![]() ![]() LeRoy points out that all these symptoms should go away in a day or two. Irritation, redness, or swelling at the injection site. ![]() What are the main side effects of a getting a flu shot?Ī small percent of people will experience minor side effects from the flu shot. But again, this is despite the flu shot, not because of it. LeRoy also points out that it takes about two weeks for the immune system to “rev up” and fully protect you after you get the vaccine, so it is possible to come down with the flu if you are exposed to the virus in the first few days after getting your shot. According to one study, among adults who were hospitalized with the flu, those who had been vaccinated were 59% less likely to be admitted to the ICU than their unvaccinated peers, and they spent four fewer days in the hospital. ![]() But studies have shown that the vaccine reduces your chance of contracting the flu by 40 to 60% even if you still get sick, you will most likely get a much milder version than if you had not been vaccinated at all. While the currently available vaccines protect against the four most common strains, new strains pop up every year, so the flu shot is not 100% perfect. One is annoying, the other can kill you ( more than 60,000 Americans died of complications from the flu last year).ĬatLane // Getty Images Okay, but can you still get the flu even if you’ve had the shot? The difference between a cold and a flu? LeRoy likens it to the difference between a child’s toy choo-choo train knocking into you and a locomotive bearing down on you. “The flu shot, however, does not protect you from getting a cold, and you have to remember that you are getting your flu shot right in the middle of cold and flu season,” LeRoy adds. “If you get a flu shot, in all likelihood the only effect is that you get will be protection against the flu,” he says. While your friend may have gotten sick - and may even have contracted the flu - it almost definitely wasn’t as a result of their flu shot, says Gary LeRoy, MD, a family physician in Dayton, OH, and president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “Then on Wednesday, I got a flu shot, and by Friday I had the sniffles and a sore throat.” And that's why so many people skip getting vaccinated, but can the flu shot really give you the flu? “But I was just fine on Tuesday,” they’ll say. Every year, without fail, someone is going to swear up and down to you that the flu shot gave them the flu. ![]()
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