The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says 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 influenza (flu) vaccine. And in general pretty much everyone is encouraged to get a flu shot. But is there any evidence that it will actually be helpful for you? The answer is probably not.
The often quoted figure is that 36,000 people die from the flu every year. However about half of those are deaths relate to 'flu like illness'. Amongst the half that is due to the flu, there are several different strains of influenza virus, and the flu vaccine is going to target only a selected number of them. Add to that that the vaccine is made before the flu season starts, and they don't know which strains will be showing up that year, that means that a lot of people are not going to get a flu shot that actually protects them against the flu. In addition many of the deaths are in the elderly who may have compromised immune systems, so the flu shot won't work for them anyway. In fact the only group for which there is evidence that flu shots might save lives is with people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is caused by smoking.
But I can't afford to lose time from work with the flu, you say. Actually no studies have shown that flu shots reduce time lost from work either.
The experts in the literature are actually saying not to use flu vaccines, although noone 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 think that flu vaccines work (but they don't).
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