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thefabulousfulcrum · 7 years

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Who Goes Nazi? Dorothy Thompson American Journalist.

From the August 1941 issue of Harpers Magazine.

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.

It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more susceptible to Nazism than most people, but I doubt it. Jews are barred out, but it is an arbitrary ruling. I know lots of Jews who are born Nazis and many others who would heil Hitler tomorrow morning if given a chance. There are Jews who have repudiated their own ancestors in order to become “Honorary Aryans and Nazis”; there are full-blooded Jews who have enthusiastically entered Hitler’s secret service. Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type of mind.

It is also, to an immense extent, the disease of a generation—the generation which was either young or unborn at the end of the last war. This is as true of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans as of Germans. It is the disease of the so-called “lost generation.”

Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at work—a type of education, feeding, and physical training which has produced a new kind of human being with an imbalance in his nature. He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.

At any rate, let us look round the room.

The gentleman standing beside the fireplace with an almost untouched glass of whiskey beside him on the mantelpiece is Mr. A, a descendant of one of the great American families. There has never been an American Blue Book without several persons of his surname in it. He is poor and earns his living as an editor. He has had a classical education, has a sound and cultivated taste in literature, painting, and music; has not a touch of snobbery in him; is full of humor, courtesy, and wit. He was a lieutenant in the World War, is a Republican in politics, but voted twice for Roosevelt, last time for Willkie. He is modest, not particularly brilliant, a staunch friend, and a man who greatly enjoys the company of pretty and witty women. His wife, whom he adored, is dead, and he will never remarry.

He has never attracted any attention because of outstanding bravery. But I will put my hand in the fire that nothing on earth could ever make him a Nazi. He would greatly dislike fighting them, but they could never convert him. . . . Why not?

Beside him stands Mr. B, a man of his own class, graduate of the same preparatory school and university, rich, a sportsman, owner of a famous racing stable, vice-president of a bank, married to a well-known society belle. He is a good fellow and extremely popular. But if America were going Nazi he would certainly join up, and early. Why? . . . Why the one and not the other?

Mr. A has a life that is established according to a certain form of personal behavior. Although he has no money, his unostentatious distinction and education have always assured him a position. He has never been engaged in sharp competition. He is a free man. I doubt whether ever in his life he has done anything he did not want to do or anything that was against his code. Nazism wouldn’t fit in with his standards and he has never become accustomed to making concessions.

Mr. B has risen beyond his real abilities by virtue of health, good looks, and being a good mixer. He married for money and he has done lots of other things for money. His code is not his own; it is that of his class—no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value—success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.

The saturnine man over there talking with a lovely French emigree is already a Nazi. Mr. C is a brilliant and embittered intellectual. He was a poor white-trash Southern boy, a scholarship student at two universities where he took all the scholastic honors but was never invited to join a fraternity. His brilliant gifts won for him successively government positions, partnership in a prominent law firm, and eventually a highly paid job as a Wall Street adviser. He has always moved among important people and always been socially on the periphery. His colleagues have admired his brains and exploited them, but they have seldom invited him—or his wife—to dinner.

He is a snob, loathing his own snobbery. He despises the men about him—he despises, for instance, Mr. B—because he knows that what he has had to achieve by relentless work men like B have won by knowing the right people. But his contempt is inextricably mingled with envy. Even more than he hates the class into which he has insecurely risen, does he hate the people from whom he came. He hates his mother and his father for being his parents. He loathes everything that reminds him of his origins and his humiliations. He is bitterly anti-Semitic because the social insecurity of the Jews reminds him of his own psychological insecurity.

Pity he has utterly erased from his nature, and joy he has never known. He has an ambition, bitter and burning. It is to rise to such an eminence that no one can ever again humiliate him. Not to rule but to be the secret ruler, pulling the strings of puppets created by his brains. Already some of them are talking his language—though they have never met him.

There he sits: he talks awkwardly rather than glibly; he is courteous. He commands a distant and cold respect. But he is a very dangerous man. Were he primitive and brutal he would be a criminal—a murderer. But he is subtle and cruel. He would rise high in a Nazi regime. It would need men just like him—intellectual and ruthless. But Mr. C is not a born Nazi. He is the product of a democracy hypocritically preaching social equality and practicing a carelessly brutal snobbery. He is a sensitive, gifted man who has been humiliated into nihilism. He would laugh to see heads roll.

