Suggested heads: Speaking from experience about the flu shot

There was a time when I tried to read several medical journals, or at least the highlights. Now, mostly due to time constraints and probably some laziness, I’ve pretty much become a New England Journal of Medicine snob, and that’s mostly it: That and the occasional summary flier.

Thus, it was interesting to receive the following poem from a reader, Irving Rosenfeld, who found it in the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the journals I used to read religiously but have since kicked to the curb.

The poem is titled “Myth Dispelled” by Adam Possner and appeared in the Dec. 5 edition.

The flu vaccine cannot

give you the flu, I tell him.

It’s dead virus, there’s

nothing alive about it.

It can’t make you sick.

That’s a myth.

But if we bury it in the grassy knoll

of your shoulder,

an inch under the stratum

corneum, as sanctioned by

your signature

in a white-coated ceremony

presided over by

my medical assistant

and then mark the grave

with a temporary

non-stick headstone,

the trivalent spirit

of that vaccine

has a 70 to 80 percent

chance of warding off

the Evil One,

and that’s the God’s

honest truth.

Actually, I think this year’s vaccine has about a 60 percent effective match, which is still good, and due to the severity of the season, everybody who can get vaccinated should. It’s so not too late!

Over the past 25 flu seasons, I’ve gotten vaccinated every year except one and have gotten the “flu” twice. Here’s the story: The first year of the 25-year cycle, I was doing my medical internship in Greenville back in the day when there was no limitation on working hours and the 100-hour-plus workweek was not uncommon.

Too busy to worry about anything except work and sleep, I neglected to get vaccinated. So guess what? I got the flu, the real deal with high fever and body aches as if being run over by Jadeveon Clowney.

Medical training was a little different back then, and there was the unwritten rule jokingly observed among fellow residents that the only valid excuse to miss work was a death in the immediate family. Reading between the lines, “immediate family” was actually defined as you, the intern, and that your own personal death would be a valid excuse, maybe, although you still might be expected to show up the following day.

Other interns were already stretched, and one would never impose if at all possible. So I dragged myself around the hospital and somehow survived, and, thankfully, the patients did as well.

Fast forward a decade or so and I’m in practice on James Island, when suddenly I realized that I needed a flu shot. The only problem was I had a head cold at the time and didn’t feel particularly well, but insisted on getting the shot anyway.

“What? You’re crazy!” fellow physicians and nursing staff objected in unison. “You’re going down,” they said.

I didn’t believe it. It’s a dead virus, I argued. Isn’t that what everybody says? I’ll be fine. “Give me the shot,” I ordered one of the nurses.

Reluctantly, she did as told and, honey, let me tell you what. Within a matter of hours, I was having hard chills and stumbling around like the town drunk going through DT’s.

Lord have mercy!

I’ll never make that mistake again. The immune system was already revved up and the introduction of yet another unwelcome agent into the system made the whole thing go haywire.

In fact, it’s the immune response that helps contribute to one feeling so badly, to the extent that when it goes up, the patient goes down. Everybody was right (except me), dammit all!

Consequently, I’m now convinced that most people who have had prior reactions to dead viral flu shots probably got vaccinated when they shouldn’t have, as I did. If you’re feeling well and don’t have an egg allergy, you really shouldn’t have any difficulty. (Live attenuated flu vaccines are still offered under certain circumstances, but that’s another subject.)

Medical University of South Carolina employees have one of two choices: Get vaccinated or wear a mask for several months. (Donning a single white sequined glove with the mask would be optional.)

Suddenly, all these people who claimed to have a flu shot allergy have decided they’re not so allergic after all and are getting vaccinated.

And guess what? No problems, at least none that I’ve heard of.

Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t those who have a reaction for no apparent reason. But I would say the incidence is overall uncommon if the vaccine is administered appropriately.

Remember that flu is dangerous and that this season’s strain is the most virulent in years. Not to be a doomsayer, but also remember history. There’s no comparison between 1918 and this year’s flu season, but, as I say, it always bears remembering.

Edward M. Gilbreth is a Charleston physician. Reach him at edwardgilbreth@ comcast.net.