HealthViews

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1#

Back to re-shifting this blog to health issues.

I am one of the people who gets the seasonal flu vaccine yearly.  I debate about it with my friends since many of them don't get it while others religiously get it.  In Boston, free flu vaccine clinics are widely, publicly announced.  In SF, I have not received any information regarding flu clinics.  This topic of flu vaccination is deeply divided.  Some will get it yearly while others have never gotten the vaccine and haven't ever gotten the flu.  What is happening here?  Why the debate?  Isn't this science where something is tested, then the trials, studies and results tell us the answer?

The article, Does the Vaccine Matter by Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer questions seasonal and H1N1 vaccine efficacy/effectiveness.  While it is true that we do rely heavily on vaccines as the answer for the flu season, I agree with the article that more public education should be conducted regarding prevention via washing hands and isolation when feeling flu-like symptoms.

I am surprised about the resistance faced of conducting a placebo-based trial. But, if we know the vaccine causes some good then is the trial unethical?  And alarmed of the Rumsfield association of Tamiflu reserves into the market.

I think the strongest point from this article is yes, vaccines are not the be-all answer. I also believe that placebo-based trials should be conducted on the vaccines - perhaps in healthy patients where the risk is low of getting severe symptoms. There are many confounding factors that may influence our perception of the efficacy of these flu vaccines. Yet, avoiding the answers is like skipping over science and basing our actions on theory and hand-me-down knowledge. What happened for the push and the movement towards evidence-based medicine and standards?  Page 3 of the article is great- maybe the vaccination of the healthy people is a herd effect where it keeps the flu from spreading.  Perhaps we continue on this path.  If it has been proven that it doesn't cause any harm and we are unsure of how much good it causes, then wouldn't we take that risk of the unknown amount of good it causes and get the vaccine?