I think young D over there is the only born Nazi in the room. Young D is the spoiled only son of a doting mother. He has never been crossed in his life. He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines. He has been ruthless toward two wives and his mother pays the alimony. His life is spent in sensation-seeking and theatricality. He is utterly inconsiderate of everybody. He is very good-looking, in a vacuous, cavalier way, and inordinately vain. He would certainly fancy himself in a uniform that gave him a chance to swagger and lord it over others.

Mrs. E would go Nazi as sure as you are born. That statement surprises you? Mrs. E seems so sweet, so clinging, so cowed. She is. She is a masochist. She is married to a man who never ceases to humiliate her, to lord it over her, to treat her with less consideration than he does his dogs. He is a prominent scientist, and Mrs. E, who married him very young, has persuaded herself that he is a genius, and that there is something of superior womanliness in her utter lack of pride, in her doglike devotion. She speaks disapprovingly of other “masculine” or insufficiently devoted wives. Her husband, however, is bored to death with her. He neglects her completely and she is looking for someone else before whom to pour her ecstatic self-abasement. She will titillate with pleased excitement to the first popular hero who proclaims the basic subordination of women.

On the other hand, Mrs. F would never go Nazi. She is the most popular woman in the room, handsome, gay, witty, and full of the warmest emotion. She was a popular actress ten years ago; married very happily; promptly had four children in a row; has a charming house, is not rich but has no money cares, has never cut herself off from her own happy-go-lucky profession, and is full of sound health and sound common sense. All men try to make love to her; she laughs at them all, and her husband is amused. She has stood on her own feet since she was a child, she has enormously helped her husband’s career (he is a lawyer), she would ornament any drawing-room in any capital, and she is as American as ice cream and cake.

How about the butler who is passing the drinks? I look at James with amused eyes. James is safe. James has been butler to the ‘ighest aristocracy, considers all Nazis parvenus and communists, and has a very good sense for “people of quality.” He serves the quiet editor with that friendly air of equality which good servants always show toward those they consider good enough to serve, and he serves the horsy gent stiffly and coldly.

Bill, the grandson of the chauffeur, is helping serve to-night. He is a product of a Bronx public school and high school, and works at night like this to help himself through City College, where he is studying engineering. He is a “proletarian,” though you’d never guess it if you saw him without that white coat. He plays a crack game of tennis—has been a tennis tutor in summer resorts—swims superbly, gets straight A’s in his classes, and thinks America is okay and don’t let anybody say it isn’t. He had a brief period of Youth Congress communism, but it was like the measles. He was not taken in the draft because his eyes are not good enough, but he wants to design airplanes, “like Sikorsky.” He thinks Lindbergh is “just another pilot with a build-up and a rich wife” and that he is “always talking down America, like how we couldn’t lick Hitler if we wanted to.” At this point Bill snorts.

Mr. G is a very intellectual young man who was an infant prodigy. He has been concerned with general ideas since the age of ten and has one of those minds that can scintillatingly rationalize everything. I have known him for ten years and in that time have heard him enthusiastically explain Marx, social credit, technocracy, Keynesian economics, Chestertonian distributism, and everything else one can imagine. Mr. G will never be a Nazi, because he will never be anything. His brain operates quite apart from the rest of his apparatus. He will certainly be able, however, fully to explain and apologize for Nazism if it ever comes along. But Mr. G is always a “deviationist.” When he played with communism he was a Trotskyist; when he talked of Keynes it was to suggest improvement; Chesterton’s economic ideas were all right but he was too bound to Catholic philosophy. So we may be sure that Mr. G would be a Nazi with purse-lipped qualifications. He would certainly be purged.

H is an historian and biographer. He is American of Dutch ancestry born and reared in the Middle West. He has been in love with America all his life. He can recite whole chapters of Thoreau and volumes of American poetry, from Emerson to Steve Benet. He knows Jefferson’s letters, Hamilton’s papers, Lincoln’s speeches. He is a collector of early American furniture, lives in New England, runs a farm for a hobby and doesn’t lose much money on it, and loathes parties like this one. He has a ribald and manly sense of humor, is unconventional and lost a college professorship because of a love affair. Afterward he married the lady and has lived happily ever afterward as the wages of sin.

