Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Flu Shot Recall Map (Part 1)

The Internet is still mostly young people's territory, so most of you readers are probably too young to need routine flu shots anyway. So am I, and I'm glad, especially when news like this breaks:

http://voices.yahoo.com/novartis-flu-vaccine-recall-europe-canada-11846057.html?cat=5

Something about having survived 1975-76, the year when flu shots were definitely linked to cancer in the U.S., has made me wary of flu shots. Some of my elders get them every year and don't have cancer...but I still think we're not hearing the whole story.

My husband believed in flu shots, and, by taking early retirement, got them as part of his pension plan. He believed that flu shots do not make it possible for patients to transmit flu to others. So around this time every year--except the year he came down with cancer, when vaccine shortages kept him waiting in line behind Real Seniors--my husband would have a flu shot. Within two days he'd have a mild case of flu. And two days later I'd have a mild case of flu. It really was as if I was getting flu shots by proxy, because after sharing a mild case of flu we were flu-free for the rest of the year.

On the whole, this was a good thing. Still, it definitely suggests that he was transmitting flu to me, which tends to undermine my faith in anything else the vaccine industry tells us about flu shots.

Should you get one? Should you double-check which company manufactured the vaccine? Should you wait for updates on this news story? (Reuters is pretty good about covering this kind of story; I prefer to get news from Carol Roach when possible, because she's a disabled writer who works for tiny page-view payments. Please, if following this story, check with both sources.)

How would I know whether you should get a flu shot? I'm not your doctor; I don't know the risks and benefits for you. Generally, seniors and immune-compromised people are advised to get flu shots, and healthy people under age 50 or 60 are not. I would recommend talking to a doctor, this year, instead of just trusting the first "free flu shots" clinic that opens up in your neighborhood. Free vaccine is likely to be the vaccine that's been rejected by other people...so beware!

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