The Flu Vaccine isn’t always Effective: Do you Still Need It?
Between November and March, anywhere between 5% and 20% of Americans will get the flu at least once. Every year, flu kills more than 36,000 and hospitalizes 200,000 more, in America alone. If you don’t want to find yourself in this category, there aren’t many things you can do in the way of flu prevention – keep your hands clean, observe good hygiene, avoid sick people – and protect yourself by getting the flu vaccine.
But in recent years, the efficacy of the vaccine has been called into question, mostly on the basis of a few years in which it hasn’t helped much to prevent flu epidemics from sweeping across the country.
Why doesn’t the vaccine work every year? Does the occasional failure mean you don’t need the flu vaccine at all?
Making the Flu Vaccine
The virus which causes flu is one which mutates very readily. While your immune system protects you from flu viruses you have encountered in the past, it can’t necessarily prevent you from becoming sick if you encounter a new mutant form. So the immune system isn’t perfect – and neither is the way in which flu vaccine is made.
Flu vaccine is made afresh every year, with scientists predicting which types of flu will be prevalent in the coming winter several months in advance, and making a vaccine to protect against those types. The problem with this is that those predictions don’t always turn out to be accurate. In cases where the flu vaccine doesn’t provide the expected level of protection, it is because the prevalent types of flu don’t match the predictions which were originally made.
So do you need the Flu Vaccine?
Even though the vaccine isn’t 100% foolproof, it’s still a good idea to get it, particularly if you are considered to be at risk. Young children, seniors, and people with chronic or immunosuppressive diseases are considered to be at risk of developing a serious illness if they become sick with flu.
It’s not necessarily that the flu itself is dangerous – but even if you don’t become seriously ill with flu itself, if you’re in an at-risk group, you run the risk of secondary infections such as pneumonia.
Anyone can get the flu vaccine if they want it, but the CDC recommends that it is particularly important for people who fall into any of the following categories:
- Children aged between six months and nineteen years
- Adults aged 50 and over
- Pregnant women
- Anyone with a chronic medical condition
- Anyone living in a long-term care facility (such as a nursing home)
- People who live with or care for people who are at risk (such as healthcare workers)
References and Further Reading