H has never doubted his own authentic Americanism for one instant. This is his country, and he knows it from Acadia to Zenith. His ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War and in all the wars since. He is certainly an intellectual, but an intellectual smelling slightly of cow barns and damp tweeds. He is the most good-natured and genial man alive, but if anyone ever tries to make this country over into an imitation of Hitler’s, Mussolini’s, or Petain’s systems H will grab a gun and fight. Though H’s liberalism will not permit him to say it, it is his secret conviction that nobody whose ancestors have not been in this country since before the Civil War really understands America or would really fight for it against Nazism or any other foreign ism in a showdown.

But H is wrong. There is one other person in the room who would fight alongside H and he is not even an American citizen. He is a young German emigre, whom I brought along to the party. The people in the room look at him rather askance because he is so Germanic, so very blond-haired, so very blue-eyed, so tanned that somehow you expect him to be wearing shorts. He looks like the model of a Nazi. His English is flawed—he learned it only five years ago. He comes from an old East Prussian family; he was a member of the post-war Youth Movement and afterward of the Republican “Reichsbanner.” All his German friends went Nazi—without exception. He hiked to Switzerland penniless, there pursued his studies in New Testament Greek, sat under the great Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, came to America through the assistance of an American friend whom he had met in a university, got a job teaching the classics in a fashionable private school; quit, and is working now in an airplane factory—working on the night shift to make planes to send to Britain to defeat Germany. He has devoured volumes of American history, knows Whitman by heart, wonders why so few Americans have ever really read the Federalist papers, believes in the United States of Europe, the Union of the English-speaking world, and the coming democratic revolution all over the earth. He believes that America is the country of Creative Evolution once it shakes off its middle-class complacency, its bureaucratized industry, its tentacle-like and spreading government, and sets itself innerly free.

The people in the room think he is not an American, but he is more American than almost any of them. He has discovered America and his spirit is the spirit of the pioneers. He is furious with America because it does not realize its strength and beauty and power. He talks about the workmen in the factory where he is employed. . . . He took the job “in order to understand the real America.” He thinks the men are wonderful. “Why don’t you American in- tellectuals ever get to them; talk to them?”

I grin bitterly to myself, thinking that if we ever got into war with the Nazis he would probably be interned, while Mr. B and Mr. G and Mrs. E would be spreading defeatism at all such parties as this one. “Of course I don’t like Hitler but . . .”

Mr. J over there is a Jew. Mr. J is a very important man. He is immensely rich—he has made a fortune through a dozen directorates in various companies, through a fabulous marriage, through a speculative flair, and through a native gift for money and a native love of power. He is intelligent and arrogant. He seldom associates with Jews. He deplores any mention of the “Jewish question.” He believes that Hitler “should not be judged from the standpoint of anti-Semitism.” He thinks that “the Jews should be reserved on all political questions.” He considers Roosevelt “an enemy of business.” He thinks “It was a serious blow to the Jews that Frankfurter should have been appointed to the Supreme Court.”

The saturnine Mr. C—the real Nazi in the room—engages him in a flatteringly attentive conversation. Mr. J agrees with Mr. C wholly. Mr. J is definitely attracted by Mr. C. He goes out of his way to ask his name—they have never met before. “A very intelligent man.”

Mr. K contemplates the scene with a sad humor in his expressive eyes. Mr. K is also a Jew. Mr. K is a Jew from the South. He speaks with a Southern drawl. He tells inimitable stories. Ten years ago he owned a very successful business that he had built up from scratch. He sold it for a handsome price, settled his indigent relatives in business, and now enjoys an income for himself of about fifty dollars a week. At forty he began to write articles about odd and out-of-the-way places in American life. A bachelor, and a sad man who makes everybody laugh, he travels continually, knows America from a thousand different facets, and loves it in a quiet, deep, unostentatious way. He is a great friend of H, the biographer. Like H, his ancestors have been in this country since long before the Civil War. He is attracted to the young German. By and by they are together in the drawing-room. The impeccable gentleman of New England, the country-man—intellectual of the Middle West, the happy woman whom the gods love, the young German, the quiet, poised Jew from the South. And over on the other side are the others.

