Montclair State University’s Health Center released a college-wide flu advisory on Tuesday, encouraging students to protect themselves against this year’s powerful influenza. With weeks of flu season still to come, students must decide whether they want to get their flu shot this year or opt out.
Despite the widespread activity, and severity, of this year’s flu, many students are staying away from the vaccine, and sticking with the health routines they have always used.
“I prefer the holistic approach,” said Jennifer Ovalles – a graduate student at MSU. “I live a plant-based lifestyle and I listen to my body.”
Ovalles would rather use ginger, garlic and various teas to stave off illness and boost her immune system. She trusts these methods more than the options provided by modern medicine.
“I would never get the flu shot. There are too many conspiracies, and we don’t really know the long-term effects of the vaccine,” she said.
Ovalles is not alone. Lauren Grabowski, an English major at Montclair State, is a self-proclaimed “medical rebel.”
“I just don’t think it’s necessary. Doctors write out so many prescriptions, and sometimes, I think that they just try to see what works.”
The Health Center, however, has a different view.
“The flu vaccine is recommended for everyone over 6 months,” they said in their advisory. There is no appointment needed to get a flu shot, and they cost $10 for students. Their added steps to ensuring students are aware of the severity of this particular flu season reveal their concerns over a possible campus outbreak.
“Although there is no immediate threat on campus, the seasonal flu is highly contagious and can be spread easily spread from person-to-person, especially in places where people gather such as college campuses and social events,” they said.
Some students are also avoiding the flu shot due to the $10 fee. Emily Martinez, a junior at Montclair State, who gets the shot almost every year, would not get it at MSU.
“I don’t know why people would pay to get the shot when you can get it for free at CVS,” she said.
Another student, Nicole Appel, is convinced that the flu shot leads to sickness itself.
“My mom is a nurse and she has to get the shot for work,” Appel said. “She still gets the flu almost every year.”
While influenza is not new, it is rarely as widespread as this year. According to the C.D.C., there have been 30 pediatric deaths this flu season, with a number of patients contracting pneumonia as their flu progressed. The C.D.C. also confirms that more than 8,000 influenza-related hospitalizations have been reported since October 1, 2017. This translates to a cumulative overall rate of 31.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in the United States. This number has grown since the same time in the 2014-2015 season, where 36.3 per every 100,000 people were hospitalized in the U.S.
The numbers are high, but not out of the ordinary. The C.D.C. assures that the number of fatalities surrounding the flu is not unusual, with 6 percent of Americans showing symptoms of the flu this season. This percentage was almost the same in the 2014-2015, and 2012-2013 seasons.
According to the New York Times, flu-related deaths have greatly decreased since the most common strain - H3N2 -surfaced in 1968 when it killed “an estimated 1 million people around the world” in one year. Much of the change could be attributed to the advancement of vaccinations, and a greater understanding of how the infection spreads.
Along with the Montclair State Health Center, experts insist that the flu shot could save your life.
“Even when the shot does not prevent you from catching the flu, it may save you from dying of it,” said the New York Times.
