The flu shot myth that will never die…because it’s not a myth

My sister sent me this one in an e-mail with the subject line: “True story — seen on the side of a bus…”

And the bus-side message: “The Flu Shot DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE FLU. Get vaccinated!”

Ask anyone at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or ask just about any conventional M.D., and they’ll tell you this is the most persistent myth surrounding the flu vaccine.

If they really warm up to the subject, they’ll explain that the flu shot doesn’t contain a live virus, so it’s virtually impossible for the shot to transmit an influenza virus.

See how it is? It’s all in our heads. Psychosomatic. Power of suggestion. It’s not even feasible.

Well…except for one little detail.

Last year I told you about an ABC News report that highlighted the fact that it’s “common to experience reactions to the shot, such as achiness or a low-grade fever.”

And here’s where the “myth” completely falls apart. You get a flu shot in the morning. That evening you feel rotten. You’re achy. You’ve got a fever. And this may last into the next day.

No, you don’t have the flu, you just FEEL LIKE you have the flu.

Well here’s a newsflash for doctors and CDC bureaucrats: If I FEEL like I have the flu, it makes no difference at all to me that I don’t REALLY have the flu.

It’s like if my car gets totaled because someone smashes into it while it’s parked. Technically, you can say I wasn’t “in a car accident.” But my car is still totaled.

But never mind all that. You can be sure that medical mainstreamers will be calling “flu from a flu shot” a myth till the end of their days.

Sources:
“Busted: Top 5 Cold and Flu Myths” Kin Carollo, ABC News, 11/18/11, abcnews.go.com