This year, there’s more controversy than ever surrounding the flu shot.

I, for one, am thrilled. My mom works in a government office, and all through my early adult years, she’d make my little brothers and I get the shot “so we wouldn’t get sick.” (Ha!) I disagreed, but lived under her roof and had no choice. “But mommy, when I take the shot, I GET THE FLU.” She told me I was ridiculous.

Imagine my inner glee, then, today when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal today entitled “Flu Shots Don’t Give You the Flu…Right?” Behold an excerpt:

Three hours after I got the flu shot, I started to feel sick. Headache, mild sore throat, rasping. I mentioned this to a friend and she snapped, “You can’t get the flu from a flu shot. They use dead flu virus in the serum they inject you with. It’s just a coincidence.” The next day I felt worse, and the next day, and the next. Each time I mentioned the flu shot to friends, they got really defensive and said that I must have already been incubating a nasty cold, because the flu shot could not make me sick. They referred me to assorted websites where I could get more information. They made me feel like a moron for even suggesting that there might be a connection between the flu shot and my deteriorating physical condition.

“Yes, just a coincidence.”

Five days later, fully prone at death’s doorstep, I went to the doctor. He told me that I had a throat infection and an eye infection, and that my ears didn’t look so good, either. He wrote me prescriptions for cough syrup, antibiotics and eye drops. When I mentioned how weird it was that I got sick—like, really sick—right after the flu shot, he laughed as if I were a four-year-old.

“You can’t get sick from the flu shot,” he chided me. “The cells in the flu serum are dead.”

“So it was just a coincidence?”

I am in FULL AGREEMENT. It has happened to me several times — I get the flu shot, I get the flu! It’s crazy!

As an aside, my good friend Allie just emailed that she, too, agrees with my thoughts. Her mom is a nurse, and encourages her to take it, but the only time she has agreed, she’s gotten the flu as well!

Side effects are more popular than we may think. Check this out from an article on NBC’s WLBT:

1.4 million Americans have already received this year’s but about one fifth of them will have side effects. Dr. Andy Miller, an infectious disease specialist in New York, says 14-20% of the population experience more than just a sore arm.

However, as spa professionals,  you will come in close contact with the public quite often. How do you handle this situation? If you get sick, you will possibly miss training or work — or pass it onto clients. But if the shot can get you sick, then what’s the point?

Would love your thoughts!