Can the flu shot give you the flu?
Is the flu just a like a bad cold?
Do you need to get the flu shot every year?
These questions and more are frequently asked during flu season.
In this segment, Dr. Katelyn Mohrbacher sheds light on common seasonal flu vaccine myths and facts.
Selected Podcast
Out With The Cold and In With The Flu: Facts You Should Know Before Flu Season
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Dr. Katelyn Mohrbacher
Katelyn Mohrbacher, MD - Family Medicine with OB
Dr. Katelyn Mohrbacher is a board-certified family medicine with obstetrics/gynecology physician at Allina Health Hastings First Street Clinic. Dr. Mohrbacher has professional interests in cesarean sections, women's health, pediatrics, geriatrics, mental health and integrative medicine.Learn more about Dr. Katelyn Mohrbacher
Transcription:
Out With The Cold and In With The Flu: Facts You Should Know Before Flu Season
Melanie Cole (Host): Can the flu shot give you the flu? Is the flu just like a bad cold? Do you need to get a flu shot every year? These questions and so many more really get in the minds of people as colds and flu seasons start to come in. My guest today is Dr. Katlyn Mohrbacher. She’s Board Certified Family Medicine with Obstetrics and Gynecology Physician at Allina Health Hastings First Street Clinic. Welcome to the show, Dr. Mohrbacher. Let’s start right off the bat with the flu vaccine. Some people think it’s not safe. Some people think that if you get the mist, you’re going to get the flu. Tell us about the flu vaccine and what you really want listeners to know.
Dr. Katelyn Mohrbacher (Guest): So, the flu vaccine is very safe. In children, the only time you have to be worried about having something that is unsafe is if they have an egg allergy where they can’t even eat eggs themselves or they have an outbreak throughout their entire body. Otherwise, even in people who’ve had that before, there’s only been a 1.3% chance of ever having an egg allergy outbreak when you get the flu vaccine. Otherwise, you will not get influenza from the vaccine itself because most parts of it are inactivated. In the live vaccine, the nasal vaccine, they are attenuated which means weakened, which means it cannot form or grow within your body. It just allows your body to mount an immune response to it and then fight off the flu if you are exposed.
Melanie: So, this is a very safe vaccine, yes?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes. It’s very safe.
Melanie: Now, people don’t know if they get the flu or a cold. How do we know the difference?
Dr. Mohrbacher: It’s true, they do kind of have similar symptoms. They both have fever, body aches, kind of feeling tired and a dry cough. However, with the flu, usually these symptoms are much worse. So, much higher fever, the tiredness is much longer, the cough can be transferred into developing other worsening breathing symptoms where the kid cannot catch his breath and may even get other source of pneumonias on top of it. So, it’s really they’re very similar it’s just the severity of the symptoms that makes it more the flu then a bad cold.
Melanie: If you get the flu vaccine, can you still get the flu?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes, if you get the flu vaccine, you can definitely still get the flu. Part of that is when you get the flu vaccine, it takes about two weeks for the flu vaccine to work for you to protect you against getting the influenza. So, let’s say you had exposure to the flu right after you get the vaccine. You still could get the flu. You can also still get the flu but, usually, is not as severe symptoms because you already have some antibodies in your body fighting off the flu that you just got but usually it’s to a lesser degree. You don’t have to go to the hospital. You don’t end up getting pneumonia or having breathing problems and things like that. Then lastly, every year there’s different flu viruses that drift and change, so sometimes there’s a new virus that evolves and you can get the flu if that is not in the vaccine that year.
Melanie: Can you get the flu even if you’ve gotten the vaccine?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes, you can get the flu even if you’ve gotten the vaccine.
Melanie: So then, people would say, “Well, I got vaccinated so why do I have the flu?” Just explain a little bit about, not necessarily percentages, but how that vaccine works and that sometimes it doesn’t work for every strain.
Dr. Mohrbacher: Right. So, this year and most years there are four different flu strains that are put into the immunizations. So, every year the CDC and other organizations look to kind of see what kind of virus is going to be in our area and then they pick those viruses and make a vaccine against those. But every year, the flu virus can adapt and makes some changes on its own because viruses are always evolving and changing. So, sometimes there may be a newer virus that comes out that is not in the vaccine that we are given. So then, that is one way that you can end up getting the flu even though you’ve received the flu vaccine.
Melanie: Are there some people that should not get the flu vaccine?
