The Retirement Newsletter: Get your flu jab NOW!
Issue Number: -116 — why you should get your flu jab
Welcome
Welcome to issue number -116.
This week, I am talking about jabs — vaccinations — shots — and explaining why you should get a flu shot this winter.
And, before I start, sorry — this has turned into a rather long newsletter.
Health
Why have I been going on about getting your flu and COVID-19 jabs over the last few weeks?
I am not a medical doctor. I hold a PhD in Biochemistry. During my 30+ year career as a biochemist, I have taught undergraduates about proteins, supervised PhD students, ran undergraduate labs, did research, and published scientific papers. So, I know a bit about science and research.
Now, what I am writing here is not a scientific piece; if it were, it would be full of references and written in 'science style'. What I am writing here is an opinion piece. My opinion is underpinned by the literature (that I am not going to cite) and my years of working as a biochemist and university lecturer.
Why get a flu jab?
Many scientists who know more about this than me think it will be a bad winter for flu.
Now, why could it be a bad winter? Well, it is because we didn't have a real flu season last winter. How many people do you know that had flu in the previous winter? I know of no one. Not even my students mentioned flu.
And that is the first problem. Thanks to COVID-19, we had no flu season last winter because we were all isolating and taking extra hygiene precautions. The flu couldn't spread — no flu season. And the lack of a flu season means two things:
We have no natural immunity in the population to the most recent flu variants.
We may not have the best flu vaccine.
Before I get into why those two points may be valid, we need to consider how viruses do their thing. We need to consider mutations and evolution — and this is where my biochemistry comes in.
What is a virus? Is it alive or dead?
Viruses are remarkable.
When I studied viruses as an undergraduate, I was amazed by their beauty, complexity, simplicity, and how deadly they could be.
One of the favourite essay questions of my lecturers was "Viruses — dead or alive? Discuss." And this is a tricky question to answer. Viruses are more like a little chemistry lab or factory than a living cell. When the virus is outside a cell, it is dead as it has no activity, functionality and cannot reproduce. But, as soon as the virus gets inside the cell, it will hijack the cell's machinery to make thousands and thousands of copies of itself. These copies can then be released from the cell to infect other nearby cells. So, in a way, the virus is dead outside the cell but alive once it gets inside the cell. And it is this dead or alive lifecycle of the virus, particularly the rapid production of copies inside the cell, that makes viruses very susceptible to mutations and change (evolution).
Mutation and evolution
Mutations occur all the time in nature. If they didn't, we wouldn't have evolution and all the different forms of life we see on the planet today. Mutation can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing.
So, how do mutations occur, and what do they mean for the flu virus and, ultimately us? Well, mutations are a change of the "blueprint" of a cell or virus. A mutation is a change in the set of instructions inside a cell or virus that tells the cell or virus how it should be made. The "blueprint" can be written in DNA, as it is in humans or RNA, as it is in viruses like COVID-19 and the influenza viruses.
In the "blueprint", a mutation, or change, can occur in one of two ways — a spontaneous mutation caused by a chemical or radiation damaging part of the "blueprint". Or the mutation can be caused by incorrectly copying the "blueprint" when a cell or virus makes a copy of itself. And copying errors can be pretty common, especially in situations such as when a virus enters a cell and starts making 1000s of copies of itself. Think of how a page of text can change if you made 1000 copies of it by doing a copy of a copy on a photocopier. Words blur, and mistakes appear.
Either way, mutations occur. But, just to complicate things, not all mutations in the "blueprint" cause a change in the cell or the virus. Some mutations can be silent; the "blueprint" has changed, but nothing has changed in the cell or virus.
Now, some mutations can be good (and hence bad for humans) for the flu virus. A bad mutation for the flu virus may mean that the virus can no longer make copies of itself, or it can no longer infect humans. A good mutation for the virus could mean that our immune system no longer recognises the virus. Luckily, most changes are small, so our immune systems can partly recognise the newly mutated flu viruses between flu seasons. Yet, every so often, there is a significant change in the virus, and our immune systems can no longer recognise it. These significant changes are like a brand-new virus arriving on the scene. Such a change occurred after the First World War with the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. That year there was a significant change in the flu virus, and there was no natural immunity. That meant that when people became infected, the virus could rapidly replicate before their immune systems could ramp up and tackle the infection. Hence, people became seriously ill, and the virus quickly spread through the population.
Natural immunity
Each year the flu virus undergoes mutations, and luckily for us, if we had the flu the previous year, our immune systems can recognise the new version of the virus and fight it off. The infection is not so severe; we do not become so ill. But, last year, there was very little flu around, so not many people were exposed; hence, there are decreased natural immunity levels. And, without previous exposure, it means that people who get flu this year are more likely to become seriously ill, plus there is no natural "fire-break" of previously infected people to stop the spread. Hence, we need people to get vaccinated.
Think of it this way. We have missed a round of mutations, so the flu virus this year is doubly mutated. It is as though a significant shift in the virus has occurred, as we saw with the Spanish flu.
The flu vaccine
Now, you might be thinking — "A lot of people had the flu jab last year, so there will be immunity out there?" — well, like a lot of things, it is not quite that simple. Flu vaccines can be tricky.
To produce a new flu vaccine, the scientists make an educated "guess" as to the likely dominant flu strain for the coming winter. To do this, the scientists examine the current prevalent flu strain in the opposite hemisphere of the planet. And every so often, the scientists get it wrong, as happened a few years ago. The guess is always a little off.
Plus, there have been no real flu seasons for at least one winter, so it is unclear what flu strains may emerge and become dominant.
However, just because there is some highly informed guesswork involved doesn't mean you shouldn't get the flu jab. A flu jab that offers some protection is far better than no protection at all!
Summary
The summary is quite simple. Get a flu jab! Please. If you have not already done so, get it as soon as you can. I've already had mine!
Useful flu links
Some useful flu websites
Next week
Next week, more health and science — why you should get a COVID-19 jab.
Thanks
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If you would like to say 'thanks for the newsletter, why not buy me a cup of tea?
Until next time,
Nick
PS, If you have something you would like to contribute to the newsletter — a story, advice, anything — please get in touch.