Mr. L has just come in. Mr. L is a lion these days. My hostess was all of a dither when she told me on the telephone, “ . . . and L is coming. You know it’s dreadfully hard to get him.” L is a very powerful labor leader. “My dear, he is a man of the people, but really fascinating.“ L is a man of the people and just exactly as fascinating as my horsy, bank vice-president, on-the-make acquaintance over there, and for the same reasons and in the same way. L makes speeches about the “third of the nation,” and L has made a darned good thing for himself out of championing the oppressed. He has the best car of anyone in this room; salary means nothing to him because he lives on an expense account. He agrees with the very largest and most powerful industrialists in the country that it is the business of the strong to boss the weak, and he has made collective bargaining into a legal compulsion to appoint him or his henchmen as “labor’s” agents, with the power to tax pay envelopes and do what they please with the money. L is the strongest natural-born Nazi in this room. Mr. B regards him with contempt tempered by hatred. Mr. B will use him. L is already parroting B’s speeches. He has the brains of Neanderthal man, but he has an infallible instinct for power. In private conversation he denounces the Jews as “parasites.” No one has ever asked him what are the creative functions of a highly paid agent, who takes a percentage off the labor of millions of men, and distributes it where and as it may add to his own political power.

It’s fun—a macabre sort of fun—this parlor game of “Who Goes Nazi?” And it simplifies things—asking the question in regard to specific personalities.

Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.

Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them.

Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t-whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.

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insurancepolicypro · 5 years

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Should-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Glad Friday! I come bearing unhealthy information for anybody having fun with the slight lower in D.C. visitors: Congress is again in full drive subsequent week. Though now we have not had even a slight lower in well being information, I’m positive lawmakers will kick it up even additional with gun management, shock medical payments and, perennially, excessive drug prices on the anticipated docket.

For now, right here’s what’s been happening throughout their ultimate week of recess.

President Donald Trump has been coy about what precisely he’s put in his gun violence proposal, however one factor that appears possible: Each events will probably be sad. (That, a minimum of, appears a positive guess in these divided occasions.) What you’ll be able to in all probability count on to see: an expedited demise penalty course of, adjustments to how troubled teenagers’ sealed data are shielded, and laws — like “crimson flag” legal guidelines — centered on psychological well being.

Politico: Trump Prepares to Pitch Gun Proposals Few Actually Need

Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell is sitting fairly on the sidelines in the mean time, ready to see what the president comes up with.

The Related Press: McConnell Says He’s Ready on Trump to Chart Path on Weapons

Companies, although, are taking issues into their very own palms. Walgreens and CVS adopted in Walmart’s footsteps this week in asking prospects to not carry firearms brazenly of their shops. Walmart — which regularly tries to remain above the political fray — went additional in asserting that it will cease promoting ammunition for military-style assault rifles.

The New York Occasions: Walmart to Restrict Ammunition Gross sales and Discourage ‘Open Carry’ of Weapons in Shops

Reuters: Walgreens, CVS, Wegmans Ask Buyers to Not Overtly Carry Firearms

And in a little bit of poor optics luck for Texas, a sequence of legal guidelines loosening gun laws occurred to take impact only a day after the state’s newest mass taking pictures.

Politico: Hours After Taking pictures Rampage, Texas Gun Legal guidelines Loosened

Additionally, if you wish to terrify the bejesus out of your self, dig into this piece about on-line boards with a poisonous tradition of hate which have turn out to be breeding grounds for mass shooters and the place the inherent anonymity of the web protects them from legislation enforcement.

The Wall Road Journal: ‘So What’s His Kill Rely?’: The Poisonous On-line World The place Mass Shooters Thrive

In New York, well being officers are eyeing vitamin E oil as a attainable offender within the mysterious vaping-related lung sickness sweeping the nation. The feds, nonetheless, aren’t placing their eggs in that specific basket and stated that folks ought to maintain an “open thoughts” concerning the roots of the outbreak. “Folks want to appreciate that it is vitally possible that there are a number of causes,” stated CDC Director Robert Redfield. However with a second demise confirmed, officers are scrambling for solutions.

