Flu season is approaching, which means annual vaccinations are recommended.
Yet, after a century of existence, people are still hesitant to get vaccinated for fear of getting sick.
So can the flu shot make you sick?
You may feel sick after getting the vaccine, but the shot won’t actually make you sick, according to doctors in an article in The Sacramento Bee.
“It doesn’t make you sick, but people don’t go crazy thinking, ‘When I get the flu shot, I feel like I’m going to be sick right away,'” Dr. Kristen Gates of Kaiser Permanente told the outlet. “It does. “It’s easy for another virus to come to you, but you don’t have as much resistance because your immune system is disturbed.”
“All drugs and all vaccines can have side effects,” shared Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Health. “This usually lasts a day or two and then goes away, but it does not cause the flu. The flu shot you get is unlikely to cause the flu because it does not contain live virus.”
How do you feel after receiving the vaccine? What are the differences between the side effects of the flu shot and other vaccines?