Flupocalypse Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In the last article we considered the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine. In this year of media dubbed “Flupocalypse”, the hysteria is again simply mindless propaganda. It is predictable.

The headlines tell us hospitals are a “war zone”, a “crisis” is here, and there is “fear” in the air. These words aren’t used without purpose, they are meant to scare the masses enough to accept and seek out treatment that is totally unproven and, in reality, is proven not to be effective.

Flu Review

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

If you’ve read this column for any length of time, you know a frequent topic is vaccinations of any kind, but especially the treatment for influenza, aka the flu.

Unfortunately, many people actually believe recommendations from our governments Center for Disease Control (CDC).  They supposedly help people make important health decisions. For many years they have advocated that virtually every man, women and child be vaccinated yearly for the flu.

As recently as last year the CDC recommended that “either vaccine is appropriate (the shot or the nasal spray) for people age 2 through 49.” But, in a complete reversal of itself from last year, the CDC advisory committee now says that the nasal spray vaccine, known as FluMist, NOT be used. How can it be that one year it works and the next year doesn’t?