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The flu vaccination is particularly recommended for people who are exposed to an increased risk of complications in case of an infection with the flu. These include old and sick people, children and immunocompromised persons. Influenza usually lasts for a long period of time and can have serious consequences such as pneumonia.
Therefore, the side effects that occur during flu vaccination are harmless compared to what can happen during an infection. Medical personnel, i.e. people who come into contact with many sick people, should also be vaccinated. Otherwise they can quickly become distributors of the flu viruses. Anyone who, as a healthy citizen, also wants to avoid the inconvenience of a flu infection should also be vaccinated.
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As counter-arguments for an influenza vaccination, the side effects of the vaccination are usually mentioned first. These can consist of a local inflammatory reaction with swelling, redness, overheating and pain at the injection site. In addition, a feeling of illness with flaccidity and fever can occur for a few days.Many healthy people also consider the probability of falling ill with the flu without vaccination to be comparatively low and therefore want to save themselves the trouble of going to the doctor.
There is a clear contraindication for the flu vaccination in case of an allergy to certain ingredients of the vaccination. The dangers of a flu vaccination are usually very low. As a rule, there is a maximum of slight side effects, which are caused by the body’s immune defence against the vaccine.
These include, for example, a slight feeling of illness with fatigue, exhaustion and fever. This can last for two to three days. However, in any case, these symptoms are not the flu itself.
In most cases, one is immune to the flu vaccination. Local inflammatory reactions can also develop at the injection site itself. These become noticeable by a red spot on the injection site as well as pain, swelling and overheating.
The pain can even affect the entire muscle into which the vaccine is injected for two to three days. Severe undesirable side effects are rare. These are usually due to an allergy to chicken egg protein or another ingredient of the flu vaccine unknown to the vaccinated person. Such an allergic reaction may be very similar to the local inflammatory reaction and may cause discomfort only at the injection site. In the worst case, an allergic shock with life-threatening circulatory shock and shortness of breath may occur.
