Flummoxed by the Flu Shot? Don’t Be.

A year ago, Katie Fischer, a young mother of three in Sussex, Wisconsin, knew a lot about the flu shot issue.

“Last year, none of us got flu shots, and we ended up getting two different strains. One hit us in December, the other in January and they knocked us out flat,” she said. “We did nothing for months. It was the winter of yuck.”

To top it all off, four out of her five family members ended up with secondary bacterial infections. One was treated for bronchitis while the others struggled with pneumonia.

Most of us want to avoid a winter of flu yuck, but is the flu shot the answer? A lot of us are asking ourselves that very question. Many people do opt out, insisting it either does no good or potentially does some harm, while others never go without.

Here are some facts to help determine what’s right for you and your family.

Does the Shot Have a Shot (at Working)?
Unfortunately, whether the shot actually works is the million-dollar question that no one, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to your local family physician, can answer with absolute certainty. What medical experts can and will tell you definitively is that there is little harm in getting the flu shot, and significant risk in going without.

Tens of thousands of people die each year in the United States from the flu, according to the CDC, and several states are already seeing the deadly affects of the season. New Mexico, Iowa and South Carolina are among the states reporting early season flu deaths. There have been seven deaths blamed on the flu in South Carolina alone.

New study finds more than half of all hospitals don’t require their doctors, nurses or other care providers to get vaccinated.

Terese Kenner is a travel and immunization nurse at Sanford Infectious Disease and Travel Medicine Clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“New influenza vaccines are developed and made available prior to each flu season,” she said. “This is because flu viruses can adapt. Last year’s vaccine is not guaranteed to protect you from this year’s strains.”

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No one has ever tried to hide that it’s a guessing game — getting the strain right that might be the most volatile each year — but here is how researchers come up with the strains that they do:

Each year’s flu shot is the result of a huge compilation of data. That data comes from national flu centers in 113 countries and five World Health Organization influenza research centers that study circulating flu viruses and predict which strains will most likely spread.

The Food and Drug Administration looks at the recommendations and decides which viruses will be used in the coming season’s vaccines. The vaccine viruses are grown, most of them in chicken eggs. They’re tested, manufactured, and sent out for distribution.

What’s My Personal Risk for the Flu?
“According to the CDC, the flu kills, on average, 36,000 people every year in the U.S.,” Kenner said.

Related: Flu Season’s Germiest Places

Those with far less serious cases will tell you they often feel like they are on their deathbeds and they would give anything to not experience the high fevers, body aches and extreme fatigue that accompanies the virus.

Adults with seasonal flu might also have severe aches in their muscles and joints, pain around the eyes, warm, flush skin, a headache, dry cough and sore throat. Typically adults with the flu will not vomit or have diarrhea. Children might, however.

At least 15 percent of the population will come down with some form of the flu, and “because of the number of people affected overall, and the potential for serious complications — even in otherwise healthy people — it is crucial that everyone eligible get their vaccine,” said Kenner.

Recommendations to heal? Stay home, get plenty of rest, plenty of fluids and avoid contact with other people.

The shot contains a dead virus; you can’t get sick from it.

Surprisingly, a new study finds more than half of all hospitals don’t require their doctors, nurses or other care providers to get vaccinated. This is despite multiple national recommendations to make the shot mandatory, as health care workers daily come into contact with people who are vulnerable to the virus.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System asked those in charge of preventing healthcare-related infections in hospitals, what their flu vaccine policies were and why. That was back in 2013. The study found only 42.7 percent of respondents from 386 hospitals said that their hospital required the vaccination for all healthcare providers.

About ten percent more said their hospitals would require the vaccine be given to all employees the following flu season.

Can the Shot Make Me Sick?
A common reason many say they avoid the shot is this: They believe it will make them sick, or that it has in the past.

“This is the No. 1 misconception about the flu shot. The shot contains a dead virus; you can’t get sick from it,” said Monica Naumann, a certified registered nurse practitioner in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Related: In Sickness and Health

Mild side effects can occur though, as those who’ve had the shot in the past can attest to.

“Soreness of the shot site is the most common effect. Other people get a low-grade fever,” Naumann explained. “In general, it’s extremely well tolerated.”

Everyone is eligible for the vaccine, with a few exceptions. People who have egg allergies should not get the egg-based vaccine, and pregnant women and people with asthma should avoid the flu mist, which contains an attenuated, or weakened, virus.

Naumann encourages everyone to check with their doctor if they have questions or concerns — including the worries about getting sick after getting the shot. When people fall ill shortly after getting it, said Naumann, they’ve usually got something other than the flu.

“I’ve had patients say, ‘I got the shot and got the flu anyway.’ My response is you probably had a respiratory illness. People commonly mistake the common cold for influenza.”

Is It Too Late to Get the Shot?
No. It is not too late. “Most physicians and practitioners push it hard in early fall because that’s the beginning of the season,” Naumann said. “By February or March, not so much.”

It is still considered early in the season. The vaccine takes two weeks to develop antibodies in your system, according to the CDC, so the sooner you get it, the sooner it can protect you.

“I still believe in the theory behind the flu shot, which is to decrease my risk of getting the flu,” said Naumann.

That’s exactly what the Fischer family is hoping for, a flu-free season. And for the foreseeable future, Katie Fischer said they will all diligently get their shots.