Public-health officials strongly encourage flu shot, but some Loyalist students resist

Loyalist students can get their flu vaccines at the college’s Student Health Centre. Photo by Tyson Nayler, QNet News

By Tyson Nayler

BELLEVILLE – Even with doctors and health officials strongly encouraging the public to get the flu vaccine, some students at Loyalist College still say they won’t.

Andrew Mauro, a post-graduate student in public relations, told QNet News this week that he thinks there are better ways to combat the flu virus.

“I grew up never getting the flu shot and still see it as pointless,” Mauro said. “I think natural remedies are much more effective and better for your body.”

Thomas Paul, a protection, security and investigation student, says he doesn’t feel the urgency to get the vaccine.

“I rarely get the flu, and when I do it only lasts for a couple of days,” Paul said. “I just don’t see the need to get the flu shot if it rarely works for people anyway.”

Piotr Oglaza, medical officer of health at Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, acknowledges that this opinion is common, but says vaccines in general are the best way to protect yourself from getting sick.

“Some critics may say that vaccines are normally only 40 to 60 per cent effective and there isn’t a point,” Oglaza said. “But it’s still better than having zero protection from the virus.”

For this flu season, the World Health Organization has developed a vaccine that protects against all the components in influenza A and B, the two types that normally affect us, he said.

Traditionally influenza A is the most prominent virus, peaking in December each year, Oglaza said. Last year, however, it was influenza B that peaked in December, which caused a more severe flu season than usual because the vaccine that was given to the public didn’t match that strain.

In past years the general population was given a vaccine that protected against only three flu components: both the components of influenza A and one of the two components of  influenza B, Oglaza explained. But “this year the majority of the population will get the (new) stronger vaccine,” he said.

One of the ways health officials can predict what kind of flu season we will have is by seeing how the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season arrives earlier, has already been affected. This gives experts here an idea of how effective the vaccine is. The World Health Organization can observe the data taken from the south and make recommendations for the vaccine strains to be used in the Northern Hemisphere, Oglaza said.

But while this information is helpful, he said, it isn’t infallible. The World Health Organization won’t know definitively how effective the vaccine being used here is until months after the flu season is over.

“The course of the influenza season is somewhat unpredictable,” Oglaza said. “In previous seasons there have been vaccines that were intended for a particular strain of influenza B and it ended up working against another component of influenza.”

What’s also new this year is a new vaccine with a higher dose intended for people over age 65. This stronger vaccine covers both components of influenza A and one of the components of influenza B. That’s because people in the over-65 age category generally aren’t affected by influenza B, Oglaza said.