You wake up in the morning ready to take on the day, but by lunch time you’re sneezing and feel a sore throat coming on. “Probably just allergies…” you tell yourself. By the time you get home in the evening, your body aches, your head aches, and even though it’s 40 degrees outside, you’re burning up. There’s no denying it – you have the flu – but you can’t have the flu! There’s dinner to make, kids to bathe, a house to clean, and you have an important meeting at work tomorrow.

As most people know, we wear seat belts while driving to protect us from injury in the case of a car accident. Unfortunately, sometimes people are harmed in an accident even when they have taken preventative measures, like using a seat belt. But we can all agree that seat belts are a crucial protection because they drastically reduce the chance of serious injury, even death, from a car accident.

The same principle applies with vaccines and immunizations. Think of a vaccine like a seat belt. While nothing is 100 percent effective and there’s no guarantee against exposure to disease, modern vaccination offers high levels of protection against disease.

Every year there are questions about the flu. Does my kid have it? Will I get the flu? How can we prevent getting the flu? And it seems there are even more questions about the flu vaccine and whether it’s safe or not. Should I give it to my kids? Should seniors take it? What if I’m pregnant? Why should I vaccinate anyway?

Every year people make decisions on whether or not to get vaccinated based on information that isn’t really true. So what are the facts? How do I know if what I’m hearing about the flu vaccine is really true or not?

Flu season comes around every year and no one likes to be sick, especially with the flu. If you’ve gotten the flu before you might even dread this time of year. Although influenza, also known as seasonal flu, may seem like a common cold at first, it’s not the same.