Ann Ferro: From the soapbox

This is one of those soapbox pieces
I am not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV. I do volunteer at a local emergency room. I have seen so many very sick people who had the flu and who didn’t have a flu shot, thus the genesis of this soapbox.
According to a self-described expert, elderberries can ward off the seasonal flu as well, if not better, than a vaccine. The author of this posting on my Facebook page goes on to say that Big Pharma promotes vaccines, which the same author considers to be unwarranted and dangerous, in order to line their pockets with filthy lucre. Comments to this post recount the equivalent of horror movie plots … someone either boasts about never having a flu shot and never contracted the malady, a devotee of elderberries and secure in their immunity from flu or, conversely, had the shot and gotten the flu … and some blaming the vaccine for getting the flu. Ah, the internet! Click bait and often so wrong.
OK. Let’s take some time to examine the science, and maybe the economics, of this. I am wondering, if elderberries were so potent against influenza, why some pharmaceutical company hasn’t jumped on this holistic bandwagon and produced a medicine, given it an unpronounceable name and turned it into a costly nostrum extracted from the essence of Sambucus canadensis. Heck, it would be cheaper to grow this side-of-the-road shrub than construct a vaccine for whatever kind of flu is expected for the coming year. Just think of the money the company would pull in!
I am not bashing elderberries or any of the ancillary remedies that can help us feel better. We are a hot toddy and garlicky chicken soup family, but we are also aware that it takes more than these substances to ward off the flu, which is caused by a virus.
A virus is not a bacteria which has cell structures with nuclei, DNA, RNA, mitochondria and lots of other organelles in order to do their jobs. Most bacteria are harmless. Many are a necessary part of our digestive systems. Some cause illnesses, e.g. UTI’s, strep throat, tuberculosis. Antibiotics, which disrupt the life cycle of bacterial structures, can be used, when necessary, to deal with infections caused by bacteria.
A virus is an odd sort of substance made up only of genetic material and a protein coat. Most viruses cause illnesses. They are not cells like bacteria. They do not have the same structures as bacteria. Without these bacterial structures, antibiotics don’t affect them. Viruses can only flourish and reproduce inside a cell with a nucleus. So, when you are infected with a virus, that little bugger has gotten inside one or more of your cells and hijacked the reproductive mechanism of that cell to reproduce more of itself. When the offspring of the invading virus reach a certain number that cell, which has become a virus maternity ward, bursts and send the newly hatched viruses to infect other cells.
In a viral infection, your immune system receives word that some hanky-panky is going on, let’s say in your sinuses, and mobilizes its forces and send out the troops to identify and get rid of the viruses and the cells containing the viruses. The war between is why you feel so rotten. The symptoms you feel are the body’s attempt to get rid of the invaders. If your body’s immune system hasn’t the resources, there are few medicines beyond vaccines, which are preventatives, to help. Sometimes the viral invaders win.
What are some diseases caused by viruses? How about the “stomach flu,” which lasts about 24 hours, or HIV or Ebola or chicken pox or the common cold. Us “oldies” remember getting vaccinated for smallpox.
Besides a very few antiviral medicines, which have limited use, vaccines are the only way to prevent or limit infection by a virus. Contrary to the Facebook pundit pushing elderberries, viruses do not give you the disease for which they are designed. They are made by using what you might describe as a dead virus or the outside coat or fatty layers of the virus. Some vaccines are made from viruses that have been so weakened that they can’t do harm inside a warm body. The vaccine alerts your immune system in the same way that a picture of a crook warns you about people not to allow into your house. The vaccine is not the crook, only a picture of the crook.
Think of it this way. Anyone coming into a bank could be a robber. If you have no warning, a robber can come in, demand money and maybe get away, even if there are alarms and guards. All kinds of mayhem may occur during the robbery, once it is known. The guards, etc. take on the crooks and chaos of one sort or another ensues. On the other hand, if the guards and cameras in banks have pictures of all the bank robbers, they can stop them before they get in. The bank goes on without any mayhem. Picture equals vaccine.
You may decide not to have the flu vaccine. That is your choice, but don’t do so because you think it will give you the flu. Pictures of bank robbers don’t rob banks. Vaccines don’t make you sick.
Vaccines for seasonal flu are based on guesses about which kinds of flu viruses will circulate. Sometimes the guess is off by percentages, but will offer some protection. Once you get your shot, it takes about two weeks for your body to develop the antibodies for protection. If you hate needles and meet special criteria, some attenuated (made weak) live forms of the vaccine are delivered by nasal spray. Sometimes there are limited side effects which may be uncomfortable for a day or two, but these are not the flu and unless some allergic reaction is present, they are uncomfortable, but harmless, and certainly far better than getting that “I got hit by a truck” feeling that is the flu.
While we are all at risk to catch the flu, or better put, for the flu to catch us, two categories of people are the most seriously affected, children and older persons. Think about that.
You can haunt the roadsides in the summer looking for elderberries (not the leaves, which are poisonous) or buy some very expensive elderberry liquid online. Go ahead. It can’t hurt and it can provide all kinds of nutrients and antioxidants, but think carefully about getting a flu shot.
Most of the time, you can get one for free.
I am putting my soap box away. Stay safe.
Ann Ferro is a mother, a grandmother and a retired social studies teacher. While still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, she lives in Marcellus with lots of books, a spouse and a large orange cat.