Although we have been enjoying abnormally warm temperatures of late, it is still November and, consequently, time to start thinking about influenza and the flu season. With that in mind, if you were to talk to my grandma these days, it wouldn’t be long before she asked you if you had your flu shot.

My grandparents are in their early 80s, so Grandma consistently opts for the shot. Of course, flu shots are also recommended for anyone over the age of 65, among others. Yet every winter, at least one of them — if not both — will come down with the illness. Still, they persist in getting the annual shot.

This is just one of the many reasons I have refused to get one: There’s a good chance I will still get sick anyway. This is a typical response, I am assured by Dr. Pauline Miller of the Thielen Student Health Center.

“If that’s what you’re expecting, then why get it?” she asks. “The vaccine is designed to protect against the associated body aches, chills, and fevers of 103 and 104 degrees of influenza. It protects against the severe illness and its complications, not colds and other respiratory infections.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that the most important step to protect against the flu is to get a flu shot, but is it really? Statistically, it sounds like a good idea.

The CDC reports that in the U.S. alone, at least 200,000 people will be hospitalized from flu complications, while 36,000 people will die from it. Yikes! That being said, there are only three flu strains that the vaccine is designed to protect you from, out of hundreds existing.

Twice a year the World Health Organization Global Influenza Program meets to discuss and research which types of influenza to include in the vaccine. It studies trends from previous years and speculates on what the future holds.

Should they guess wrong, or if we live in an area outside the norm, then those flu “averages” may not apply. That’s exactly what happened last year. Last year only two of the three strains were found in the general populace. An additional flu virus was also circulating and was not actually included.

The vaccine changes from year to year because influenza is constantly mutating as it has over time. On Oct. 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the National Institutes of Health, published a new report about the deadly Spanish flu of 1918-1919.

Based upon new evidence, it states that in 1918 those who contracted an early spring outbreak of influenza were more immune to the later and more deadly strain.

The authors state that “if a mild first wave is documented, the benefits of cross-protection during future waves should be considered before implementing public health interventions designed to limit exposure.”

Now, I’m with them. If some kind of flu pandemic does come down the road one day, then maybe getting the flu before then isn’t as bad as it sounds. Perhaps it’s better for me in the long run to build up immunity to the strains I come across.

Speaking with Dr. Miller, I realize that may not be the right way to look at things.

“Some influenza viruses are more severe than others. As students you are at risk because of the close living quarters you have, which is how the vaccine applies to you.”

I cannot say that I am completely sold on the idea of getting a flu shot. However, instead of being adamantly against it, I feel like I am sitting on the fence. There is also a new “live intranasal influenza vaccine,” which is supposed to last even longer than the traditional “inactivated influenza vaccine.”

If you are considering the flu shot or are deciding if you should consider the vaccination, talk to the folks at the health center. Right now there is still plenty of the vaccine, but that may not be the story as flu season gets underway.

Dr. Miller has seen flu season spike around Thanksgiving and said in other years it hasn’t happened until after Christmas break, in January and February. Whatever you decide, the choice is yours.

— Erin Mastre is a graduate student in landscape architecture from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.