DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE ANNUAL FLU SHOT?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE ANNUAL FLU SHOT?

One of the most polarising questions that I encounter has to do with the annual winter flu shot. One segment of the population swears by the value of getting a needle every November and another one doesn’t believe in it. My experiences have caused me to join the latter group and skip the shot each year.

The official Alberta Health Services website informs us that, Influenza – commonly referred to as the flu – is a respiratory disease caused by a virus that affects the nose, throat, and lungs. It is contagious and easily passed from person to person and lowers the body’s ability to fight other infections. It can lead to bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, and even death especially in seniors, children (6 to 59 months), pregnant women, indigenous people, and people with chronic medical conditions. AHS recommends that by getting the flu vaccine your chances of catching the flu can be minimized.

Both my wife and I obtained our first flu shots in November 2015 and also in 2016. Following the shots, we both developed bad colds both years that lasted four or five weeks. Whether there was any causal effect related to the flu shot is unknown. However, from 2017 to 2019 we chose not to get the shot. During this interval, we have not had the flu or even any significant colds. Our personal experience has led us to forego getting the flu shot.

The composition of the flu vaccine has always been kind of questionable to me. As I understand it, there are thousands of different strains of influenza. Medical researchers try to make a scientific guess as to which strains might be the most potent in the coming winter season. They select three of four of their best guesstimates and develop a vaccine for them. It always seemed to me that this kind of long-shot vaccine was not something that would really provide any guaranteed kind of protection. Thus I do not have a lot of faith in the practice.

The Alberta government purchased 1.6 million doses of influenza vaccine for the 2019 to 2020 season which is enough to immunize 35% of the population at a total cost of $12.5 million. In 2018 to 2019, 31% of Albertans (roughly 1.2 million people) received the influenza vaccine. There were 1,976 hospitalizations and 52 deaths (in hospital) among people with lab-confirmed influenza. It is not clear if the people who died did or did not have the flu shot, consequently, the effectiveness of the shot is not really certain.

Although there is plenty of advertising encouraging seniors to get a flu shot, the actual statistics do not identify seniors as the most vulnerable group. In fact, children are most likely to get sick from flu and that people 65 and older are least likely to get sick from influenza. Median incidence values (or attack rate) by age group were 9.3% for children 0-17 years, 8.8% for adults 18-64 years, and 3.9% for adults 65 years and older. Thus, I rest my case!

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Vaccine Update: to my fellow senior readers. While I am skeptical of the flu vaccine, I recently learned that there is a newer strain of shingles vaccine that is 95% effective and comes in two shots. It replaces the single shingles shot that was previously available. Also, there is an improved two-shot pneumonia vaccine for seniors that replaces the single-shot one previously administered to 65-year-olds.