Does the flu vaccine really reduce risk of death in the elderly?
Posted on 8 September 2008
Flu vaccination was in the news last week. Apparently, some scientists at Oxford University in the UK have developed a vaccine that might protect us against all strains of the flu virus. Clinical trials are just getting underway now. This news was greeted with much excitement from the press, as expected.
The British Medical Journal last week carried a piece about the flu vaccine [1]. Though it wasn
Published September 8, 2008 . Filed under: Food and Medical Politics
I can’t see a real trial i.e. RCT double blind etc ever being done in the UK, would never get ethical consent cos everybody knows (!!!!) that the vaccine stops you getting flu and so on.
And, having particpated in the annual campaign over the last few years, I reckon many elderly would refuse to enter the trial and insist on having the real mcCoy, which immediately skews any data.
personally I have my doubts as to how effective the vaccine really is. I could have a ‘free’ one through my employer, but choose not to.
September 8, 2008 @ 11:57 am
It is siurprising the number of likeable if not true “beliefs” get popularized. I have had flu shots annually for years and I have never had the fku – have I wasted my time and health care money or should I be thankful that a inoffensive shot in he arm has saved me from illness. Even if flu shots are ineffective is there not a psychological benefit in that you feel safe.
GDT
September 12, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
I am 60 and stopped taking the flu shot five years ago. Luckily, for me, my physician said he stopped recommending it because the manufacturers were under pressure to get out vast numbers of shots and that they were putting inferior vaccine on the market. Here in the US, one has to wonder, first we are told there is a dire scarcity of vaccine available, everyone feels hysterical, as if they will die without the vaccine and then suddenly every drugstore and supermarket is selling shots, and the lines are a mile long. Any chance this is pharmaceutical company manipulation of a public that doesn’t think about the drugs or vaccines they take? Our FDA is woefully not doing their job. The risk of getting an inferior shot was not worth it to me. So, no flu shot in five years and guess what? no flu.
September 17, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
What I know from personal experience is that the one year when my life was so busy I forgot to have my flu jab I had one cold after another. Quite literally, as soon as I finished one cold the next one was waiting to strike. Since then (and before) I have had an annual jab and have not had more than sneezes and a runny nose when I wake up and which stops about an hour later. Yes I know it is a flu jab and has nothing to do with colds but that’s the way it goes.
September 18, 2008 @ 9:01 am
Well the only time i ever had a flu shot was the one and only time i ever had the flu. i haven’t even had a cold in over seven years because not only do i keep my body & its wonderful immune system healthy i also keep my mind healthy by not buying into all the hysteria about flus & colds i just tell myself i am always healthy & guess what i am!!
September 19, 2008 @ 5:22 am