Spencer Finley

B/S Editor

sjf5814@psu.edu

With the flu season that many experts believe will be especially severe approaching rapidly, it is especially important to take the flu vaccination this year. The Center for Disease Control, CDC says that if someone is older than 6 months old and does not have a life-threatening allergy to ingredients in the vaccination, egg proteins excepted, or who have had severe allergic reactions to the flu vaccine before, they should attempt to get vaccinated for the flu. Essentially, anyone can get vaccinated and they should.

The CDC recommends that those eligible to receive flu shots should get them every year because it can either stop people from contracting the flu or make their case much more mild; according to the CDC, hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized with the flu every year, and at a time when hospital beds are in short supply across much of the country and medical staff are stretched thin, keeping people out of the hospital is especially important. Not only can getting a flu shot keep you out of the hospital, but it can also save your life; according to the CDC, tens of thousands of people die of the flu every year in the United States. 

Although it is important for everybody to get vaccinated, it is especially important for people with certain chronic conditions including heart disease, COPD and diabetes to get vaccinated, as they are more at risk of death or hospitalization from the flu and the vaccine can either stop people from getting the flu altogether or reduce the severity of the case. 

Even if you are yourself not at serious risk from the flu, or simply don’t care that you could be bedridden with illness for days and potentially hospitalized, getting a flu shot is only considerate. Getting vaccinated can not only prevent you from getting the flu, but it can help to stop people around you from getting the flu as well, thereby stopping people you know from getting extremely sick and potentially being hospitalized or killed.