The Truth About Flu Shots

Tis the season! (Flu season that is!) People are standing in line at doctor's offices, grocery stores, clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies waiting to get their annual flu shot. Obediently rolling up their sleeve and sticking out their bare arm, they tolerate the pain of the needle, with hopes that they won't have to endure the fever, aches, chills, cough, respiratory problems, and stomach upsets of the flu. Everyone has a story of the year they got influenza, and how they felt like they'd been hit by a truck! (Still others report that the flu shot itself caused them to feel that way.) To get the flu shot or not get the flu shot-that is the question.

How effective are flu vaccines? Some studies have shown that younger adults benefit from flu shots, but surprising new research, according to the Lancet Medical Journal, has found that the flu vaccine has not prevented flu related deaths in people over the age of 65. This confirms earlier research in 2005, that found that even though rates for immunization in people over 65 had increased 50 per cent, in the last 20 years, there was not a comparative decline in deaths caused by influenza. However, flu shots are recommended for that purpose by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their data indicates that there are about 36,000 yearly deaths of Americans, and 200,000 annual hospitalizations for flu and related illnesses. However, research has revealed that flu deaths are only a small percentage of the 36,000 deaths cited, because that is a combined figure for both flu deaths and pneumonia. It is estimated that only 1 to 4 per cent of that total is for the flu alone. (This is backed up by annual reports from the National Center for Health Statistics.)