"Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for joining me at the NIH Clinical Center for our flu
shots this year. Before we get vaccinated, I want to talk to you a little bit about
the flu shot and what people can expect if they're getting it this year. Who
should think about getting a flu shot?" "Well, babies don't think about it, but
everyone from six months of age and older should get a influenza shot.
Everybody." "Sometimes I hear people say, you know, I'm young, I'm healthy. If I get
the flu, I'll be home, I'll be off work, maybe binge some Netflix,
no big deal, but that's not actually true?" "That's not actually true. Obviously,
clearly, most people who get influenza ultimately do fine. They may be very
uncomfortable, they may get sick, but they will ultimately do fine. But a small
fraction of people, even otherwise well people, and we hear and see the tragic
stories of that in the media every single year.... an otherwise very healthy
young person, a college student or a young person out in the community, gets
influenza and gets very sick and actually dies. So this is not a common
cold. And I think that's the thing that people need to appreciate. We sometimes
inappropriately say when someone gets an upper respiratory infection, 'What
happened to you?' 'Oh, I got the flu.' They likely did not get influenza. Influenza
is really potentially and, from history, a very serious disease." "And so when should
people start thinking about getting a flu shot?" "People should start thinking
about getting a flu shot now, and by now I mean October. Everyone should, if
possible, have been vaccinated by the end of October." "So we should all be prepared.
Is it ever too late to get a flu vaccine?" "No, it's never too late, and people say, 'Well,
we're well into the season, I haven't gotten flu.' But there's flu out there. It's
now December, January, it's never too late to get vaccinated.
Having said that, try to get vaccinated before October 31st." "And people have a
lot of fears and concerns about getting vaccinated, and I know some folks in my
family have asked me, you know, what about side effects for the vaccine? Am I going
to get sick? Am I going to have a weird reaction to it? What
would you say to folks who are worried about that?" "What we do know from decades
of experience is that influenza vaccine is a very safe vaccine. In general most
people have nothing, but maybe a little bit of a sore arm for a few hours to 24
hours, and then you're done." "A lot of people think that they got the
flu, a mild case of the flu, from the vaccine. Is that how it works?" "No, it's
impossible, not unlikely, but impossible for you to get the flu from the flu
vaccine." "And I've heard other people say some things like 'I have never gotten the
flu vaccine, and I've never gotten the flu. That's working for me.' And I've heard
folks say, 'I got the flu vaccine one year, and that's the year I got the flu.' What
what would you say to those?" "Well, for the people who said 'I never got the flu
vaccine and never got the flu,' that's really good. Congratulations, you're lucky!
But you have a long life, and the chances of your ultimately getting influenza if
you don't get the flu vaccine are reasonably good. So the idea that you have not
gotten the flu despite the... the fact that you've
not gotten flu vaccine is absolutely no excuse not to get the flu vaccine. The
other situation is the person says, 'Well, the year that I got the flu vaccine I
got the flu.' Well, the flu vaccine is not perfect. It
is not a hundred percent perfect vaccine. But the advantages of getting the flu
vaccine versus being unprotected and not get the flu vaccine is really a very
very very wide difference. A) it can protect you from getting the flu, and B)
importantly, it could really mitigate and dampen the seriousness of the flu if
you get it." "And what about for folks who have had a cold, possibly a bad cold,
early in the season, and they think they've gotten the flu. And now they're
they have an immunity because they've had the flu, and so they don't need the
flu vaccine." "Well, there's two components to the answer. One, they may
not have gotten influenza. They may have gotten any of a number of the
circulating upper respiratory viruses: coronavirus, adenovirus, parainfluenza.
They think it's flu, and it's not. You will likely never know.
Therefore, you should get the flu vaccine. Secondly, if you did get one of the
flus, there isn't just one flu that circulates. In the vaccine, there are
three and sometimes four components. There's H3N2, H1N1, and two B influenzas, so it
is conceivable that you are infected with an H1N1 in the end of October, the
beginning of November, you are still vulnerable to H3N2 and to B. So whether
you did get the flu or get something that looks like the flu, it doesn't matter.
You should still get the flu shot." "Still get the flu shot.
And what if you just really hate needles and you really hate injections,
what would your advice be?" "Well, I, my advice, I would say suck it
up and get vaccinated. But if it really, really is a problem, there is a live
attenuated nasal vaccine that's available." "And so every year, we hear in
the news that there's this conversation about whether the vaccine matches the
flu virus that's circulating in the population. Can you tell us a little bit
about that and how important is that to take into account when you're making the
decision to get a flu vaccine?" "No, I think that that is not something that should
be left up to the decision of whether you get a flu vaccine or not. Most of the
time the decision of what to put into the vaccine... and that decision is
generally made in February or early March.... it is conceivable A) that you've
made the right choice and nothing changes so it's a good match. Or they
make a choice, and the virus drifts a bit and changes. Even if it does and it's not
a perfect match, getting vaccinated is still beneficial because you could still
get some degree of protection. It might not be the optimum degree of protection,
but it would be some degree of protection." "Wonderful, let's go get our
shots." "Let's do it."
"Hey there!" "Hello, Dr. Fauci!" "Good to see you." "Good to see you."
"Have you ever skipped a year, Dr. Fauci?" "I have not. I have I would say to be a
perfect record. I've gotten vaccinated every single year since I've been here at the NIH."
"Little stick."
"See that? Painless" "I didn't even feel it."
"Thank you." "That's my goal. You are quite welcome." "Perfect."
"I'm working on my perfect record." "Take care."
"Okay, well, that was easy." "Now we're done."
"Easy and quick." "Yeah, we're done." "So, is there anything else I should keep in mind to do to stay
healthy this winter?" "Well, yes, as a matter of fact, if we do, and it's likely, we'll
have a flu outbreak. During the time of the peak outbreak, you should stay away
from crowded places. If it's really a big outbreak, you don't want to dramatically
modify your life, but to the best of the circumstance, do what you can. But the important
thing is really to wash your hands. I mean, we say that all the time because
people touch their faces, they touch their eyes, they touch their
mucosa. To the extent that you possibly can, wash your hands at every opportunity,
and that's the important thing. If you do get flu, stay home. Don't bring it to the
work place. If your children get flu, keep them home, don't bring it to school." "And I
think that that's an important point to make too, that if I get the flu shot, I'm
not just protecting myself. But I'm also contributing to helping protect my
family, right?" "Not only your family, but the general community because the more
people that get vaccinated the more protection... a veil of what we call 'herd
immunity'... is out there. And the flu doesn't have the opportunity to rapidly
spread throughout the community. So, you're doing yourself a service and
you're doing the community service." "Wonderful. Well, I'll take that. And I'll
see you here next year?" "Yes, indeed." "It's a deal."