Do Your Kids Need the Flu Vaccine?

FALL HAS ARRIVED AND SO HAS THE INFLUENZA SEASON, which means that your child has already caught at least one cold.

If you’ve got a kid between the ages of 2 and 7, the nasal spray is definitely the way to go. According to a 2012 systematic review of the scientific literature, among kids this age, the spray has an efficacy of 83 percent. This is very high—by comparison, the flu shot, among kids this age, has only about 48 percent efficacy. But what does “83 percent efficacy” actually mean? What it doesn’t mean is that, for every 100 kids who get the inoculation, 83 are spared of the flu. Instead, it’s a relative risk comparison, which means that kids who get the vaccine are 83 percent less likely to get the flu than kids who don’t get the vaccine. If you average the data from the 10 trials included in the 2012 systematic review, 16 percent of unvaccinated kids caught the flu, whereas only 3.4 percent of those who got the nasal vaccine did. (I know it seems like a higher percentage of kids get the flu each year. But keep in mind there are many, many flu-like viruses out there that aren’t actually influenza. Flu vaccines only prevent those that are influenza, a point that some vaccine skeptics, such as Dr. Mercola, seem to miss when they argue that the flu vaccine doesn’t prevent illness in general. No—it does not.)

FOR THE REMAINDING OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER GET THE INTRANASAL INFLUENZA FOR FREE.

VISIT OUR SOUTH DALLAS LOCATION OR CALL 214-428-2010 FOR MORE INFO.