What to do About the Flu this Season

This winter seems to be worse than others for people getting sick.  I have been a doctor for over 11 years now and this seems to be one of the worse flu seasons.  Because of it being worse than others media seems to be pushing the vaccine now more than ever but the first data on how well the flu vaccine is working this season in North America has just been published — and it helps explain why everyone appears to be sick right now.  

It actually explains the vaccine's ineffectiveness so getting the flu vaccine makes even less sense right now.  The study, from the journal Eurosurveillance, found that the flu vaccine was only 10 percent effective against H3N2 (the main flu subtype going around in the US this season) among adults aged 20 to 64 years old in Canada.  The protection rate rose to 17 percent when considering all age groups.

In most adults, the study suggests the shot would only prevent 10 percent of H3N2 flu cases. So if 100 in 1,000 unvaccinated people develop flu, the number would drop to 90 in 1,000 among vaccinated people — a very small difference in flu risk between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. And more than 80 percent of confirmed US flu cases have involved H3N2.

“The evidence is mounting, from Australia and now from Canada, that the vaccine protection is low [this year],” said lead study author Danuta Skowronski, an influenza epidemiologist at the British Columbia Center for Disease Control. “Given the same H3N2 subtype [is circulating in the US], our estimate of low vaccine protection should also apply to the US.”

In a good year, the flu shot’s effectiveness hovers between 50 and 70 percent. But in years when the H3N2 type of flu virus circulates — as it is this year — the vaccine tends to be less protective.

So Skowronski wasn’t surprised by the dismal data. Plus, in Australia, where the flu season peaks in August and H3N2 struck as well, early estimates suggested the shot was only 10 percent effective there too.

There are a couple of reasons why it’s harder to vaccinate against H3N2. For one, the virus mutates as it moves through the population at a faster rate than other flu viruses — making it even harder to design a shot that matches the circulating virus.

One other reason the flu vaccine tends to underperform in H3N2 years has to do with ... eggs. To produce the vaccines, manufacturers need to grow a lot of flu virus — and they discovered long ago that flu virus grows extremely effectively in eggs. So viruses are injected into fertilized hen’s eggs, incubated for several days while they replicate, then harvested from the eggs, killed (or inactivated), and purified to go into vaccines.

“It’s an antiquated process, but it’s time-honored,” Anthony Fauci, the head of the NIH’s infectious diseases division, explained. While flu vaccines developed with more modern (cell-based and recombinant) methods of production have been licensed in the US, it’s not yet clear they are more protective against flu than the egg-based vaccines.

Plus, no other cell system comes close to growing the flu virus as cheaply or efficiently as eggs, and the industry has invested a lot in the egg-production infrastructure. So, Fauci explained, “We are stuck in the [egg-based] way, and it’s tough to transition to a more modern technology.”

But lately, researchers have found that there are problems with the egg-based approach that specifically relate to H3N2. “In the process of adapting virus to grow in eggs, that seems to introduce further changes to the [H3N2] virus, which may impair the effectiveness of the vaccine,” Belongia said. In other words, while growing the flu virus for vaccines, H3N2 mutates to adapt to the eggs, which seems to result in a vaccine mismatch.

Flu activity most commonly peaks in the United States between December and February so we have a few more weeks before we are in the clear.  Until then if you want to do what you can to stay protected Healing Arts does offer the homeopathic version of the 2017-2018 flu vaccine. It's only $16 and will last you the rest of the flu season (we now have the 2018-2019 version). 

We also have Wellness Blend that I formulated because I wanted that one supplement to help people both prevent and fight both bacterial and viral illnesses.  Sometimes when people come to my office sick they need 3 new supplements just to fight off their cold.  It's ironic but sometimes when we feel the sickest is when we feel the least inclined to take our supplements.  So to help I wanted to create one supplement that would cover what 3 supplements would do to try to make it easier for my patients.  

It's formulated to also help prevent getting sick. Just take one capsule a day.  When feeling run down, like you might be catching something, take 2 capsules a day and when sick, take 3 capsules a day.  Best is to get muscle tested for it but if you can't get muscle tested those are my suggestions.  

Stay hydrated, eat well, get good sleep and then take those two supplements to prevent getting sick and you should do well this flu season!