Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059
Volume 19, Number 4—April 2013
Another Dimension
Myth Dispelled
Article Contents
Suggested citation for this article
The flu vaccine cannot
give you the flu, I tell him.
It’s dead virus, there’s
nothing alive about it.
It can’t make you sick.
That’s a myth.
But if we bury it in
the grassy knoll
of your shoulder,
an inch under the stratum
corneum, as sanctioned by
your signature
in a white-coated ceremony
presided over by
my medical assistant
and then mark the grave
with a temporary
non-stick headstone,
the trivalent spirit
of that vaccine
has a 70 to 90 percent
chance of warding off
the Evil One,
and that’s the God’s
honest truth.
Dr Possner is an assistant professor of general internal medicine at George Washington University in Washington, DC. His areas of interest include preventive medicine and medical student and resident education.
Acknowledgment
From JAMA, December 5, 2012. (©) American Medical Association, 2012. Reprinted with permission.
Suggested citation for this article: Possner A. Myth dispelled. Emerg Infect Dis [Internet]. 2013 Apr [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1904.AD-1904
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