Evidence mounts against flu shots for elderly

For more than 40 years seniors have been encouraged to get a flu shot. But a new study from British medical journal The Lancet is the latest to question whether flu shots work for people older than 70, a group that makes up about three-fourths of all flu-related deaths (Source: “Doubts Grow Over Flu Vaccine in Elderly,” New York Times, Sept. 2, 2008).

Most immuniologists and epidemiologists, even those who say the vaccine probably doesn’t work, are quick to point out that the elderly should still continue to get the shot until more studies are conducted.

The Lancet study, which was published last month, concluded that previous studies on the efficacy of flu shots on the elderly were flawed because they measured the fundamental differences between the kind of people who get the vaccine rather than the vaccine's actual protection against the flu.

“The whole notion of who needs the vaccine and why is changing before our eyes,” said Peter Doshi, a doctoral candidate at M.I.T. who published a paper on the historical impact of influenza in May in The American Journal of Public Health.