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  • So a lot of people are trying to decide about

  • whether flu vaccine is for them.

  • They want to know, what are the risks

  • and what are the benefits of getting the flu vaccine?

  • So I'm going to write up here the risks and benefits.

  • We're going to go through them kind of systematically,

  • and hopefully by the end, you'll have a nice little table

  • you can look at to take a look at kind of both sides,

  • side by side.

  • So let's start with some of the common issues.

  • What are some of the common things

  • we know are going to be a risk with the vaccine?

  • Well, when you walk in to get a vaccine,

  • you kind of know, if it's an injectable vaccine,

  • that the injection is not going to be pain-free.

  • I mean, most injections are going to hurt a little bit.

  • And so this, actually, for some people is not a big deal.

  • But for others, like me, it is a big deal.

  • You know, I always remember, people would tell me,

  • oh, it doesn't hurt that much.

  • And I would feel like they lied to me, because I always

  • felt like it did hurt.

  • And so I always got some arm soreness.

  • And it's not pleasant.

  • And that was one of the main reasons

  • I often kind of dragged my feet about getting the vaccine.

  • I thought, well, you know, do I really want to go in today

  • and get an injection in my arm?

  • And the one that causes arm soreness, the one that we

  • inject, is the dead vaccine.

  • I just want to make it very clear.

  • And we call it TIV.

  • That's the name of the vaccine.

  • So if you don't like getting an injection in the arm,

  • if you're like me, then you can also get the other vaccine.

  • There's this other vaccine out there.

  • And it's going to cause, potentially,

  • a little bit of a runny nose.

  • This is something that some people get.

  • I've actually always opted for this one

  • whenever it was available.

  • It's the live vaccine.

  • And it's not for everybody.

  • Some people are actually not going

  • to be able to get this one.

  • Now, in all the years I've had it,

  • I've actually never had a runny nose,

  • although I know a lot of people say that they've had that.

  • So these are the common issues, or the common risks

  • you take when you get a vaccine, right?

  • Now, another thing is that they often

  • are thought to cause the flu, but they actually

  • do not cause flu.

  • This is a huge misconception.

  • So I want to make it very clear.

  • Something that is dead-- a virus that is dead--

  • is not going to cause flu for sure.

  • So that one's kind of obvious.

  • But even this weak virus, this weakened virus

  • that's in the vaccine, is also not going to cause the flu.

  • It causes symptoms that sometimes are unpleasant,

  • like a runny nose, usually, but it doesn't cause the flu.

  • So what about the other side?

  • What are the benefits, the common benefits

  • that we know you can get from the vaccine?

  • What are the reasons we even take vaccine?

  • Well, you want to stay healthy.

  • You don't want to get flu.

  • And that's the whole point behind this.

  • And this is kind of how I qualify it to myself.

  • I think, well, you know, would I even

  • be OK with getting an injection in the arm?

  • Probably, yeah, because I know that in terms of pain,

  • that might hurt a little bit, but being

  • on your back in bed for three or four days, sometimes more,

  • because of the flu, that's awful.

  • And that's real suffering.

  • So I would definitely opt for getting a vaccine

  • over getting the flu.

  • Now, you know, we measure something

  • called vaccine efficacy-- kind of the ability of the vaccine

  • to prevent us from getting ill.

  • And the vaccine efficacy of this vaccine is not perfect.

  • That's something we have to remember, right?

  • It's not 100%.

  • It's actually, we think, somewhere between 60% and 70%.

  • So if I'm going to draw a little force field, a purple force

  • field, showing that I'm protected from the flu,

  • I've got to actually also show a couple

  • of little holes in my force field

  • to say that it's not a perfect bit of protection.

  • But it's pretty good, and that's the whole point, right?

  • So those are the common benefits that you can expect.

  • Now, let me draw a little bit more space up

  • here so I can continue with this risk/benefit analysis.

  • What are some uncommon things?

  • What are some uncommon, more rare

  • events that you may have heard of,

  • people sometimes talk about, with the vaccine.

  • And there are a couple.

  • There are two that kind of jump to mind I'll talk about.

  • One of them is called Guillain-Barre.

  • Kind of a tough word to even spell.

