Personally, I never get a flu shot, and neither does any member of my family. There are a number of reasons behind my decision. First, most years there is a poor match between the vaccine viruses and those that end up circulating in the general population. Secondly, there’s relatively little risk for healthy people. Though no one likes the flu, serious complications or death from it are rare. About 18,000 people die from the flu each year, and 75% of those people are 70 years of age or over. In many of the older people who succumb, it often comes down to overall health. The less healthy a person is at that age (because of lifestyle and ongoing/recent health conditions), the more likely he/she is to have a lack of “organ reserve,” not enough
organ capacity remaining to handle basic metabolic needs plus those demands added by the flu (fever, etc).
Medical research on flu vaccine effectiveness shows very spotty results at best even among the two general population groups most heavily advised to receive the shot, the young and the old. This October a
study in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine didn’t find a decrease in hospitalizations or outpatient flu-related visits in young children receiving the vaccine during either of two studied flu seasons. In the case of older adults, there is less concern about safety issues, but recent research bolsters ongoing skepticism about the flu shot’s effectiveness. A
study published in last August’s issue of The Lancet showed that flu shots, after adjusting for existing health conditions, didn’t reduce the risk for the most common flu-related cause of death, pneumonia.
Though public service messages now urge everyone to get the shot, this was not the traditional message. If you’re a healthy individual who is committed to taking care of himself/herself, I don’t think the shot is necessary or will do much if any good.
A naturally strong immune system will identify a common flu virus and handle it effectively on its own. Left to its own devices, it does its thing pretty well. Though the situation might be different for those with compromised immune systems or even health care providers who work with sick patients every day, the flu shot likely won’t offer me as a healthy person much benefit for the negatives it imposes with the toxic preservatives used in the shots like aluminum and thimerosal. Sure, there’s a preservative-free flu shot in existence, but it’s in extremely short supply and is only given – when available – to infants and pregnant women. (In many areas there isn’t enough to even offer these groups the shot.) Though a relatively new FluMist vaccine option is available that doesn’t contain these additives, it’s made with a live virus and has additional safety concerns that limit who’s advised to use it.
