There’s a lot of misinformation about “the flu vaccine” making the rounds on social media. The following MEME is quite common, and it’s also a load of horse manure.
“The flu” doesn’t have “A vaccine”, that’s absolute nonsense.
Are there vaccines for some flu strains? Absolutely. Will the vaccine that is agreed upon and manufactured to be distributed and administered before flu season actually cover the type of flu that will circulate in the US? To some degree…”some” being between 40 and 80%, depending on the year. Better than useless; worse than reliable.
“The” “Flu Vaccine”
For those not familiar with how the annual flu vaccine is derived, the “powers that be” watch what’s going on in places Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. Many of the countries they look at are below the equator (their winter is our summer), and they pick a few of the strains causing the most disease there for which we have vaccines, and combine those into a single “flu shot” they issue here.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, let us just quote the Center for Disease Control about the yearly seasonal flu vaccines: “The seasonal influenza (flu) vaccine is designed to protect against the three or four influenza viruses research indicates are most likely to spread and cause illness among people during the upcoming flu season. Flu viruses are constantly changing, so the vaccine composition is reviewed each year and updated as needed based on which influenza viruses are making people sick, the extent to which those viruses are spreading, and how well the previous season’s vaccine protects against those viruses.”
The Alphabet Soup Agencies™ (CDC, FCI, VIDRL, NIID, NIVDC and a whole lot of others) get together and put their very smart brains together in one big Zoom meeting and after arguing for endless hours about stuff nobody here REALLY wants to read about, they come up with recommendations for which vaccines to include in this year’s wonder-weapon against “ole man flu”.
In the USA, according to the CDC, “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes the final decision about vaccine viruses for influenza vaccines to be sold in the U.S. Information about circulation of influenza viruses and available vaccine viruses is summarized and presented to an advisory committee of the FDA in February each year for the U.S. decision about which viruses to include in the upcoming season’s vaccine.”
Wait, what? Did they just say they are picking what vaccines will go in next season’s cocktail in February?
Yeppers. They surely did. Vaccine production doesn’t happen overnight.
So… what does this mean?
Well, for starters, it proves the fact that the meme above is absolutely hogwash, and shouldn’t be circulated by anybody who cares even slightly about the truth.
So wait, Salty, what makes you an expert on all of this?
What, you want to see my certification as an internet expert on infectious diseases? No problem!
Impressed?
No?
Really? OK, well how about I turn this over to the member of our family who actually does make her living as a pathophysiologist teaching future doctors and nurses about disease processes, how the body works and all kinds of absolutely yuckky (HEY!! <–Spice) stuff.
PRO TIP FROM SALTY: Never, ever pick up a college level pathophysiology textbook “just to browse a bit” before supper. REALLY bad idea, as in… just trust me on this one.
OK, now I turn this over to Spice!
The flu “normal” vaccine vs. a pandemic vaccine
There are two different sorts of flu outbreak to think about: Seasonal flu and pandemic flu. Seasonal flu strains circulate yearly, and it’s these that the flu vaccines regularly offered help protect against. Are those flu vaccines worth getting?
It depends: Are you generally healthy enough that all you’re risking is a few days of miserable, or is it overly likely to do you real harm? Are you putting others at serious risk if you don’t? How exposed are you?
Pandemic viruses are a lot more rare and a lot less predictable. (SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isn’t an influenza, but it is a related virus; close enough for this discussion.) They (including SARS-CoV2) are new. Nobody’s got immunity to them to start with; and nobody’s got a vaccine for them to start with. (Ok, SARS-CoV2 is the virus and COVID-19 the disease it causes; but from here on out I’ll call them both COVID-19 for simplicity.)
Needless to say, the annual vaccines won’t protect you much against these. As no two pandemic viral strains are alike, their danger level varies: Some are just unpleasant, some highly lethal (see the original SARS, which fortunately didn’t get widely circulated and become a real pandemic) and some are like COVID-19; highly contagious and worryingly lethal but without the sky-high fatality rate of SARS or MERS.
