Should you double up on COVID-19 booster and flu shot?
Our reckless health authorities are potentially worsening matters further by pushing people to simultaneously get the updated
bivalent COVID-19 booster and a seasonal flu vaccine this fall.
Early in September 2022, White House medical adviser
Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to “
Get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you are eligible,” and White House COVID-19 coordinator
Ashish Jha, September 6, stated, “I really believe this is why God gave us two arms, one for the flu shot and the other one for the COVID shot” — a statement that will live on in infamy as one of the most ridiculous comments from a public health official ever uttered.
One problem, although hardly the most important one, is that it’s still far too early for a flu shot.
As noted by
STAT News:
“The protection generated by influenza vaccines erodes pretty quickly over the course of a flu season. A vaccine dose given in early September may offer limited protection if the flu season doesn’t peak until February or even March, as it did during the unusually late 2021-2022 season.
“‘If you start now, I am not a big fan of it,’ Florian Krammer, an influenza expert at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, told STAT. ‘I understand why this is promoted, but from an immunological point of view it doesn’t make much sense.’”
STAT cites research showing the effectiveness of the
flu shot wanes by about 18% for every 28 days post-vaccination. What it doesn’t mention is the fact that the flu shot historically has had an effectiveness well below 50% to start with.
The 2018/2019 flu vaccines, for example, which outperformed the 2017/2018 vaccines, had an adjusted effectiveness rating of:
- 29% for all ages.
- 49% for children aged 6 months through 8 years.
- 6% for children ages 9 through 17.
- 25% for adults between the ages of 18 and 49.
- 12% for those over 50.