Politico: Vitamin E Named as Main Wrongdoer in Vaping Sickness, However Feds Urge Warning

An HHS inside watchdog report detailed the extent of psychological injury suffered by kids affected by the “zero tolerance” separation coverage. For youngsters so younger, it was arduous for them to explain their emotional trauma. They had been usually lowered to complaints about their chest hurting, like “each heartbeat hurts” or “I can’t really feel my coronary heart.”

The Related Press: ‘Can’t Really feel My Coronary heart:’ IG Says Separated Youngsters Traumatized

Crushing medical debt appears to be shaping the way forward for the nation, and 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) needs to alter that. With a proposal that he solely hinted at (i.e. didn’t give any stable particulars about tips on how to pay for it), he stated he would cancel $81 billion value of medical debt for Individuals.

The Washington Publish: Sen. Bernie Sanders Teases Plan to Cancel $81 Billion in Individuals’ Medical Debt

In the meantime, regardless of the eye Sanders and the opposite progressive front-runners are giving proposals like “Medicare for All,” state lawmakers see defending the well being legislation because the ace up their sleeves in powerful elections. Virginia will probably be a serious testing floor for that technique as Democrats just lately secured an enormous win on increasing Medicaid within the state. They may, nonetheless, be susceptible to Republican messaging on excessive well being care prices as a result of the governor vetoed extensions for short-term plans.

Politico: Democrats Guess Large on Obamacare to Win Virginia Statehouse

Thus far, the implementation of Medicaid work necessities has been extra crash and burn than the sleek transition many Republicans had possible hoped for. However Indiana appears on the trail to changing into a mannequin for different states as they add extra restrictions to this system. I can clarify it no higher than Paige Winfield Cunningham at The Washington Publish, who wrote: “If Arkansas and Kentucky had been heavy-handed in imposing their work necessities, Indiana’s program is extra like a faucet on the shoulder, advocates argue.”

The Washington Publish: Indiana Seeks to Impose Slower, Kinder Work Necessities on Medicaid Recipients

In the meantime, over in Missouri, enlargement advocates are hoping to observe the success of different states by getting the difficulty in entrance of voters somewhat than lawmakers.

The Hill: Advocates Launch Petition to Place Medicaid Enlargement on 2020 Poll in Missouri

The “Assured to Make Everybody’s Blood Boil” award of the week goes to the article about how the Sacklers (the household that based Purdue Pharma) might emerge from the opioid trials with their private fortune intact.

The Washington Publish: Sacklers Might Maintain On to Most of Private Fortune in Proposed Purdue Settlement

A cluster of HIV circumstances in West Virginia might be the canary within the coal mine that public well being officers monitoring the opioid epidemic have been on the look ahead to. “That is the nightmare everyone seems to be fearful about,” stated one professional concerning the outbreak that seems to be among the many largest since one in Indiana’s Scott County 4 years in the past.

Politico: ‘The Nightmare Everybody Is Anxious About’: HIV Circumstances Tied to Opioids Spike in West Virginia County

Within the miscellaneous file for the week:

• Reeling from persistent political assaults, Deliberate Parenthood has introduced it’s going to make the most of telemedicine and a brand new app to achieve younger and rural sufferers who might have been affected by makes an attempt to chip away on the group.

The Wall Road Journal: Deliberate Parenthood to Broaden App-Primarily based Well being Companies to All 50 States

• We as a rustic are hooked on quick deliveries from Amazon, however there’s a human toll that flies beneath the radar that goes past staff’ pay. This ProPublica-New York Occasions story begins with the tragedy of a 9-month-old who died in an accident involving an Amazon supply car and doesn’t get any much less heartbreaking because it goes on.

ProPublica/The New York Occasions: How Amazon Hooked America on Quick Supply Whereas Avoiding Accountability for Crashes

• Be sure you try this implausible sequence about how America’s sick, poor and susceptible would be the ones most affected by the rising local weather disaster as a result of they reside in city warmth islands.

