Is the Flu Vaccine Worth It?
Flu season is coming once again. Anyone who has had the flu knows that it is a terrible experience — I can vouch for this first-hand. As much as I empathize with those affected by the flu, I am equally as disappointed by the government’s lack of response to decreasing this epidemic.
Many people are asking, should I get the vaccine? Will it prevent me from getting the flu? These are legit questions in our current skeptical climate about vaccines. Laying it out plain and simple: The influenza vaccine is the best prevention for flu in the world. I fully support our vaccination programs throughout the world. But the vaccine falls short of providing the immunity it could to our society.
While increasing the number of people getting vaccinated can help with herd immunity and prevent more illness, it is the actual vaccine that needs to be improved to provide a much higher effective immunity to our population. A 40.9% overall average efficacy (2004–2018) is plain lousy, especially when it was 10% in 2004–2005.
What I suggest is that, given the technology available to us in the 21st century, we should already have a universal influenza vaccine that would cover over 90% of patients who receive the injection. Imagine the impact that would have on society. Why is a 1970s vaccine grown in eggs the best we’ve got?
We should already have a universal influenza vaccine that could cover over 90% of patients.
Influenza’s yearly devastation
Though the number of deaths related to influenza has decreased significantly since the early 1900s, it is still the 8th leading cause of mortality in the United States. In 2017–2018, there were a whopping 80,000 deaths related to influenza.
To give perspective, before vaccines based on CDC data, the number of deaths/year from measles was estimated to be 400–500 while mumps caused very few deaths. In 1950, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio caused 410, 336, 1,118, and 1,904 deaths respectively. Compare this to influenza and you can see that the flu trumps all of these other viruses combined.
The number of hospitalizations and resources used to treat influenza, as well as days off work and decreased productivity, are significant. It is estimated by the CDC that almost 7% of the population in the United States, almost 20 million people, saw a doctor for influenza-like-illness in 2018-2019, while many others were likely affected. There were up to 650,000 hospitalizations and 60,000 deaths.
What is a universal influenza vaccine?
I am a believer in the flu vaccine. I stand by the CDC in that it helps to prevent influenza in a percentage of the population and decreases the severity of symptoms in others who contract the illness. It is amazing that we have the ability to prevent such a devastating virus. But I believe fiercely that we can do better.
Scientists have already been working on a universal influenza vaccine and say that they are close. While the current vaccine focuses on creating antibodies to proteins on the influenza virus that change each year, which is the reason influenza has been so difficult to control, new techniques focus on regions of the virus that are “conserved” each year (do not change), ultimately making the vaccine more universal and effective.
Another technique attempts to modify the flu virus so that it can infect humans without replicating, enabling humans to create immunity without the symptoms of a true infection.
It all comes down to money
The research is promising, but the funding is severely lacking. Federal research funding in 2018 for heart disease was $1.4 billion and cancer research was $6.3 billion. Influenza research, on the other hand, was a mere $340 million.
Even worse, the amount dedicated to vaccine research was very small, estimated by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2017 to be around $85 million, with only $30 million devoted to the universal influenza vaccine.
Much of the other money was used to make an educated guess predicting which strain might plague society in the coming year. The process is antiquated and leaves our population vulnerable to unnecessary severe illness.
A call to action
The time is ripe to step up funding for the universal influenza vaccine. In fact, in 2018, the United States Senate introduced a bill known as the Flu Vaccine Act. The bill proposed $1 billion in research over 5 years to create a universal flu vaccine.
Unfortunately, the bill was stalled in the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. This bill would have been a game-changer for influenza and I hope to see movement in the near future with a new similar bill. Unfortunately, with the current inaction in Congress, I am not hopeful.
The impact of a universal flu vaccine to society would be enormous. We may never rid the world of influenza, but we can certainly make it more bearable with the success of a universal vaccine.
Until then, we are stuck playing the guessing game, washing our hands, and anxiously hoping to be the lucky ones each year that avoid the flu. But we can make a difference by getting the flu vaccine, no matter its efficacy. It’s not just for you, but for all of those around you. Getting the flu vaccine protects us all. And hopefully, in the future, it will be even better.
“Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.” -Jonas Salk (pioneer of the first polio vaccine)