Dr. Mohrbacher: There are some people who should not get the live flu vaccine, particularly. Those are people like pregnant people, young children, children with asthma, people who are immunocompromised and that means people that have a lot of chronic disease or are really ill, like receiving chemotherapy, or are on other medications and then people who, obviously, have had a severe egg allergy in the past. Otherwise, flu vaccines are very safe. The other people that sometimes will be told by their doctor not to get the flu vaccine is if they’ve ever had Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Melanie: So, tell us a little more about prevention, Dr. Mohrbacher, because that seems to be what everybody wants to know. Is there any way to prevent, besides the vaccination, getting flus and/or colds because they can just be miserable as the fall approaches? What do you want us to know that we should be doing?
Dr. Mohrbacher: The most important thing is covering your mouth when you cough. If you yourself are sick or have the flu, I would not recommend going to work or school because you can spread it to other people. And then, washing your hands because it is a respiratory illness, so if you cough or sneeze on something and then touch that and/or breathe it in, then you could get sick. The best thing is washing your hands, covering your mouth and staying home if you are sick.
Melanie: So, I’d like to get into a few myths, Dr. Mohrbacher. Can stress increase your chances of getting the flu or a cold?
Dr. Mohrbacher: No, it cannot.
Melanie: What about lingering around in wet clothes or you go out after a shower into the winter and your hair is wet?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Nope, that can’t either. You have to be exposed to it for it to cause the infection. Being cold or having wet hair will not cause it.
Melanie: What about some of the products that are on the market? Do some of those help to prevent them? Echinacea, Airborne, Cold-eze, all of these things. What do you think about them?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Some people will find that taking echinacea before you’re sick, so not even when you’re exposed, can help build up your immune system. But, in general, just being healthy, eating a balanced diet, taking care of yourself, getting rest, all of those things can help you have a strong immune system but, again, they will not if you don’t have those lead to getting influenza.
Melanie: Well, speaking about diet, are there any foods that you particularly like people to eat to help keep their immune system healthy? What about that myth: “feed a cold starve a fever; starve a cold feed a fever”? Does any of that make sense?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Again, some people will talk about taking vitamin C and things like that. They are getting plenty of oranges and those type of things. The most important thing, though, is just to eat a balanced diet. Once you are sick with the influenza those things will not treat it or prevent it or make it any better.
Melanie: In just the last minute, your best advice about if we do come down with a cold or the flu, how we should help ourselves get past it as quickly as possible.
Dr. Mohrbacher: I would stay home. If you work, I would not go to work. Try to get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids and, again, just try to eat a balanced diet during that time. Let your body rest and improve.
Melanie: And make sure to get our vaccines every year.
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes, every year because every year they change a little and when we get the vaccine, we only have the immunity for approximately 7-8 months to about a year. So, we need to be re-immunized every year so we have that little army to fight off the influenza.
Melanie: Thank you so much. You’re listening to the WELLcast with Allina Health. For more information, you can go to allinahealth.org. That’s allinahealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Out With The Cold and In With The Flu: Facts You Should Know Before Flu Season
Melanie Cole (Host): Can the flu shot give you the flu? Is the flu just like a bad cold? Do you need to get a flu shot every year? These questions and so many more really get in the minds of people as colds and flu seasons start to come in. My guest today is Dr. Katlyn Mohrbacher. She’s Board Certified Family Medicine with Obstetrics and Gynecology Physician at Allina Health Hastings First Street Clinic. Welcome to the show, Dr. Mohrbacher. Let’s start right off the bat with the flu vaccine. Some people think it’s not safe. Some people think that if you get the mist, you’re going to get the flu. Tell us about the flu vaccine and what you really want listeners to know.
Dr. Katelyn Mohrbacher (Guest): So, the flu vaccine is very safe. In children, the only time you have to be worried about having something that is unsafe is if they have an egg allergy where they can’t even eat eggs themselves or they have an outbreak throughout their entire body. Otherwise, even in people who’ve had that before, there’s only been a 1.3% chance of ever having an egg allergy outbreak when you get the flu vaccine. Otherwise, you will not get influenza from the vaccine itself because most parts of it are inactivated. In the live vaccine, the nasal vaccine, they are attenuated which means weakened, which means it cannot form or grow within your body. It just allows your body to mount an immune response to it and then fight off the flu if you are exposed.
Melanie: So, this is a very safe vaccine, yes?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes. It’s very safe.
Melanie: Now, people don’t know if they get the flu or a cold. How do we know the difference?
Dr. Mohrbacher: It’s true, they do kind of have similar symptoms. They both have fever, body aches, kind of feeling tired and a dry cough. However, with the flu, usually these symptoms are much worse. So, much higher fever, the tiredness is much longer, the cough can be transferred into developing other worsening breathing symptoms where the kid cannot catch his breath and may even get other source of pneumonias on top of it. So, it’s really they’re very similar it’s just the severity of the symptoms that makes it more the flu then a bad cold.
