VIDEO: The Effectiveness Of The Flu Shot

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – Tis the season for the flu and doctors say they’re seeing several cases ahead of the Christmas season.

As waiting rooms fill up to get the shot, others wonder if the shot is causing them to fall ill.

With Flu season here, health experts are encouraging families to get the shot.

“It also helps a great deal don’t let anyone tell you that it doesn’t,” said North Mississippi Medical Center Urgent Care Physician John Browning.

Many people are under the impression the vaccine is just as harmful as the virus its self. Browning says that’s not entirely true.

“What we’ve done is inoculate you with the virus. Your body sees that as something that’s attacking it. Your body sends out an immune response, they are very taxing on your body,” said Browning.

Browning says that shows physicians the vaccine is in fact working and that your body is fighting the virus.

According to the C.D.C. the shot is to protect against the three or four different viruses that research finds to be most common during the season.

For teachers like Brittney Rye, she’s around germs daily and says she’d rather play it safe.

“Kids are going to be kids and adults are going to be adults. We cough and sneeze and it just spreads so quickly,” said Rye.

Browning says getting the flu shot goes a lot further than your own health.

“You need the vaccine so you don’t get sick, so you don’t share with everyone else it’s an issue of community health and that’s what we need to be focused on,” says Browning.

For more information on combating the flu visit https://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm