• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Flu vaccine only 9 percent effective for seniors

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
I was listening to a radio station on the way to work and they were talking about this.

I remember some teacher calling in and said "I work with kids each and every day for past 15 years and never got a flu shot....or flu"

:biggrin:
 
airdata said:
In other words, there's a 91% chance it won't protect against a damn thing.

Sounds like a ponzi scheme to me... how much are these things per dose?
Click to expand...

Most places were charging I think $30 this year. Up from $20 or $25 last year.
 
Looking like a bad flu season
picurve07.gif
 
The elderly have a bad immune system and giving them like 45 different strains of inactivated flu vaccine over the course of 15 years probably didn't do it much good.
 
SunnyD said:
Bottom curve is the seasonal baseline, top curve is the minimum to be considered an "epidemic", the red squiggly line is actual mortality percentages. It's not fucking rocket science.
Click to expand...

If you think a one or two week spike slightly above the epidemic threshold (as they occurred in 2009 and 2012) counts as a seasonal epidemic then, as I said, you can't read the chart and have no idea what you're talking about.
 
Gibsons said:
Are you saying it would hurt? How?
Click to expand...

Wear out the immune systems ability to have enough memory B cells, if as an elderly person you don't have many WBC's to begin with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_B_cell

That would be my theory why it had such a poor success rate with the elderly vs other demographics.

By now they've had 45? ~ish strains of flu vaccine?

If you started getting them when you were 55 and you are now 70 thats 15 years of flu vaccine, its a trivalent vaccine so 3 strains per year. Yuck. No one knows what that does to your immune system. Going by the 9% effectiveness rate, nothing good.
 
child of wonder said:
If you think a one or two week spike slightly above the epidemic threshold (as they occurred in 2009 and 2012) counts as a seasonal epidemic then, as I said, you can't read the chart and have no idea what you're talking about.
Click to expand...

The flu vaccine manufacturers will have you read that chart literally though... :colbert:

$$$$$$
 
At the home where my 85 year old mother lives, approximately 90% of the residents suffered flu symptoms this winter. At one point, the head nurse considered putting the place on quarantine lock down, just to keep people from visiting, and spreading it to the residents who were lucky enough to not have it.

My sister told me that one evening, when she came in to visit with Mom, there were approximately 13 residents having dinner in the dining room. That was about 1/3 of the number they'd normally see in there.

Luckily, my mother, her roommate, and the two ladies in the next door room, all got through without catching it. :awe:
 
OverVolt said:
Wear out the immune systems ability to have enough memory B cells, if as an elderly person you don't have many WBC's to begin with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_B_cell

That would be my theory why it had such a poor success rate with the elderly vs other demographics.

By now they've had 45? ~ish strains of flu vaccine?

If you started getting them when you were 55 and you are now 70 thats 15 years of flu vaccine, its a trivalent vaccine so 3 strains per year. Yuck. No one knows what that does to your immune system. Going by the 9% effectiveness rate, nothing good.
Click to expand...

I know what a memory B cell is, I'm an immunologist. You haven't answered the question or even addressed it.
 
I'm sure more people got the flu from getting the shot than it prevented from getting the flu.
 
KK said:
And you are going to say no one in history has ever got the flu from the vaccine, right?
Click to expand...

I'm fairly confident that I can safely say that no one has ever gotten the flu as a result of an injected vaccine, being that it is a dead virus. If you can point to a real case, please do not hesitate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top