The Flu and the Flu Shot: Make An Informed Decision

Influenza Vaccine

First of all, I am not here to convince you to get the flu vaccine. It seems that everywhere you turn someone with dubious credentials is touting the vaccine at the top of their lungs while someone with equally little understanding is shouting about the risks at the top of their lungs. I am not interested in convincing you of anything like so many others are. I am only interested in getting the facts out and offering perspective. I went to medical school and I have read a good deal of the research on influenza and the vaccine that is designed to prevent you from contracting the disease. I want to share want is known and what is not about the flu so that everyone can make an informed decision.

Influenza refers to the acute respiratory illness that is caused by infection with an influenza virus. Multiple strains of the influenza virus exist. In order to understand what this means, we need to discuss how infection with the virus occurs and exactly what a virus is made of. In order to understand what a virus is made of, we need to discuss DNA and RNA.

DNA and RNA are nucleic acids. Nucleic acids are specific types of biological molecules which are used to encode the information necessary for building an organism. In other words, they provide the instructions for building everything from a virus to a tree to a human being. DNA and RNA are similar, but not identical. While several differences exist, for our purposes we need only to understand the following: DNA is made up of the four molecules guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine while RNA is made up of the four molecules guanine, adenine, cytosine, and uracil. RNA is generally less stable than DNA and is thus more prone to mutation. This is important, because this propensity for mutation I RNA is what has led to some of the special characteristics of viruses, such as the influenza viruses or HIV.