine has saved umpteen millions of lives. We only know the diseases we get. We do not know the diseases we do NOT get.

Many people count on "herd immunity". If most of the people in a population are immune to a particular disease, then you are considerably less-likely to encounter it, or acquire it. Unfortunately, in today's very mobile world, it is difficult to control this herd, unless we put up biological barriers and keep the unimmunized people out. Unless enough people take flu vaccine, it is not likely that our country, or any country, will be able to control an out-of-control pandemic. America is based on freedom, so people tend to harp about their rights or freedom NOT to take vaccines. Of course, they want everyone else to do it, including their medical providers, so they will not get exposed. And, high on this list of vaccine-refusers are the growing cadre of "I never get the flu" people.

Several MILLION young and healthy young men and women in 1918, a time when flu vaccines were considered science fiction, didn't think they would get the flu either. A healthy person would show up at a clinic at 9 AM with a high fever and other flu-like symptoms, and be dead by the end of the day. I can assure you, if there was an effective influenza vaccine, it would have been in very high demand. Take a walk through an older cemetery some day and look at the dates. Also, do a little math and look at the ages of those that died in 1918. May they rest in peace. I rest my case.

Maybe this pandemic will be a bust? Maybe it will not be as bad as experts say it will be. So far, less than a thousand (that number changes so fast, that I hesitate to be specific) have died from the H1N1 strain. In a typical flu year, the seasonal flu takes the lives of over 35,000 people in the U.S. The worldwide toll may be difficult to calculate, but it is in the millions.

Influenza is nothing to sneeze about. It is a killer. Sadly, it is also preventable, if people will take that simple step, accept that extremely tiny adverse effect risk, and just get the vaccine. If you don't really want to take it for yourself, at least take it for those you love. How would you feel if you contracted the flu, inadvertently exposed your fragile grandmother or a child who ended up dying from complications? Knowing that influenza is contagious a day or so before you really know you have it, or before you are officially diagnosed, really should make a difference.

I see about 40 patients or more a day in my 12-hour clinic shifts. If I were to come down with influenza a day later, I would have exposed any unimmunized patients - some who may not be able to survive this deadly strain. For those who came down with the flu and survived, they may expose a hundred more people, who, in turn, will expose hundreds more, and so on and so on. This, my healthy friends, is a pandemic. Theoretically, a worldwide pandemic really starts with ONE. Think of what happens when a pandemic starts with millions.

I was born in 1951. Some experts believe that a certain proportion of our population born before 1950 may have some residual influenza immunity from prior exposures. I missed it by a year. Damn. I estimate that I have been exposed to the H1N1 strain at least fifty times already in my clinic, so maybe I am one of those people with some residual immunity to this strain. I still plan on taking the H1N1 vaccine as soon as we get it. I took the seasonal flu vaccine over a month ago. I need all the immunological help I can get.

Okay flu...I'm ready for 'ya.