Passed to me by a friend that knows I'm dealing with Flu. We do not know the author:
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What you may NOT know about the flu and flu vaccination.
I’m a RN of 20 years, get flu shots every year and had never had the flu before this season.
I am a healthy woman with no history of respiratory disease and I am not immunocompromised. This year, I caught the flu after Christmas and was officially diagnosed on Dec 30th. I received the 5 day course of Tamiflu and an inhaler for my wheezing. I completed my Tamiflu and the body aches went away but my chest felt tighter and sounded like a train station. I said to myself, “I’m a nurse, this is just cough, you can stay home and take care of it”, and that’s what I did. Until Monday, I couldn’t catch my breath and had a low grade fever. I went back to the hospital ER where I had had a chest X-ray the week before so they could get a new one hopefully. My oxygen saturation was 90-93 percent and my heart rate was over 100. What I didn’t see coming is that my lactic acid level was high indicating that I was in beginning stages of Sepsis, a potentially very dangerous situation. I was admitted with Pneumonia and possible sepsis. Within 24 hours my wonderful physicians pumped me up with 4 bags of fluids and the lactic acid level was within healthy range. I am still being treated for the pneumonia and should be fully restored in a few weeks.
Imagine this course on your frail grandmother, your best friend undergoing chemo, or your kids at preschool. In these populations, flu runs in packs, what we in the medical field, call an EPIDEMIC.
Epidemics in immunocompromised populations are deadly. Yes, vaccine effectiveness (VE) is not where we would like it to be, but the less people carrying the flu, the more immunocompromised patients get to live. Say effectiveness is only 10%, are 30 kids or grandparents worth saving out of a facility of 300? Not that they would die, mortality rates are another issue, but they would not be at risk for what I have gone through as a totally healthy woman in her 40’s.
I take the time to explain this as I sit in the hospital, having to had take time off of work, kids being shuffled around and medical costs being accrued, to make the point that FLU VACCINATION saves lives by stopping epidemics. I believe that groups against vaccinations need to understand further the big picture of public health and epidemiology.
Yes, it’s not perfect, the flu strains are ever changing and vaccine resistance is a concern, but the idea that vaccination is a conspiracy of big pharma is a lie.
There is no conspiracy around vaccination.
The CDC is not trying to pull one over on you.
Serve the vulnerable in your community, if you medically can, by being vaccinated against diseases that can cause epidemics.
The Flu is the bad guy, not the community that works to contain it.
Best wishes. Sheri RN
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What you may NOT know about the flu and flu vaccination.
I’m a RN of 20 years, get flu shots every year and had never had the flu before this season.
I am a healthy woman with no history of respiratory disease and I am not immunocompromised. This year, I caught the flu after Christmas and was officially diagnosed on Dec 30th. I received the 5 day course of Tamiflu and an inhaler for my wheezing. I completed my Tamiflu and the body aches went away but my chest felt tighter and sounded like a train station. I said to myself, “I’m a nurse, this is just cough, you can stay home and take care of it”, and that’s what I did. Until Monday, I couldn’t catch my breath and had a low grade fever. I went back to the hospital ER where I had had a chest X-ray the week before so they could get a new one hopefully. My oxygen saturation was 90-93 percent and my heart rate was over 100. What I didn’t see coming is that my lactic acid level was high indicating that I was in beginning stages of Sepsis, a potentially very dangerous situation. I was admitted with Pneumonia and possible sepsis. Within 24 hours my wonderful physicians pumped me up with 4 bags of fluids and the lactic acid level was within healthy range. I am still being treated for the pneumonia and should be fully restored in a few weeks.
Imagine this course on your frail grandmother, your best friend undergoing chemo, or your kids at preschool. In these populations, flu runs in packs, what we in the medical field, call an EPIDEMIC.
Epidemics in immunocompromised populations are deadly. Yes, vaccine effectiveness (VE) is not where we would like it to be, but the less people carrying the flu, the more immunocompromised patients get to live. Say effectiveness is only 10%, are 30 kids or grandparents worth saving out of a facility of 300? Not that they would die, mortality rates are another issue, but they would not be at risk for what I have gone through as a totally healthy woman in her 40’s.
I take the time to explain this as I sit in the hospital, having to had take time off of work, kids being shuffled around and medical costs being accrued, to make the point that FLU VACCINATION saves lives by stopping epidemics. I believe that groups against vaccinations need to understand further the big picture of public health and epidemiology.
Yes, it’s not perfect, the flu strains are ever changing and vaccine resistance is a concern, but the idea that vaccination is a conspiracy of big pharma is a lie.
There is no conspiracy around vaccination.
The CDC is not trying to pull one over on you.
Serve the vulnerable in your community, if you medically can, by being vaccinated against diseases that can cause epidemics.
The Flu is the bad guy, not the community that works to contain it.
Best wishes. Sheri RN