This Year, Vaccine May Not Save You From The Flu

[poncho]

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — There’s still months left in flu season and here in Maryland, we’re already seeing thousands more cases than we saw all of last season. One of the reasons? The CDC admits the flu vaccine was not very effective. Tuesday, health officials were grilled on Capitol Hill.
Meghan McCorkell has more on what went wrong.

Most years, the flu vaccine is about 50-60% effective. The CDC says this year, the vaccine is at just 23%.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/02/03/this-year-vaccine-may-not-save-you-from-the-flu/

50 - 60% effective means the same as 40 - 50% ineffective right?

 

[PreachTony]

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — There’s still months left in flu season and here in Maryland, we’re already seeing thousands more cases than we saw all of last season. One of the reasons? The CDC admits the flu vaccine was not very effective. Tuesday, health officials were grilled on Capitol Hill.
Meghan McCorkell has more on what went wrong.

Most years, the flu vaccine is about 50-60% effective. The CDC says this year, the vaccine is at just 23%.

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/02/03/this-year-vaccine-may-not-save-you-from-the-flu/

50 - 60% effective means the same as 40 - 50% ineffective right?

And? The flu vaccine will never be 100% effective. The flu changes from year to year. It's not a static virus. The vaccine is made based off previous years' flu strains. If the virus changes beyond a certain amount from those strains, then you have an ineffective vaccine. This is almost impossible for scientists to predict, so they do the best they can with what they have.

 

[poncho]

And? The flu vaccine will never be 100% effective. The flu changes from year to year. It's not a static virus. The vaccine is made based off previous years' flu strains. If the virus changes beyond a certain amount from those strains, then you have an ineffective vaccine. This is almost impossible for scientists to predict, so they do the best they can with what they have.

They don't adverti$e it that way.

I$ the flu viru$ the only one that mutate$?

 

[PreachTony]

They don't advertise it that way.

Is the flu virus the only one that mutates?

Well, even at 23% effective, that's still better than not getting the shot at all.

I can't really say which viruses may mutate over time, as I just don't know. Having just suffered the flu two years ago, I did some research on it and talked to friends who work in health clinics and hospitals. That's how I know the flu changes.

 

[Revmitchell]

I have never had the flu shot never will.

 

[poncho]

I used to get flu shots every year. Used to get the flu every year. Haven't had a flu shot in 20 years, haven't had the flu in 20 years.

Coincidence?

 

[PreachTony]

I had the flu shot a couple times in high school, and once in college. Then went several years without it, after which, in 2012, I had a very nasty case of the flu. I've taken the shot both years since then and I've not even really dealt with a cold, much less the flu.


poncho - the experience of a single individual do not a sample size make. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[poncho]

I had the flu shot a couple times in high school, and once in college. Then went several years without it, after which, in 2012, I had a very nasty case of the flu. I've taken the shot both years since then and I've not even really dealt with a cold, much less the flu.


poncho - the experience of a single individual do not a sample size make. :smilewinkgrin:

Question: If the vaccine industry whips up a new vaccine every year for the strain it predicts is coming how can it do any meaningful studies in the safety and effectiveness of each new vaccine?

Answer: It can't that's why they lobbied congress to give them immunity from lawsuits resulting from any harm their products might cause.

How many other industries (besides the financial industry) have been given such immunity from lawsuits resulting from harm their products may cause?

And did you know that 100,000 people a year die from prescription drugs the FDA has declared safe and effective? That's 1 million people every ten years.

It's on the FDA's own website.

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/DevelopmentResources/DrugInteractionsLabeling/ucm114848.htm

$afe and effective? Yeah, we give you our word trust u$.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

Yup. I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but I haven't had a flu shot since I got out of the Navy, in 83.

Two years ago, New Year's Eve, I got some kind of bug that put me in bed sweating, trembling, hallucinating, with a 102% fever. (All the other pleasantries left out)

Fought it off in less than 24 hours, with aspirin and gatorade. It must have been some kind of flu. For I while I was really sick. And I'm positive it wasn't food poisoning. I never went to the hospital.

Now I have had colds, and caught bronchitis in 2006, and last year as well, but not the flu.

 

[carpro]

I haven't had a bad case of the flu since 1976, but that one was a beast. The wife and I had it at the same time...with 3 children. Then we both had relapses after we thought we were well. We farmed the kids out to friends and relatives and none of them got it. Sometimes I get a flu shot, sometimes not.

This year's flu seems to be hitting particularly hard, kind of like the one I had in '76. Glad I haven't contracted it.

That being said, the flu shots are usually created to handle the strains they expect to be prevalent in any given flu season. It's always been hit and miss.

Get a flu shot or don't. It's up to you. But I won't ever tell anybody they shouldn't.

 

[Use of Time]

I haven't had a bad case of the flu since 1976, but that one was a beast. The wife and I had it at the same time...with 3 children. Then we both had relapses after we thought we were well. We farmed the kids out to friends and relatives and none of them got it. Sometimes I get a flu shot, sometimes not.

This year's flu seems to be hitting particularly hard, kind of like the one I had in '76. Glad I haven't contracted it.

That being said, the flu shots are usually created to handle the strains they expect to be prevalent in any given flu season. It's always been hit and miss.

Get a flu shot or don't. It's up to you. But I won't ever tell anybody they shouldn't.

Yeah, this years vacine was simply a whiff on the strain going around. My doctor told me that the strain this year combined with the vaccine was about 20% effective. It is a gamble based off of the previous years data. It's not like getting the shot is going to hurt you though. Mine was free so why not?

 

[Alcott]

I've never had a flu shot, and I haven't had what I knew was the flu for 10 or more years.