\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Death, once a daily reality, has become a distant one in the modern world. Living in a first world country with world class healthcare, we believe that \u00a0disease, disaster, and destruction can\u2019t touch us.\u00a0 We\u2019re Americans after all, right?\u00a0 That reality is beginning to fade though.\u00a0 With Superstorm Sandy, the events at Sandy Hook Elementary, and the recent flu outbreak, all the safe bases have been invaded.\u00a0 Recently, the Centers for Disease Control announced that the 2012-2013 influenza virus had reached epidemic levels, and yet, many refuse the flu vaccine.\u00a0 To do so is a mistake; to refuse a protective agent is folly.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as of November only 35 percent of American adults and 40 percent of American children have been vaccinated against the flu.\u00a0 And nearly 20 children have died from the flu this year already, breaching epidemic level.\u00a0 However, most Americans refuse the vaccine still.\u00a0 The CDC has run multiple studies to test the effectiveness of the 2013 flu vaccine and has found the vaccine to be around 62% effective.\u00a0 The vaccine this year covers three common strains of flu virus:\u00a0 H1N1, H2N3 (a variant of H1N1), and Influenza B.\u00a0 Further testing by the CDC found that the vaccine is a 90% match for the three types of influenza.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However, there are those that claim that the\u00a0vaccine \u00a0is harmful and lowers immunity.\u00a0 Sites like naturalnews.com say the vaccine contains harmful chemicals, but these chemicals are common throughout vaccines, even the ones required by law.\u00a0 As to lowering immunity, the target of the flu vaccine is to present the body with parts of the influenza virus so that the body can create antibodies to defend against the disease.\u00a0 Any vaccine like this lowers immunity, but only for a short time.\u00a0 Others, still, claim that the vaccine can give you the flu, as it gives you the virus.\u00a0 Doctors, however, say this is impossible.\u00a0 Though you can still get the flu after being vaccinated, it is not the fault of the vaccine; more times than not, the body\u2019s reaction is too slow.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the end, the flu vaccine is a preemptive agent, a protection against danger.\u00a0 Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, said in a press conference, \u201cVaccination is the single most important step you can take to protect yourself.\u201d\u00a0 After all, as the saying goes, it\u2019s better to be safe than sorry.<\/p>\n
[Image Credit:\u00a015466.by.all.biz]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Death, once a daily reality, has become a distant one in the modern world. Living in a first world…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":8613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1594,1595],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-flu","tag-vaccine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8580"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8637,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580\/revisions\/8637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}