Flu Shots are for Idiots

I heard a doc talking head on the TV yesterday saying that, good news, there will be enough flu vaccine for all this year. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) here in my home town of Atlanta, GA, seem to think that everyone under the age of 6 and over the age of 50, in addition to other groups of people with specific medical conditions, should get the vaccine. In fact, government agencies world-wide seem to be hyper-eager to get everyone to get those flu shots.

But, personally, before I do anything like submit myself to having a needle jammed in my arm that I have to pay for, I always ask myself, is there any evidence that this is going to actually help ME? In the case of the flu shot the answer is... probably not. Sure it will help the manufacturer of the flu shot make their sales projections.

And why the CDC has gotten itself into the sorry ass position of recommending vaccines for people in whom the evidence does not exist to support a real benefit is beyond me. In fact the data that flu vaccines save lives in these age groups is just not that great (translation: doesn't exist). The problem is that there are many strains of flu and the vaccine targets only one, and you need the shots every year cuz the viruses keep changing. I have reviewed the literature and the ONLY group for which there is ANY evidence that flu shots might save lives is with people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is caused by smoking. So if you want to avoid dying from the flu, stop smoking.

The experts in the literature are actually saying not to use flu vaccines, although no one seems to listen to them. Quoting epidemiologist Tom Jefferson below: from an article in BMJ "The optimistic and confident tone of some predictions of viral circulation and of the impact of inactivated vaccines, which are at odds with the evidence, is striking. The reasons are probably complex and may involve a 'messy blend of truth conflicts and conflicts of interest making it difficult to separate factual disputes from value disputes' or a manifestation of optimism bias (an unwarranted belief in the efficacy of interventions)."

Translation: Politicians that fell asleep in science class in high school are getting a lot of money from vaccine manufacturers. Through a combination of greasing the wheels and the fact that they are too stupid to know better, they actually think that they are helping us out by using government resources to try and 'educate' us that we need to get a flu shot that actually will do nothing for us.

Comments

[katnyp]

I would suggest that the reason you don't get a flu shot is because you've never had real influenza. Believe me, it is downright scary...been there. It's easy to understand how people can die from it. Once you've had the real thing, you won't miss getting a shot.

[bethinCary]

I've never gotten a flu-shot and I was in the Healthcare industry for over 15 yrs.
If you keep your immune system strong-you don't have to worry.
Have not had any flu for years.
Flu-shots overhyped.
For older folks it can be helpful-for the majority-nope.

[justannesopinion]

Ummmm....when I get a flu shot, it's not so much because I'm worried about my middle aged self dying from the flu, although that could happen. It's because I don't want to suffer through a week of high fever, aches, and fatigue, lacking the strength or will to change the channel from a paternity test brawl on daytime TV! I.e. I really don't want to HAVE the flu, even if it's relatively unlikely to kill me.

[rini]

Studies do show less illness and less antibiotic use in people who get the shot.

I get mine thimerosol free. You can if you have the individualized dosage, and not the multidose vial.

Also, you don't get the full flu from the shot. Usually you don''t get anything. At worst, you might feel fluish for a day or two, but you won't have respiratory problems because the virus is inactivated.

[NABNYC]

Men are so funny. Instead of coming out and admitting that you're afraid of needles, you write this long story about why you don't need a flu shot. Maybe you could try the nasal inhaler. Or get your mom to go with you.

I am generally against drugs, against the drug companies, am extremely suspicious of all the drugs they want people to take -- every day for the rest of their lives. Not long ago doctors humiliated women who did not take hormones: what is wrong with you? Don't you know these hormones are good for your heart, for your skin, will keep you young? Then when it came out that the hormones were killing women off, causing heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer, the medical profession came out with a Gilda Radner-ish "Oh, never mind."

Cholesterol, blood pressure, bone strengthening, arthritis. It's amazing the drugs they push. All the kids are now diagnosed with something, ADD, or ADHC, or whatever, so they have to take drugs every day.

Our poor livers.

As for the flu shot, I too hate needles, but got a really bad case of flu in 1992 and decided I hated that even more. So started getting the shot every year, and was flu-free until May of 2007, when I got some kind of flu.

So, draw your own conclusions. 15 years of flu shots, 14 years flu-free. I just got my flu shot for this year. Even if it's a coincidence, I'll take that chance.

