Flu season: Common myths debunked

Can you catch the flu from exposure to cold temperatures? Is the flu the same as a cold? EuroVerify takes a look.

Transcript

00:00Common flu myths debunked.

00:07Flu season is officially here,

00:09and along with it a plethora of common misconceptions about the virus.

00:13From the efficacy of vaccines to the medication you can take,

00:16a number of myths persist,

00:18both through word of mouth and online.

00:20EuroVerify presented some of the most common

00:23to experts to see what they had to say.

00:25The answer to that one is a pretty easy no.

00:31That's exactly the opposite of what the flu vaccine is designed to do.

00:36It's designed to induce immunity in your body

00:40that will help protect you should you be exposed to the flu.

00:44So getting the flu shot won't increase your chances of getting flu,

00:48and all hopes are that it will actually do the opposite.

00:56We tend to all put it together when it's a lot of different respiratory viruses,

01:01airborne viruses that are circulating during the winter period.

01:05Take flu, for instance.

01:08People can get very mild illness from the flu,

01:12and it can also become very severe.

01:18There has been some scientific evidence indicating that

01:21your first immune response,

01:23so your immune body that needs to fight off the virus,

01:27at the level of your throat and where your mucosa are,

01:31that that can be negatively impacted by the cold.

01:35But I wouldn't put it in a black and white sense in terms of

01:39the cold temperature is going to cause this,

01:41because we know that a lot of other things occur during the winter period,

01:45such as people being outside less often, people are gathering indoors.

01:49To hear the truth behind other flu myths, check out our website, euronews.com.