Acorns

Thinking about a flu shot this season? Flu vaccines have gotten mixed reviews. This reports success rates around 40%:

efficacy was found to be 38.1% ... and slightly higher 41.6%

Other sources report even lower success rates.

15 percent of those vaccinated developed flu-like symptoms and 17 percent of those not vaccinated developed similar symptoms.

That's a barely perceptible benefit of ~2% from getting vaccinated.

The CDC, which seems universally in favor of all vaccinations at all costs, advertises high efficacy, but with a caveat:

When the vaccine and circulating viruses are antigenically similar...

This caveat seems to be the key. Predicting which strains will predominate in a given season is a crap shoot.

Perhaps this desperate guesswork is responsible for so many years when the flu vaccine's viruses had nothing in common with circulating viruses. According to a CDC report of the 1994-1995 flu season, 87 percent of type A influenza virus samples were not similar to the year's vaccine, and 76 percent of type B virus were not similar to the virus in that year's vaccine. During the 1992-1993 season, 84 percent of samples for the predominant type A virus were not similar to the virus in the vaccine.

So most flu cases were not of the strain used in the vaccines. A particular year's vaccine only protects you against a narrow spectrum of viral strains. If you're exposed to a different strain, the vaccine won't help.

The vaccine is not without risks, either. While rare, some complications can be serious and include neurological disorders.

Other anti-viral drugs have also been debunked:

Two key strategies in the continuing fight against influenza ... are not as effective as previously thought, scientists have found in separate analyses released today.

So if these flu vaccines are not so effective, why are they so widely recommended?

When the United Nations avian flu coordinator predicted on September 29 that 150 million people will die of an imminent flu pandemic, the United States Senate voted to provide $4 billion for antiviral drugs and other measures to prepare for this catastrophe. Who will benefit from this legislation? Over $3 billion would be used to stockpile the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu). Good news for drugmaker Roche Laboratories.

Drug companies have huge interests in marketing their products, which may be subsidized by our tax dollars.

Sounds like the products these drug companies are advertising are not really for me. I think I'll stick to my usual preventative measures: exercise, rest, and a bit of vitamin C.