[Wilbur]

I got my one and only "flu shot" during my senior year of high school (1968-69). It made me nauseous for a day. I said, "Never again." And since then I can count on one hand, with three fingers missing, the number of times I've had the flu in the last 40 years!

The "conspiracy theorist" in me opines that the so-called "flu shots" really are sponsored by the government not to try to stem the spread of flu, but rather to slowly-but-surely destroy the collective thinking processes of its citizens. I'd swear that there is something in those shots that stupefies the citizenry. Hey, look whom we've chosen to be our leaders since 1980. Save for the 1992 and 1996 elections, we've been pretty stupid, haven't we?

Wilbur

[TheAlchemist]

Right you are. There"s no evidence to suggest that a healthy adult requires a flu vaccine.

I get a vaccine not because I need it, but because my patients need for me to have it.

[AThingofBeauty]

Sadly, you are right. I am a nurse and have been for over 34 years. Every year at this time we pump our patients full of flu vaccine. Every year they are sick with nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and aches and pains. Some will get the flu, some will not. Is it the flu shot that protects those that don't? Who knows.

I for one have never had a flu shot in my life and never will if I can help it. I do not want mercury injected into my body TYVM.

I strongly urge people to avoid flu shots, use good hand washing techniques, avoid those who are ill and get enough rest. These things will protect from the flu. A healthy diet will help too.

BTW folks, every sniffle is NOT the flu. The flu makes you very ill. Nausea, vomiting, diarhea, aches and pains, severe headaches and the inability to function, that is the flu.

I admonish people to avoid antibiotics for cold and flu symptoms, this will only make you vulnerable to being immune to them when you really need them for bacterial infection, something that is becoming more common. Cold and flu are not bacterial, they are viral.

In addition, we are never going to live in a sterile field, attempting to only makes us a prime target for germs. The human body is made to handle germs in our environment. Keeping ourselves in good health is the only real protection we have.

[zizyphus]

Oct. 31, 2006 -- An independent analysis by the internationally renowned Cochrane Collaboration of worldwide influenza vaccine studies, published in the British Medical Journal on Oct. 28, concluded there is little scientific proof that inactivated influenza vaccine is safe and effective for children and adults. Citing the Cochrane Collaboration finding as well as methodological flaws in a child influenza vaccine study published Oct. 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the National Vaccine Information Center is calling on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to stop recommending annual flu shots for all infants and children until methodologically sound studies are conducted.http://www.nvic.org/PressReleases/pr1031flu.htm

I hope everyone enjoys the ethylmercury in their flu shots. Yes, thimersol is still being used to preserve the group doses. I think what it preserves is the bottom line for the drug companies, as it is a cheap preservative.

Also, Ethylene glycol (antifreeze) Phenol, Formaldehyde,Aluminum,Neomycin and Streptomycin- all injected into your bloodstream.

The CDC says ethylmercury is fine for small kids and pregnant women to inject in their veins. Common sense suggests otherwise.

Personally, I wouldn't rely on the recommendations of the CDC or any Federal agencies at this point. They are all so totally corrupted by the profit-driven motives of the big corporations.

When the vaccine batches are bad, they don't throw them out, they just spread them out geographically so that any ill effects won't likely be associated with the vaccine.

[princessofnowt]

Before you have a flu shot, google

'depopulation plan'

then decide.

[Hattie]

Not getting a flu shot: rebellion lite.

[csavage]

You reviewed "the evidence"? I'd very much like for you to list the evidence you reviewed. Until you do that, you are nothing more than a hysterical whiner. Oh, and please list whatever financial conflicts you may have, like researchers who actually publish in relevent medical journals are required to.
It's one thing to put up with the anti-science on the right, it's another thing entirely to put up with anti-science on the left that's wrapped in a anti-corporatist blanket.

[ClevelandTom]

I've only read through one page of the comments here but in those, the number statements with scientific untruths, illogical conclusions, urban myths, and plain old misunderstandings about immunization in general and flu shots in particular is astonishing.

[iwishicouldvote]

For those who want to make up their own minds based on thorough research, see this book:

http://www.cure-guide.com/Flu/flu.html

But in the contest between facts and marketing, guess who usually wins?

[lou1al]

Every time I hear flu shot I think this would
be a way for Cheney to solve the Social Security problem.
I agree 199 % with your article.
Any reader can attach their own meaning to above.