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Flu Season Is Here -- And So Are The Myths About Vaccines

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA)  —    Flu season is here and so are the myths about vaccines.

You know the questions: for starters, the big one. Will I get the flu if I get the shot?

CBS2's Craig Herrera was able to separate fact from fiction.

He spoke to some people contemplating getting the shot.

"I've heard some people say that getting the shot can make you sick, but personally I've never experienced that," said Will Davelos.

"When I got the flu shot," says Roylene Walker, "about three or four days later I got very sick with the flu."

He spoke to an ER doctor who says false -- you don't get the flu from getting the shot.

"That is not true. The flu vaccine is a dead vaccine and it can't give you the flu. You may end up with another virus and think it's the flu but you won't," says Dr. Michael Agron with the Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital.

Dr Agron broke down other myths people have about flu shots.

  1. "There is no mercury in the flu shots so you don't have to worry about that."

2 Antibiotics  do not kill the flu. "Antibiotics kill bacterial infections not viral infections and the flu is a viral infection."

3. Can expectant mothers get the flu. "Yes," says Dr. Agron.

"It also will help protect the fetus because the immunity will be in her blood and go to the babies blood."

Dr. Agron says everyone 6-months-old  and older should get the vaccination. Especially seniors.

"Those are the people I see coming into the emergency room because they've ended up with a high fever from the flu. And they've been coughing and bringing up sputum they ended up with pneumonia."

Dr. Agron says if you're thinking of getting the flu shot, get it soon.

"It takes two weeks from when your flu shot is given to you until your full immunity is there," he says.

Flu season usually runs from October to February, sometimes into March.

Dr. Agron says this is expected to be a regular flu season. That means about 20 percent of the population willf get the flu.

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