So you think flu vaccinations don't work . . . .

[Laidback Al]

Ask the parents of the dozens of children who died from flu this year if they are sorry they didn't get their child vaccinated.

105 US kids died of flu; most didn't get vaccine

March 23, 2013

By MIKE STOBBE

AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- The flu season is winding down, and it has killed 105 children so far -- about the average toll. . . . . Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season. One exception was the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010, when 348 children died.

. . . All but four of the children who died were old enough to be vaccinated, but 90 percent of them did not get vaccinated, CDC officials said. . . .

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/03/22/health/kids-died-of-flu-most-didnt-get-vaccine

[BostonFNP, APRN]

The flu shot doesn't lower your immunity.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

I am shortly off to bed, pre double shift....find some proof of that would ya please? Thanks, from some one who usually does their own searching...

The flu shot doesn't lower your immunity.

[ixchel]

The flu shot doesn't lower your immunity.

Respectfully, this is the research I was referring to. Annual Childhood Flu Vaccines May Interfere With Development of Cross-resistance

It is, unfortunately, not an apples-to-apples study because you are comparing children with CF to health children, but this study is compelling enough to recognize that NOT allowing children to develop natural immunity to flu may put them at a disadvantage later in life, immunologically speaking.

Here is another article stating that children are more likely to be hospitalized after getting the flu vaccine. Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests I tried to locate the source article but I'm making dinner, taming children, and googling at the same time. :)

[BostonFNP, APRN]

Respectfully, this is the research I was referring to. Annual Childhood Flu Vaccines May Interfere With Development of Cross-resistance

It is, unfortunately, not an apples-to-apples study because you are comparing children with CF to health children, but this study is compelling enough to recognize that NOT allowing children to develop natural immunity to flu may put them at a disadvantage later in life, immunologically speaking.

Here is another article stating that children are more likely to be hospitalized after getting the flu vaccine. Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests I tried to locate the source article but I'm making dinner, taming children, and googling at the same time. :)

The first study is intriguing, but very difficult to generalize. I don't know if you read the actual study or just the blurb, but this comment by the authors nicely sums it up:

"Thus, annual vaccination against influenza is effective but may have potential drawbacks that have previously been underappreciated and that are also a matter of debate (7, 22, 37). By no means do we suggest halting annual vaccination of children, especially those at high risk for complications, such as CF patients. A number of studies have demonstrated that annual vaccination reduces the morbidity and mortality caused by seasonal influenza in children and is (cost-)effective (23, 34,–,36). However, long-term annual vaccination using inactivated vaccines may hamper the induction of cross-reactive CD8⁺ T cell responses by natural infections and thus may affect the induction of heterosubtypic immunity."

As far as the second blurb, I couldn't quickly find the actual study it was referring to. I do know that the Cochrane Review just released a paper on the flu shot in asthmatic kids. They concluded as follows:

"Evidence from more recently published randomised trials of inactivated split-virus influenza vaccination indicates that there is no significant increase in asthma exacerbations immediately after vaccination in adults or children over three years of age."

I wouldn't mind reading the actual study if you have the title and authors.

They are interesting, especially from a long-term perspective.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I am shortly off to bed, pre double shift....find some proof of that would ya please? Thanks, from some one who usually does their own searching...

Aside from the one small study mentioned previously related to long-term CD8*T-cells, I have never seen it discussed in the literature. I just checked UpToDate and did a quick lit review though PubMed but didn't see anything suggesting there were new papers showing an acquired immune deficiency following the inactivated influenza vac.

[chwcbesteph, RN]

Getting the flu from a flu shot is a myth. The flu shot is dead virus. There is no way to get the flu from it.

You can still get the flu after getting the flu shot, just not from it.

As far as getting sick, I can't speculate on that. If you we're treated with abx I would assume there was at least some sort of evidence you had a bacterial illness. The flu is viral. Abx aren't appropriate for the flu alone.

The flu shot should not make you immunocompromised.

Unless you get a live attenuated vaccine, which is still a living virus, and can cause complications in people with weakened immune systems or other underlying medical conditions.

[channtheman]

I would be much more interested in an article not funded by the influenza vaccine companies showing evidence based proof that the flu shot even does anything. It is always sad when children die, but to imply that giving them something that has not been proven to do anything (unless you have the requested article, and by all means, please post it for me) would have saved their lives is offensive to the parents of the children who died.

Also, just because something (re: the flu shot) doesn't cause damage (supposedly... has this been proven?) doesn't mean you should just do it.

EDIT: I'll add, it would be nice if the study was an RCT that actually proved something.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I would be much more interested in an article not funded by the influenza vaccine companies showing evidence based proof that the flu shot even does anything. It is always sad when children die, but to imply that giving them something that has not been proven to do anything (unless you have the requested article, and by all means, please post it for me) would have saved their lives is offensive to the parents of the children who died.

Also, just because something (re: the flu shot) doesn't cause damage (supposedly... has this been proven?) doesn't mean you should just do it.

EDIT: I'll add, it would be nice if the study was an RCT that actually proved something.

Lancet Infect Dis. 2012 Jan;12(1):36-44. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(11)70295-X. Epub 2011 Oct 25.

[h=1]Efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccines: a systematic review and meta-analysis.[/h]Osterholm MT, Kelley NS, Sommer A, Belongia EA.

[channtheman]

Shock vaccine study reveals influenza vaccines only prevent the flu in 1.5 out of 100 adults (not 60% as you've been told)

What do you think of this article? It references the study you just linked, and apparently the flu shot isn't nearly as effective as we are led to believe.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

Shock vaccine study reveals influenza vaccines only prevent the flu in 1.5 out of 100 adults (not 60% as you've been told)

What do you think of this article? It references the study you just linked, and apparently the flu shot isn't nearly as effective as we are led to believe.

It's a blog post.

It makes some far fetched fictional "examples" written at a fourth grade reading level designed to scare individuals with a poor understanding of the data.

[sjalv]

I would like to say that I am 19 and have never had a flu shot, nor the flu.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

I would like to say that I am 19 and have never had a flu shot nor the flu.[/quote']

19 year old presumably healthy individuals are not a high risk group for serious influenza infection. If you have contact with higher risk groups you place them at risk by not being vaccinated.