Howard Heart for Investigative Journalism: Code Purple: Baltimore’s Local weather Divide

• On a a lot lighter be aware, scientists might have found a gene for left-handedness, which I simply discover fascinating and should make roughly 10% of my readers pleased to know (principally as a result of it’s linked to having higher verbal expertise).

CNN: Scientists Determine the Genes Linked to Left-Handedness

• After tens of millions of , hundreds of hours of manpower, tons of public outrage and a numerous variety of headlines from yours actually, the NYC measles outbreak has been declared formally over. The outbreaks in upstate New York nonetheless threaten the US’ standing as having eradicated the illness however, for now, public well being officers are taking victories the place they’ll get them.

The Washington Publish: New York Metropolis Declares Finish to Largest Measles Outbreak in Almost 30 Years

That’s it for me! Have an excellent weekend!

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ouraidengray4 · 7 years

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Why Are People So Scared of Flu Shots (and Do They Have a Point?)

Not quite as celebrated as the holiday season, flu season is real, and it’s back for its annual visit. Thankfully, these days, we have a flu vaccine to save us all from suffering through influenza. But every year, people are hesitant to get the inoculation. In 2016, only 48.6 percent of the population got a flu shot, which means that more than half of all Americans went unprotected against this common, incredibly unpleasant virus.

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Flu shots have improved year after year, and now they’re safe for almost everybody. In years past, the inoculation was grown in chicken eggs, so people with severe egg allergies could potentially have reactions. Now they’ve made a flu shot that doesn’t use eggs at all, so you can get it despite having pretty much any allergy. Even pregnant women can get a flu shot; in fact, getting the flu while pregnant is dangerous, so the vaccine stops the likelihood of the illness and protects the baby. A pregnant mom actually passes the flu immunity to her child, too, which lessens the chance that parents have to experience the nightmare of a one-month-old catching influenza.

Even though the shot is better now, it’s easy for most of us to brush off the risk of contracting the flu. For a healthy adult, it can seem like a harmless disease that just makes life suck for a couple of days, but it’s actually a serious business. It’s hard to say how many people die from the flu each year, since the cause of death is often from things brought on by the flu, but the CDC estimates it kills anywhere from 3,300-49,000 people every year.

Yeah, the flu is more harmful for children, the elderly, or people with compromised immune systems. Still, that doesn’t mean healthy people should avoid the shot. When healthy people get the vaccine, it helps increase herd immunity; some people are too sick (or too young) to get the flu shot, but if everyone around them gets the shot and doesn’t get the flu, then those unvaccinated people will stay healthy. Basically, you’re not just getting the shot for yourself, you’re getting the shot to protect everybody else.

So, if the shot is safe, why do we all resist getting it every year?

I’m a total supporter of vaccines, yet every year when it’s time to get the shot, I act like you’ve asked me to help you move. During a snowstorm. On a holiday weekend. Basically, I’m annoyed and reluctant, the shot’s a hassle, and it never seems that necessary.

My skepticism might come from the flu shot’s not-so-perfect track record. I’m not talking about Guillain-Barre or narcolepsy incidents. I’m referring back to that one basic problem with the flu shot: It doesn’t always work.

It’s true that the flu shot isn’t nearly as effective as we want it to be.

Even the best flu shot only protects 60 percent of vaccinated people, but when it’s really off, the efficacy sits around 10 percent. So it’s totally possible that you’ll haul yourself into the doctor’s office or pharmacy, pay up to $40, get a needle jabbed in your arm, and still get the flu!

How many times have you seen somebody get the measles shot, then complain about getting laid up with a bad case of measles three months later? Probably zero. Sure, that shot’s primarily given to babies, so it’s not like we’d hear them complain about it directly, but still. When you get two doses of a the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, the efficacy rate sits at 97 percent. That’s a lot more impressive than the flu shot’s lame-o 60 percent rate.

The Journal of the American Medical Association performed a study in 2000 about the efficacy and cost benefits of the flu shot. They found that the shot is incredibly effective for people over 65. But for everybody else? The study concluded that a well-matched flu shot reduced lost work days and visits to the doctor, but in most years, the vaccine hasn’t been well matched, which means the vaccine didn’t often provide any economic advantage for working adults. Basically, it’s clear the flu shot is good for the elderly, but for healthy, young people, it’s kind of a draw.