  • But it's basically a nerve disease

  • that causes problems-- actually, instead of disease, let

  • me write syndrome.

  • It's basically going to cause problems with muscles.

  • And so you get muscle weakness.

  • So Guillain-Barre Syndrome-- sometimes we call this GBS,

  • so you might see GBS-- is essentially a nerve disease.

  • And the reason we even talk about Guillain-Barre--

  • you might think, well, what do nerves

  • have to do with the flu vaccine?

  • Well, it turned out, interestingly enough,

  • that back in 1976-- so we've been giving flu vaccine

  • for a long time-- back in 1976, it was observed--

  • and this was unbelievable how they were able to find this,

  • but they found one extra case-- one extra case, approximately,

  • of Guillain-Barre So one extra case of Guillain-Barre Syndrome

  • among 100,000 individuals that were vaccinated.

  • So they said, well, that's interesting.

  • We didn't expect this person to have Guillain-Barre.

  • And there seems to be an association with the vaccine.

  • So as a result of finding this kind of risk back in 1976,

  • we've been looking ever since.

  • So in the last 30, 40 years we've

  • been kind of looking every year, and people are kind of

  • encouraged to report if they have Guillain-Barre

  • And we have not seen a real association between the flu

  • vaccine and Guillain-Barre ever since this year.

  • But we still continue to look.

  • And people still talk about Guillain-Barre

  • and ask questions about it.

  • So that's why I wanted to bring it up.

  • Now, the other thing that actually, I think,

  • people talk about maybe even more commonly

  • than Guillain-Barre, is febrile seizures.

  • And if you've ever seen one, these things

  • are pretty frightening.

  • These are basically a seizure in a young child after a fever.

  • And I completely understand why parents

  • would be worried if they ever see one like this.

  • And you wouldn't want to see one in your own child, of course.

  • But the risk of febrile seizures with flu vaccine

  • is also quite low.

  • So you usually see about one case among, let's say,

  • about 1,000 vaccinated kids.

  • So it's also pretty low.

  • And here, the reassuring part-- the thing

  • that is probably most helpful for parents to know--

  • is that if your child has a febrile seizure,

  • they almost always get better quickly and completely.

  • There's no kind of long-term brain damage

  • that you get from febrile seizures-- nothing like that.

  • So it is frightening to look at and to see.

  • It's scary, no doubt about it.

  • But the kids do recover really, really well.

  • And they don't have any long-term problems.

  • So let's jump to the other side.

  • What are some of the uncommon benefits?

  • And, actually, I'm saying uncommon.

  • I should even put it in-- well, I was going to put in quotes.

  • I guess I can do that.

  • Because actually, some of these benefits

  • are more common than you would think.

  • And so we talk about hospitalizations, right?

  • And deaths.

  • And people think, well, you know, it's

  • not very common to have to go to the hospital

  • or to die from flu, right?

  • And actually-- I wrote "die" when I meant "deaths"--

  • and actually, there are many, many hospitalizations

  • and deaths happening each year in the US.

  • These are US numbers, right?

  • But you can kind of get a sense for these numbers

  • and project them to your own setting, wherever

  • you may be living.

  • In the US, we see thousands and thousands of deaths, year

  • after year, related to the flu.

  • This is based on some research that's

  • been done over the last 30 years.

  • And hospitalizations as well.

  • We see 200,000 per year.

  • So these are not uncommon things, really.

  • And what are people dying of?

  • What is the cause of death in hospitalizations?

  • Well, it's things like pneumonia or bronchitis.

  • These are pretty common ailments,

  • and they can land you in the hospital.

  • And sadly, they can actually land you in the grave

  • because they're so serious.

  • And also, things like asthma.

  • Asthma attacks can be triggered by the flu.

  • And if you're a parent, you can really

  • appreciate things like ear infections.

  • And you can get sinus infections related to the flu.

  • And more generally, bacterial infections.

  • So a lot of bacteria like to wait for the flu

  • to infect, and then right afterwards they kind of jump

  • in and cause infections as well.

  • Let me just spell this out just to clear up any confusion.

  • So these are actually fairly serious issues, right?

  • These are not trivial.

  • And they're much, much more common than a lot of people

  • think about-- all these things, right?