Melanie: If you get the flu vaccine, can you still get the flu?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes, if you get the flu vaccine, you can definitely still get the flu. Part of that is when you get the flu vaccine, it takes about two weeks for the flu vaccine to work for you to protect you against getting the influenza. So, let’s say you had exposure to the flu right after you get the vaccine. You still could get the flu. You can also still get the flu but, usually, is not as severe symptoms because you already have some antibodies in your body fighting off the flu that you just got but usually it’s to a lesser degree. You don’t have to go to the hospital. You don’t end up getting pneumonia or having breathing problems and things like that. Then lastly, every year there’s different flu viruses that drift and change, so sometimes there’s a new virus that evolves and you can get the flu if that is not in the vaccine that year.
Melanie: Can you get the flu even if you’ve gotten the vaccine?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes, you can get the flu even if you’ve gotten the vaccine.
Melanie: So then, people would say, “Well, I got vaccinated so why do I have the flu?” Just explain a little bit about, not necessarily percentages, but how that vaccine works and that sometimes it doesn’t work for every strain.
Dr. Mohrbacher: Right. So, this year and most years there are four different flu strains that are put into the immunizations. So, every year the CDC and other organizations look to kind of see what kind of virus is going to be in our area and then they pick those viruses and make a vaccine against those. But every year, the flu virus can adapt and makes some changes on its own because viruses are always evolving and changing. So, sometimes there may be a newer virus that comes out that is not in the vaccine that we are given. So then, that is one way that you can end up getting the flu even though you’ve received the flu vaccine.
Melanie: Are there some people that should not get the flu vaccine?
Dr. Mohrbacher: There are some people who should not get the live flu vaccine, particularly. Those are people like pregnant people, young children, children with asthma, people who are immunocompromised and that means people that have a lot of chronic disease or are really ill, like receiving chemotherapy, or are on other medications and then people who, obviously, have had a severe egg allergy in the past. Otherwise, flu vaccines are very safe. The other people that sometimes will be told by their doctor not to get the flu vaccine is if they’ve ever had Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
Melanie: So, tell us a little more about prevention, Dr. Mohrbacher, because that seems to be what everybody wants to know. Is there any way to prevent, besides the vaccination, getting flus and/or colds because they can just be miserable as the fall approaches? What do you want us to know that we should be doing?
Dr. Mohrbacher: The most important thing is covering your mouth when you cough. If you yourself are sick or have the flu, I would not recommend going to work or school because you can spread it to other people. And then, washing your hands because it is a respiratory illness, so if you cough or sneeze on something and then touch that and/or breathe it in, then you could get sick. The best thing is washing your hands, covering your mouth and staying home if you are sick.
Melanie: So, I’d like to get into a few myths, Dr. Mohrbacher. Can stress increase your chances of getting the flu or a cold?
Dr. Mohrbacher: No, it cannot.
Melanie: What about lingering around in wet clothes or you go out after a shower into the winter and your hair is wet?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Nope, that can’t either. You have to be exposed to it for it to cause the infection. Being cold or having wet hair will not cause it.
Melanie: What about some of the products that are on the market? Do some of those help to prevent them? Echinacea, Airborne, Cold-eze, all of these things. What do you think about them?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Some people will find that taking echinacea before you’re sick, so not even when you’re exposed, can help build up your immune system. But, in general, just being healthy, eating a balanced diet, taking care of yourself, getting rest, all of those things can help you have a strong immune system but, again, they will not if you don’t have those lead to getting influenza.
Melanie: Well, speaking about diet, are there any foods that you particularly like people to eat to help keep their immune system healthy? What about that myth: “feed a cold starve a fever; starve a cold feed a fever”? Does any of that make sense?
Dr. Mohrbacher: Again, some people will talk about taking vitamin C and things like that. They are getting plenty of oranges and those type of things. The most important thing, though, is just to eat a balanced diet. Once you are sick with the influenza those things will not treat it or prevent it or make it any better.
Melanie: In just the last minute, your best advice about if we do come down with a cold or the flu, how we should help ourselves get past it as quickly as possible.
Dr. Mohrbacher: I would stay home. If you work, I would not go to work. Try to get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids and, again, just try to eat a balanced diet during that time. Let your body rest and improve.
Melanie: And make sure to get our vaccines every year.
Dr. Mohrbacher: Yes, every year because every year they change a little and when we get the vaccine, we only have the immunity for approximately 7-8 months to about a year. So, we need to be re-immunized every year so we have that little army to fight off the influenza.
Melanie: Thank you so much. You’re listening to the WELLcast with Allina Health. For more information, you can go to allinahealth.org. That’s allinahealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.