As recently as 2016, a version of the flu shot was retracted. In the past few years, you could get the regular shot or use a nasal spray. The spray was especially good for kids, since children and needles aren’t usually a happy combo. But for 2016-2017, the CDC removed the nasal spray entirely. Why? Turns out from 2013-2016, it hardly worked at all.

Let’s bust some flu vaccine myths.

1. The flu shot makes you sick.

Another thing that keeps people from getting vaccinated every year are prevailing myths around the shot. The biggest one: that the flu shot makes you sick. We’ve all heard this, and it’s probably kept some of us from heading to the doctor to get our annual vaccine.

Guess what? It’s not true. Lots of people think the vaccine is made from live flu viruses. Nope! The shot is made from inactivated (read: dead) forms of the virus, or made with no virus at all, according to the CDC. In a blind study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the only side effects from the vaccine were soreness or swelling in the spot where you got the shot. This happens when your immune system responds to the vaccine, and it’s a good thing. The soreness is usually mild and goes away after a few days. So you might get a sore arm, but you definitely won’t get the flu from a flu vaccine.

"But I got the flu right after I got the flu shot!" some might say. In that case, that person already had the flu. It’s not uncommon to carry the virus without symptoms at the time you’re vaccinated. Then, when the fever and achiness pop up, it’s easy to blame it on the shot. But it’s just crappy timing.

2. The flu shot weakens your immunity.

In this line of thinking, it’s better to just get the flu and deal with it. Again, not true. Since flu strains change every year, suffering through the flu only protects you against future attacks of that one strain. Plus, your body’s immunity weakens over time, so when the new strain comes along next season, you’ll be just as susceptible as everyone else. And the flu shot doesn’t weaken your immunity. It makes you immune to a strain of the flu. Just because your immune system didn’t fight off the virus itself doesn’t mean the immunity is any less effective.

3. The flu is no problem because you can just pop some antibiotics.

No can do, friend! Influenza is a virus; antibiotics only kill bacterial infections. You can take Z-packs all day and all night—it won’t do jack to make your flu go away. Sometimes the virus weakens your system, and you end up with the flu and a bacterial infection. In that case, antibiotics would be prescribed, but they still won’t kill your flu. That’s what makes influenza so miserable—there’s nothing you can do. You just have to sip on Theraflu and wait it out.

So, yeah, even though the flu shot is far from perfect, you should still get one. I know, it’s a pain. I avoided them for years, mostly due to laziness and ignorance. But this year, I got the shot early and I’m glad. If you can avoid a week of fevers, aches, and a nose full of fluid—why not? Sure, there’s a chance you’ll still get the flu, but there’s also a chance you’ll avoid an illness that could cost you lots of sick days.

And by getting the shot, you’re helping your whole community.

But the most important reason to get vaccinated is for the people who can’t get the shot. Herd immunity is important. For people with compromised immune systems, the flu can be deadly. So when you get the shot, you’re helping someone else stay healthy. If you’re not sure where to find the vaccine, ask your doctor. If you’re insured, the shot should be free. If you’re not insured, you still have options. Where I live, in Los Angeles, local libraries are giving out flu shots for free. In other locations, check out local health centers or college campuses. They’ll often have drives for free or low-priced shots. If all else fails, you can get low-cost vaccines at pharmacies around the country.

I know the flu shot sucks. With its problematic past and inconsistent present, I totally get that you’re not skipping down to the doctor to happily await your vaccine. But at the end of the day, it still stops thousands of people from getting sick with no real risk of side effects. So you’ve got to roll up your sleeves and take the shot. You’ll likely have a year free of the flu, and will definitely help keep others healthy. That’s worth a sore arm once a year.

Amber Petty is a freelance writer in Los Angeles. If you like easy crafts and Simpsons gifs, check out her blog Half-Assed Crafts. from Greatist RSS http://ift.tt/2zEYKwB Why Are People So Scared of Flu Shots (and Do They Have a Point?) Greatist RSS from HEALTH BUZZ http://ift.tt/2Am1f2X

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