Flu shots---Dr Mendelsohn MD
I never can think about flu shots without remembering a wedding I once attended. Strangely enough, no grandparents were among the participants, and no one who was present seemed to be over 60. When I asked where all the older folks were, I was told they had all received their flu shots a few days before, and they all were at home, recovering from the ill effects of the shots:
The flu vaccine’s efficacy and potency still are subjects of great debate, particularly since the strains covered by one year’s vaccine often fail to correspond to whatever strains are causing flu at that particular time. The entire effort resembles a game of roulette in which, in any given year, the numbers may or may not match the strains.
We were all afforded a peek into the real dangers of the flu vaccine in 1976 when close governmental surveillance of one strain, the swine flu vaccine, disclosed that 565 cases of Guillain—Barre paralysis were associated with this vaccine, as were the unexplained deaths of 30 elderly persons. One wonders how much more would be known about the ill effects of flu shots if this kind of surveillance had been exercised over everyone who had received other forms of flu vaccine over the years
What’s ahead for the future? A vaccine has been developed for Russian flu which Dr. John Seal of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease says may cause the same paralyzing Guillain—Barre syndrome. "We have to go on the basis that any and all flu vaccines are capable of causing Guillain—Barre," Dr. Seal says. Again, we are quick to pull the immunization trigger, but we are slow to examine the consequences of our actions.