{"id":7923,"date":"2015-11-29T21:57:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T02:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=7923"},"modified":"2015-11-29T21:57:51","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T02:57:51","slug":"flu-vaccine-keeps-taking-hits-still-the-best-weve-got-dont-stop-belivin-sic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/flu-vaccine-keeps-taking-hits-still-the-best-weve-got-dont-stop-belivin-sic\/2015\/11\/29\/","title":{"rendered":"Flu Vaccine Keeps Taking Hits, Still the Best We’ve Got — Don’t Stop “Belivin'” [sic]"},"content":{"rendered":"

For reasons understood only by the geniuses in Mountain View, CA, for some reason my Google news feed picked up this bit of “scientific” reporting:<\/a>\"Ohio_Makes_People_Belive_They_Need_A_Flu_Vaccine\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let me allow the author, an unfortunately named “Clapway” (gonorrhea researcher?),\u00a0to speak for him\/herself:<\/p>\n

However, is the flu vaccine really worth it? The author of this article never takes it and has not had the flu in years, knock on wood. There have also been various stories around the web that have stated that people who get the vaccine, immediately get the flu. It then has to be considered that the flu vaccine can be risky to take.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is this an Onion parody? Or did Google stumble on a Junior High School science\/tech blog? If so, a brief word of advice to the author — always double-check spelling (especially the title) before posting.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the recent news on the flu vaccine hasn’t been great — a rehash of reduced effectiveness from repeated immunizations<\/a> (data are from a study\u00a0published last year<\/a>), how poorly the vaccine\u00a0protects against H3N2<\/a>, and a study suggesting that statins reduce vaccine efficacy<\/a>.\u00a0Of course people taking statins (cardiovascular risk, older) are exactly<\/em> the people we want to get the vaccine!<\/p>\n

On the good news front, we have yet another FDA-approved flu vaccine<\/a>, this one with the wonderfully named adjuvant squalene<\/a> to boost immune response. And boy does this new vaccine\u00a0have a strange-looking\u00a0brand name — “Fluad.” Good grief. Add it to the zillions of other flu vaccines available — just choose one!<\/p>\n

Other good news: \u00a0This year’s vaccine seems to match the \u00a0circulating flu virus much better than last year. Cautious optimism.<\/p>\n

So warts notwithstanding, until the “universal” flu vaccine is available,<\/a> the current annual\u00a0vaccine (in all its various permutations)\u00a0is the best we’ve got. Even during last year’s dismal performance, there’s some evidence it prevented flu-related illness severe enough to cause hospitalization.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Wise words here<\/a> from ID colleague Dr. Larry Madoff, who is Director of Epidemiology and Immunization at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n

Good enough for me.<\/p>\n

[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VcjzHMhBtf0&w=420&h=315]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For reasons understood only by the geniuses in Mountain View, CA, for some reason my Google news feed picked up this bit of “scientific” reporting: Let me allow the author, an unfortunately named “Clapway” (gonorrhea researcher?),\u00a0to speak for him\/herself: However, is the flu vaccine really worth it? The author of this article never takes it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,8,9,10],"tags":[365,1110,500],"class_list":["post-7923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-infectious-diseases","category-patient-care","category-policy","category-research","tag-flu-vaccine","tag-h3n2","tag-influenza"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}