  • And so when you're comparing them side by side, on the one

  • side-- on the benefits side-- you're

  • avoiding hospitalization and death

  • from fairly common things.

  • And on the other side, you have truly uncommon things-- things

  • that happened and were noticed a long time ago,

  • or people recover completely and fully from.

  • So between the two sides, again, I

  • would say that, based on this information,

  • the benefits win out over the risks.

  • So now let me just bring up a little bit more space.

  • And I'm going to get into one final issue,

  • and this is around something that is really troubling.

  • This is around myths, things that simply are not true.

  • And there are a lot of them, actually, around flu vaccine.

  • There are a lot of myths.

  • And over the years, I've noticed that there's been a shift.

  • So a long time ago, I would always hear the same question.

  • People would say, hey, isn't it true

  • that the flu vaccine can cause autism?

  • Because I heard that on the internet, or my mom

  • forwarded me an email about that.

  • And that is definitely and completely not true.

  • So this is not a real thing.

  • That does not happen.

  • And then later, over time, I started hearing, well,

  • maybe it's not the vaccine.

  • Maybe it's something inside the vaccine.

  • Maybe it's this thing called thimerosal.

  • Or maybe something within thimerosal, because thimerosal

  • is actually a preservative.

  • Maybe it's this mercury within thimerosal.

  • And maybe that causes autism.

  • That was kind of the new thing, I would say, a few years ago.

  • And that also has been kind of proven, and shown in studies,

  • not to be the case.

  • So what do people actually talk about nowadays?

  • What's the new myth on the block?

  • There's always a new myth on the block.

  • And the new one is maybe, just generally speaking,

  • too many vaccines-- and nowadays, it's funny,

  • I don't even hear about autism so much--

  • they say maybe too many vaccines are just bad.

  • And literally, that's exactly what people will say.

  • They'll say, I don't want another vaccine,

  • because I've just heard it's bad.

  • And maybe more generally, they might say,

  • bad for the immune system.

  • So this is kind of the most common new rumor on the block,

  • or myth on the block.

  • And so I want to just kind of go through these--

  • and we'll go through these in other videos one by one

  • and talk about why they're not true,

  • but it's very clear, based on research,

  • that these are not true.

  • But now, separate from myths, what's

  • one final argument on the benefits side?

  • Well, it's called herd immunity.

  • And you may have heard this term before-- you

  • may have heard about herd immunity.

  • Kind of hard to say a few times out loud.

  • But herd immunity is basically the idea--

  • let me try to sketch it out for you-- that you

  • have a community, right?

  • You've got all these people.

  • Each white circle is another person,

  • and they're all living together in a community.

  • And some of these people are going

  • to be what we call vulnerable.

  • So let's say that this is a three-month-old beautiful

  • little baby.

  • So a three-month-old baby.

  • And this baby is too young to get the flu vaccine.

  • But of course, Mom and Dad are right here.

  • So Mom and Dad get the vaccine.

  • And maybe Uncle Joe gets the vaccine,

  • and Auntie Smith gets the vaccine,

  • and Grandma, Grandpa get the vaccine.

  • And cousins who are also around the baby get the vaccine.

  • And so you get the idea.

  • Basically, all the people around this baby

  • are going to get the vaccine.

  • And now a stranger comes to visit.

  • This is a person from another city.

  • They come to visit.

  • And what everyone doesn't know is

  • that this person's actually sick.

  • And they come to a dinner.

  • And they start coughing.

  • And of course, they're spreading germs.

  • Well, what this family has done is that they've

  • created this nice little zone, it's

  • called "the safe zone," between anyone that's sick

  • and the baby.

  • So these germs are not going to be able to kind of penetrate

  • this barrier because too many people are vaccinated,

  • and so these germs can't cause enough infections to get

  • to this baby.

  • So this baby is really protected over here.

  • So that's kind of the goal, is you

  • want to keep vulnerable members of our community--

  • including babies and the elderly and other folks-- you

  • want to keep them safe.

  • And the best way to keep them safe

  • is by getting vaccinated and creating

  • that protection for yourself.

So a lot of people are trying to decide about

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流感疫苗的風險和好處 (Flu Vaccine Risks and Benefits)

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    Precious Annie Liao 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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