Flu Season!!!

Many people in the US are afraid of the coronavirus, however the flu is far more dangerous to Americans at the moment.  The CDC estimates that more than 19 million Americans have contracted the flu this season and over 10,000 have died.  Comparing this to the coronavirus, which less than 20 Americans have contracted and only one has died from.  I know multiple friends and family members that have gotten the flu, but I do not know anyone that has gotten the coronavirus.  Yet still, the conversation of my friends and family is focused solely on the coronavirus, the flu is more of an afterthought. 

              So far this flu season, 68 children have died from complications of the flu.  This may be due to the fact that this year’s flu vaccine is not extremely effective.  According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, this year’s flu vaccine is not very effective against the B strain of the influenza virus, this strain is particularly hard on children.  According to the CDC, this year’s vaccine is only a 58% match for the B strain, meaning there is a 42% chance the vaccine won’t work on that strain.  As we learned in class, if the information collected about the flu by professionals is wrong or inadequate, the vaccine will be useless.  However, this does not mean that the flu vaccine is not necessary.  This year, I have seen more of an effort by UNC campus health to get people vaccinated.  There are numerous signs across campus about getting the flu shot, and they even offer free flu shots in the Student Stores.

I know there are still many parents who believe that vaccines cause harm to children and do not get their children vaccinated.  They may use these statistics as proof that vaccines do not work, however vaccines always provide some form of protection against the flu, and some protection is always better than none at all.  Recently, an anti-vaccine Facebook group gave a mother advice; they told her to not give her child Tamiflu, which her doctor had prescribed, the child later died from the flu.  The Facebook group mislead the mother by giving her misinformation and this proved fatal for her child.  I think people need to be careful with taking advice from others about vaccines and the flu because the flu can be a deadly virus and the advice of healthcare professionals should be taken seriously.