COVID-19 has no vaccine
Just like the 1918 flu, there is (currently) no vaccine for COVID-19.
SO… no vaccine, but does this mask stuff actually work or is a bunch of nonsense?
Do masks help, for viruses with respiratory spread like the flu? Yes, but not mostly in the way people usually imagine.
First, masks are most effective when worn by the infected people, not the well, as they keep a lot of the microbe-laden body fluids from being released into the wild. So if *you* are sick or potentially infected and want to protect those around you, Absolutely I’d recommend them. To give you an estimate, a standard mask reduces COVID transmission by about 90% when worn by the infected person, a bit over 60% when worn by the not-yet-infected person, and better than 90% when worn by both persons.
Second, a standard particulate or surgical mask, or a homemade cloth version, will not prevent one from inhaling airborne particles of virus. Some air gets around the edges of such masks, and the weave isn’t tight enough to stop the tiny virus particles. It will reduce it a lot though. It turns out most of the viral particles are not free. They’re embedded in the very tiny particles of respiratory mucus we all exhale with every breath…and exhale more when we talk or sing…and exhale a lot when we cough and sneeze. Those little aerosol particles of respiratory mucus are mostly stopped by standard masks…and the virus is stopped with them.
Third, the noise about “not getting enough oxygen” and “breathing in your own carbon dioxide” is …suitable for fertilizing a garden. Look at it logically…medical people, including surgeons and such who need just a bit of brain power while working, wear them all day every day. The weave that is not tight enough to keep out a bare virus is not going to give pause to the much smaller gas molecules. And that’s true for every kind of mask in use. Nobody’s making their COVID masks from plastic bags. (Don’t try that at home.)
Cleanliness is next to not contracting COVID-19ness
That’s right, good people, that’s the kind of heading you will get nowhere else but here at good ole 3BY.
Wash your hands. A Lot. Soap and water works best. Alcohol-based sanitizing gels are a heck of a lot better than nothing but not quite as good as soap. COVID-19 doesn’t survive that long on surfaces, but hand to mucus membranes (a flu’s favorite transmission route) is still a possible transmission route.
Antibacterial agents in the soap provide little or no extra benefit, unless your job is to market said soap to consumers who like the sound of the word ‘antibacterial’.
Isolation helps… a lot…
I wrote an article back in the very early days of 3BY that talked about “How Not To Be A Statistic In The Next Great Epidemic” and the advice I gave then I stand by now…
The more rural the place that you live, the better. Cities with major airport hubs tend to get hit hard and early in outbreaks and spread from there to more rural areas. Those of us in the hinterlands both get more warning and might even get exposed to less virulent versions. (Most epidemic diseases get less dangerous as they spread, as the viruses evolve into versions that don’t kill their hosts as quickly and so spread better.)
Most of us can’t/don’t pick where we live based on that, but an epidemic would be a great time to take the kids to visit Grandma and Grandpa back out on the farm. Big concentrations of people are great places to share germs. How many people do you think have touched the buttons on an elevator at a sports arena? How far can you walk in a city without sharing air with other people?
A few germs can even be spread well through ventilation systems of big buildings. (COVID-19 isn’t one of them, thankfully.) Hospitals are a great place to be when you *really need* a hospital; and a great place to get sicker the rest of the time. Even now, a hospital is the place one is most likely to pick up a seriously antibiotic-resistant bacterium. A hospital flooded with a bunch of people coughing or puking, and overwhelming the available staff, would not be a great improvement.
Wrapping it up!
Last but by no means least: Keep yourself in general good health. A lot more people are exposed to most diseases than actually get them. Dose of exposure is one factor (so the masks and good sanitation habits still help). Another big one is the state of one’s immune system. Healthy food, good exercise, enough sleep, and finding ways to manage stress pay off in this arena, again.
Thank you,shows how much the average does person not know.I’ve come to appreciate the wealth of knowledge that the two of you pass along keep up the good work,oh and by the way I’m a fellow Missourian.