Still debating whether to get vaccinated? The data you must know

An article by Maariv Online debunks five common myths about the flu and its vaccine, presenting medical data. Dr. Shelly Lipman from Hillel Yaffe Medical Center explains that the flu can cause severe complications even in healthy young people, and that the vaccine, even if not 100% effective in preventing infection, shortens the duration of the illness and reduces complications and hospitalizations.

An article by Maariv Online, under the headline "Still debating whether to get vaccinated? The data you must know," presents a factual medical foundation to debunk five common myths about the flu and its vaccine. Dr. Shelly Lipman from Hillel Yaffe Medical Center is the main medical source in the article. The first myth relates to defining the flu as a "bad cold" – the article defines it as a violent, deadly, and contagious systemic disease. The second myth claims that complications only occur in the elderly or ill – the article notes that severe complications, including acute myocarditis, also occur in healthy young people. The third myth concerns home isolation – the article explains that infection begins days before symptoms appear. The fourth myth addresses the vaccine's mismatch to the strain – the article notes that even in years of a "miss," the vaccine shortens the illness and reduces hospitalizations. The fifth myth concerns vaccine safety – the article clarifies that the inactivated vaccine cannot cause the flu, and that the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome from the vaccine is negligible compared to the risk from the disease itself. The article relies on medical data and large-scale studies, using professional medical terminology.