Flu Shot Informative Speech

Name: Kianna Quam

Speech Title: Flu Shots: What You Need To Know

Specific Purpose: I want my audience to understand how flu shots work, and be able to make an educated decision on whether or not they need one.

Thesis Statement/Central Idea: Flu shots are an important part of keeping ourselves, along with the people around us, healthy.

Introduction

Attention-Getting Device: Did you get your flu shot last year?

Credibility: I 've gotten a flu shot every single year since I can remember. As a student aspiring to one day have a job in a medical field, I think that it 's important to be educated on basic things that we take for granted.

Reveal Topic/Central Idea: Whether you like flu shots or not, the flu is a disease that in extreme

Preview of main points: In just a few short minutes, you will know how flu shots work, along with how they affect children, and the elderly.

[Transition: First, let 's talk about what a flu shot even is]

Body

I. How Flu Shots Work

A. What is a flu shot?

1. Simply Put, the flu shot is an injection (shot) or nasal spray that contains a harmless amount of the virus, so that your body can build up antibodies against that strain of the flu.

2. Flu shots are important because they help protect you against Influenza, which is more commonly referred to as the flu.

[Transition: With help from Mayo Clinic website, I learned that...]

B. There Are Two Ways to Get The Vaccine

1. Shot (Injection)

a. Contains an inactivated vaccine made up of killed flu virus.

b. Available to people 6 months old and older.

2. Nasal

a. Because of these mutations, a new vaccine is created every year by doctors, predicting what that flu season 's virus will be like.

b. Because it is only a prediction, occasionally the virus created in the lab doesn’t match up with the circulating virus.

1. With the virus that doesn’t match, a person is still more protected than a person without the vaccine, as stated in a CNN report in December of 2014 on the effectiveness of mutated viruses.

2. Secondly, a yearly vaccine is important because our immune response to the virus weakens over time

[Transition: Everyone is at risk for the flu, especially children]

II. How the flu affects children

A. Children are at a higher risk for catching the flu.

1. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, Each year an average of 20,000 children under the age of 5 are hospitalized because of influenza complications.

2.Children should be vaccinated in the month of October if possible.

a. It takes two weeks for antibodies to build up.

b. Flu season usually peaks in January.

B. Among children, there are some that are at higher risk than others. This includes:

a. Children Younger than 6 months old

1. These Children are too young to be vaccinated, so to keep them healthy make sure everyone around them is