That's Not True!: Debunking Top Flu Myths
Ten popular influenza and flu vaccine myths.
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Don’t Believe the Hype! - With flu season starting, it’s really important to be able to separate fact from fiction. Read about 10 popular influenza and flu vaccine myths and why you shouldn’t believe the lies. — Kellee Terrell(Photo: Charles Krupa/AP Photo)
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The Flu Is Just a Severe Cold - The flu is NOT a severe cold — it is a serious respiratory disease that makes you feel absolutely terrible, brings on aches and pains, can develop into other illnesses such as bronchitis and can keep you out of commission for days and even weeks. But unlike the cold, the flu can kill. It kills more each year than complication of AIDS, says WebMD. (Photo: BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images)
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The Flu Vaccine Gives You the Flu - Despite potential cold-like symptoms afterwards, the flu vaccine does not make you sick. The injectable flu vaccine has a dead version of the virus, which is impossible to give you the flu. And even though the nasal flu vaccine has a live form of the virus, researchers have taken out the parts of the virus that make you sick. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Photo By Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images/ Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Antibiotics Can Fight the Flu - So many of us want our docs to prescribe this type of medicine hoping it will help, but antibiotics don’t help with the flu because the flu is not an infection and is not caused by bacteria. However, having the flu lowers your immune system, which can make you more susceptible to illnesses such as sinusitis, bacterial bronchitis and pneumonia. All of these may require antibiotics for treatment. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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Pregnant Women Shouldn’t Get Flu Vaccines; Causes Miscarriages - Actually a study found that flu vaccines protected pregnant women from miscarriages and stillborn deaths. Health experts recommend that pregnant women get the immunization because the flu causes “changes in immune system, heart and lungs during pregnancy make pregnant women more prone to severe illness from flu,” says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.(Photo: digitalskillet/GettyImages)
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