The ol' homestead

HELP OR HYPE?

State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Remley, a Virginia pediatrician, recommends the flu shot as basic prevention, “Flu is one of the leading causes of death in our country. With over 36,000 people dying every year in our country - and it’s preventable by getting a flu shot.” The federal government finds that of the stated 36,000 deaths, only about 1,000 people die directly from the flu virus. The remaining 35,000 deaths are credited to diseases like pneumonia that may follow the flu. However, there’s no clear scientific connection between the fl u and these more serious affl ictions, which means statistically, most of the time the shot would have little impact in actually preventing death.

FLU SHOT SIDE EFFECTS?

Barbara Loe Fisher, head of the non-governmental National Vaccine Information Center, says the repeated reference to 36,000 deaths seems to be an attempt to scare people into getting the shot. She suggests that the public is smart enough to decide independently and a free market would be better, “If we allow vaccines to be subject to the test of the marketplace, then the public will use those vaccines they consider to be safe, effective, and necessary.” Critics worry about long-term side effects from the flu shot. As listed on government websites, vaccine makers report problems in the blood, immune system, brain, lungs, and joints. One researcher claims that there is ten times as much Alzheimer’s disease in older people regularly getting the shot versus those who get no or few flu shots. Ms. Fisher’s new book, “Vaccines, Autism & Chronic Infl ammation: The New Epidemic” addresses the safety issues with vaccines. Those concerns have led her to look at alternatives.

FLU SHOT ALTERNATIVES

One alternative favored by a number of physicians is Vitamin D. Dr. John Cannell, executive director of the Vitamin D Council, suggests the reason we even have a flu season is because our Vitamin D levels drop naturally, as we get less and less sun with the approach of winter. Cannell explains that less sun means we produce less Vitamin D in our skin, “Pretty much any disease, any infectious disease that is more common in winter, is a target of Vitamin D.” He says that’s even true with some of the serious, non-seasonal, prolonged diseases such as tuberculosis. Early in the 19th century, TB sanitariums where people would get sun were one of the few ways to recover from “consumption,” as it was known back then. Cannell suggests that babies get 1,000 units a day of Vitamin D and those 2 years and older get 2,000 units a day of Vitamin D; although he believes that many adults and some children need to take more than that. For kids, that can come as a single daily drop of liquid Vitamin D. Cannell says a recent discovery explains Vitamin D’s role in the fl u season: the vitamin triggers your body to produce its own antibiotics against the flu - as well as colds. While Dr. Remley says getting the shot is the first priority, she also finds nutrition quite important. For her, the research is becoming clearer, “We’re learning every day, more and more, that there are a number of vitamins thatwe are deficient in. Vitamin D is certainly one of them because we have way too many people who spend a whole lot of time indoors.” Older people have long been considered more vulnerable to the flu and its consequences. Over the past forty years, public health officials have continued to encourage that age group especially to have the shot. Yet critics say the flu shot appears to make no difference. In 1980, flu vaccine coverage among the elderly was 15 percent. Now, it’s 65 percent, or over four times the number of seniors who get the shot. Understandably, the number of deaths should have gone down, but government mortality charts from the National Center for Health Statistics show no downward trend.

THE BENEFIT TO THE WORKPLACE

There does, however, seem to be an advantage to getting the flu shot for the workplace. Remley comments, “One of the reasons why the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), recommends that people over 50 get the vaccine, it [the flu] causes significant loss of your ability to work, to function; when you really get the flu, you are out for a week.” Of course, that rationale can apply to younger workers as well. So what can be done to curb that lost productivity? Research from an American Medical Association study found that 3 percent of unvaccinated adults got the flu. Of those vaccinated, only 2 percent came down with influenza. In other words, one in every 100 shots prevents a case of the flu. Nearly 150 million doses of flu vaccine have been produced in hopes of preventing people from getting the flu between now and April. Theoretically, according to those statistics, if all 150 million doses are administered, that could mean a reduction of as much as one and a half million cases of the flu.

WHAT ABOUT OUR KIDS?

The flu shot is now recommended for all children beginning from six months to eighteen years of age. Mothers, like Heather Maurer, have read up on the flu shot and are resisting the trend. She says the vaccine couldcompromise her infant daughter’s immune system, “In addition, I’m not interested in exposing her to the various toxins in the flu vaccine.” According to Fisher, “In 1982, the government said all children should get 23 doses of 7 vaccines by age 6. Today, with the addition of influenza vaccine to those recommendations, our children are being asked to get 69 doses of 16 vaccines from birth to age 18.” That’s a tripling of the doses. Fisher adds that we could be trading brief infections for long-term disability: “No, they’re not getting chicken pox, they’re not getting measles or whooping cough, but they are becoming chronically ill — a tripling of the numbers of children suffering with learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma, diabetes, autism, rheumatoid arthritis, [and] inflammatory bowel disease.”

VACCINE ENFORCEMENT?

Fisher spoke recently at a rally protesting New Jersey’s new vaccine law. The state is forcing parents, whose children attend daycare and preschool, to get their children vaccinated against the flu. Fisher says that raises questions about the public’s right to “obey the dictates of conscience” or to pray for guidance and “obey the guidance you’re given.” In fact, she adds that the government should not force parents to inject their child “…with any kind of biological [product] or give our child a pharmaceutical product that could injure or kill our child without our voluntary, informed consent. That’s the very definition of freedom.”

NO EASY ANSWERS

What will you say when your medical practitioner asks if you or members of your family are going to get a flu shot this year? Between the medical uncertainties surrounding the flu vaccine, and the public policy questions about the limits of government to enforce vaccination, what was once a simple yes or no answer about getting a flu shot is now a much more complicated decision - for our children, for our senior citizens, and for ourselves.

*This article is taken from the CBN News piece Flu Shot Update by Gailon Totheroh, CBN News Science and Medical Reporter. First airing: November 5, 2008 on The 700 Club and was brought to my attention by my sister, and once reading it , I realized it voices my concern exact. While this may not be your view -it certainly is mine, and I appreciate it if you respect that  by not commenting arguementively.