From John
I’ve been asked by a number of people if they should get the flu vaccine because of the sensational media coverage of the flu season this year. Isn’t this coverage sensational every year? I was actually hired by the Food & Drug Administration’s Bureau of Biologics (now CBER) at NIH when congress gave them extra funding to deal with the impending swine flu epidemic in 1977. The Bureau regulated vaccine licensing and production and biologic drugs in general. But the epidemic never happened and the head of the CDC was fired for scaring the hell out of President Ford.
This is how I answer the question.
I haven’t had a flu shot since that time in my uncle’s office in Darien in the late 1950s. Me and my two younger brothers and sister had been taken to get our flu shots from my uncle Charlie. I went first to demonstrate that there was nothing to it. Uncle Charlie must have hit a nerve because intense pain radiated up my arm as I was injected. I couldn’t conceal the wrenching pain as I came out of the room to face my younger siblings. Naturally they were horrified but somehow survived the torture.
I’ve had bad flu twice in the last 40 years, January 1986 and Becki and I together had the flu in the winter of 2001. These events were nasty. Perhaps the vaccine might have helped in those years but who can say?
The media has said that this year’s shot is missing one of the circulating viral antigens for an Influenza H3N2 strain.
[H3 stands for a particular antigenic serotype of the Hemagglutinin and N2 stands for a particular serotype of Neurominidase. Both these proteins are abundant glycoproteins on the surface of the virus that generate immune response in the form of antibody production. The antibodies produced by the infected individual's B-lymphocytes in the blood bind to the epitopes characteristic of these serotypes to inhibit the virus from infecting additional cells especially in the lungs. The infection damage in the lungs is the primary reason we cough caused by the inflammatory response in the lungs. Once you become infected, you will remain immune to that strain of virus because of the circulating antibodies that remain behind after the virus is gone.]
One of my co-workers, a UConn grad student, had a bad case of the flu the last week in December but she survived.
I have my own feelings but I’m not one to give advice. Some feel that the elderly are not protected by the vaccine. Those that are strong enough to get to the doctor to get the vaccine skew the epidemiology in determining the efficacy of the vaccine for the elderly.
I have a theory that we have a symbiotic relationship with the flu virus. When we get infected, the virus preferentially destroys our pre-cancerous and cancerous cells living in our body because they express higher numbers of flu virus receptors. I actually published this idea in a low profile journal after I left the FDA.
Annually, the news media tends to scare everyone with dramatic threatening language. I deal with the doom and gloom by taking a vitamin C every morning in memory of Linus Pauling.
I’ve never had the flu shot and have never had the flu. I have also been around more sick people than most.
Three of my co-workers have come down with the flu in the last month. All three received the flu shot.
Some people swear by the flu shot. My feeling is that John’s theory is pointing in the right direction. If I thought I would die from the flu, I would consider vaccination. Otherwise, I’m letting nature take its course. I do wash my hands continually, take Vitamin C every day, sleep well and exercise regularly.
John,
So if your symbiotic theory is correct, then acquiring the flu might actually be beneficial to us, assuming we stand a better chance of surviving influenza vs. cancer.
Works for me.
Thanks for posting this, John!
I’ve had the real flu twice in the last 30 years. Becki has had it only once in our 26 years. LibDem hasn’t had it that he can recall. My parents didn’t have it in the last 15 years of their lives. And none of us got the vaccine. According seroconversion studies many have had the flu and not gotten very sick or didn’t know that they had the flu. Yes some dye from the disease but the question is would they have been saved by the vaccine. The answer is YES for the polio vaccine but not necessarily for the flu vaccine. Also, how many have had an adverse event from the vaccine? This was figured out during the nationwide vaccination program in 1977 because the virus never arrived.
I have never had the flu shot in my 60 years on this earth, and (knock on wood) have never had the flu virus. I am sure that I have had my share of head colds, common colds, chest colds, etc. But as for the flu, nada, zip, nein. As I did relate in a past post, I did have the “Swine Flu” vaccine courtesy of the U.S. Army in 1977 or 78, not sure what year it was, but the entire base was innoculated because we supposedly had one soldier who died from the “pig flu.”