How many times have you been reminded to get your annual influenza vaccine?
After all these years, the flu hasn’t gone away. As the graph shows, people are still dying of influenza and pneumonia (which are lumped together in the statistics), even though up to 70% of the population over age 65 has gotten the shot.
Note that the big drop in mortality occurred more than 30 years before the vaccine became available. Antibiotics likely explain much of that because death is very often due to a secondary bacterial pneumonia.
A study of national influenza-related mortality among the elderly and all-cause deaths for the 33 seasons from 1968 to 2001 could not correlate increasing vaccination coverage after 1980 with declining mortality rates in any age group. Because fewer than 10% of all winter deaths were attributable to influenza in any season, authors concluded that observational studies substantially overestimate vaccination benefit.
Different strains of virus predominate in different years. Scientists have to predict which one it will be because it takes time to manufacture the vaccine. If they guess wrong, a vaccine may have effectiveness of 30% or less.
The annual shot is not risk-free. Serious adverse reactions include paralysis from Guillain Barré syndrome. More people receive compensation from the U.S. government for vaccine-related injuries from influenza than from any other vaccine. The flu vaccine might increase your risk of another type of viral respiratory illness.
The CDC’s newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has voted to recommend annual influenza vaccination for all persons aged 6 months or older who have no contraindications. It recommended that children 18 years and younger and pregnant women only receive influenza vaccines in single-dose formulations that are free of mercury-containing thimerosal as a preservative. The flu vaccine is the only thimerosal-containing vaccine that was still being given to children.
Influenza season corresponds to the time of year when vitamin D levels are lowest. Supplementation is associated with fewer cold/influenza symptoms.
Additional Information:
- ‘Influenza Vaccination During Pregnancy: A Critical Assessment of the Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)’
- ‘Mandatory Influenza Vaccination for Medical Workers: a Critique’
- ‘The Lynchpin of Retrospective Assessment of the Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccines’
- ‘Fighting Viral Diseases’
