Flu Shot...Yes or No?
With Lee Hazen, DC

National Institute of Health researchers have published a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine that challenges standard government dogma that giving flu shots to the elderly has saved lives. This study, based on more than three decades of U.S. data, suggests while it's smart for senior citizens to get their yearly flu shots because it can decrease their risk of getting sick, a smarter government strategy would emphasize shots for children, ages 5 to 18.

A shift to vaccinating school children is advocated by Doctor Orenstein who is the former director of the CDC's National Immunization Program and now leads a program for vaccine policy development at Emory University. Dr. Orenstein's colleagues at Emory have written a separate report to be published in the American Journal of Epidemiology that agrees with these suggested changes.
 
The flu vaccine is less effective in the elderly than in younger people. It works, but not very well, said Ira Longini, a biostatistics professor at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and a proponent of vaccinating schoolchildren. "If we really want to make a difference and control influenza, we simply have to change the policy. We have to vaccinate large numbers of children," Longini said. He and his colleague Dr. Elizabeth Halloran write that if 70 percent of schoolchildren were vaccinated, the elderly would be protected without flu shots. The strategy would require 42 million doses of flu vaccine. Even during this season's shortage, there were 57 million doses available, their report says.
 
However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta plans no change in its advice on who should get flu shots, saying the NIH research isn't enough to shift gears. "We think the best way to help the elderly is to vaccinate them," said CDC epidemiologist William Thompson. "These results don't contribute to changing vaccine policy."

The CDC currently recommends flu shots for people age 50 and over, nursing home residents, children 6-23 months, pregnant women, people with chronic health problems and certain health care and day care workers. When vaccine was scarce a few months ago, healthy adults under 65 were urged to forgo the shot.

For the average senior citizen, the annual risk of dying from the flu remains low: about 1 in 1,000. The CDC said senior citizens still should try to get flu shots, but shouldn't panic if vaccine isn't available.