I did some research when looking at the seasonal flu vaccine last year for my son who at the time was 2 years old and in daycare 5 days a week. He is exposed to so many viruses every day and his chances of exposure to the flu virus are high especially during the winter months.
To keep him healthy in general we had been following a nutritarian diet outlined in Dr. Fuhrmans book Disease Proof Your Child but at a regular doctors checkup we were faced with the decision about flu vaccinations. So lets examine this question together so we can draw our own conclusions about the flu vaccine and if it's effective and safe.
Lets first look at the flu vaccine Effectiveness. Does this thing even work?
Given all their hype, they must work pretty well right? The doctors say that some years they are more effective then in other years and the formula changes every year based on a vote of which flu strains should be included.
If your child is under 2 years old they will get live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) and based on what I see in the research it's only 28%-36% effective and efficacy 59 - 65% which is similar to placebo. (6,7)
If your child is under 2 years old they will get live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) and based on what I see in the research it's only 28%-36% effective and efficacy 59 - 65% which is similar to placebo. (6,7)
If your child is over 2 years old they will get (IIV) inactivated influenza vaccine. Looking at the data (4,5,9) for various years, it suggests the effectiveness for IIV 33%-38% and efficacy 79 - 82% Which means it's chances of (prevention of influenza-like illness) are about 1/3, a very poor outcome.
So would you get this vaccine if you knew that it's effectiveness historically is roughly 33%? What if you knew that there is a chance that you may become very ill from it's side effects? I also learned that vaccines relative safety had not been fully studied (4 5). Shocked?
If you are not convinced look at this Review for (children, elderly, people with illnesses) where the authors conclude For healthy children:
Influenza vaccines are efficacious in children older than two but little evidence is available for children under two. There was a marked difference between vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. No safety comparisons could be carried out, emphasizing the need for standardisation of methods and presentation of vaccine safety data in future studies. It was surprising to find only one study of inactivated vaccine in children under two years, given current recommendations to vaccinate healthy children from six months old in the USA and Canada.. If immunisation in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required.
Ok, so how about in adults? Lets review one paper Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults (Review) where the authors conclude
There is not enough evidence to decide whether routine vaccination to prevent influenza in healthy adults is effective.
Bottom line is although the vaccine works pretty well under lab conditions (efficacy) it is not effective enough (33%) to warrant a flu shot and risk the side effects and exposure to the chemicals in the actual vaccine. If you interpret the data differently, let me know!
When looking at vaccines, we were concerned about their mercury in general, but we learned from the pediatrician that a flu vaccine without mercury is available, and that the actual amount in the vaccine is negligent and compares to him having a serving of fish. The doctor also pointed out that the flu vaccine can lessen the severity of the flu in children if they do get it.
Wait - is that really true? Is having your child get the flu vaccine twice a year equal to eating a serving of fish in terms of ingested mercury? Lets find out!
If my child was eating fish, say he had some tuna. Given a serving size of 4oz of chunk white tuna, he will be getting 35 micrograms per gram of mercury (1). In comparison the fluzone vaccine contains 25 micrograms of thimersol (mercury) per dose (2). So yes, this means that eating a 4oz of tuna is exposing him to about the same level of mercury as getting a flu shot.
Is mercury so bad? Yes! If he is allowed 1.13 micrograms per day based on his weight (25lbs) that's about 22 times the EPA recommended level of mercury (1) in a single shot. There is also nifty calculator that does the calculations given the allowed oz of a type of fish for for weight. I plugged in weight of 25lbs and selected canned tuna light and I came out with maximum dose of 2.3oz per week. But let's not get carried away with mercury in fish thing since we already know that eating fish exposes him to mercury, PCB's and other toxins/cancinogens. Checkout my post about eating fish.
The mercury is not negligent in the flu shot! The doctor who said it should reexamine his sources...
However the doctor also advised us that there is a flu vaccine that needs to be special ordered and is available without mercury; so you can omit mercury in the shot it if you are determined. But it takes work to get this done. They don't make it easy.
Another question we need to look at is What are the other ingredients in these flu vaccines we should be concerned about?
Another question we need to look at is What are the other ingredients in these flu vaccines we should be concerned about?
Formaldehyde, Chick Embryo, Octoxinol-9, Triton X-100,Gelatin,Sodium Phosphate,Sodium Chloride(Salt)(3)
Also what about the danger of getting this vaccine done twice each year for life as recommended?
I suspect that those other ingredients will cause some kind of a reaction in all people. Some kids immune system are better able to deal with them, and others are not so lucky and they get very sick and some even die. Here is a database you can search yourself for reported vaccine reactions
Nevertheless I believe the best protection is trying to adhere to the nutritarian diet and feeding your kids the right foods. When your kids eat a disease-proof diet, they are eating for health; and if they do get sick, it's no big deal and they fight it off easily. It's amazing what an immune system is capable of fighting off.
Here are some links to check out while you are looking at vaccines and references I used.
