In good years, people ignore the flu vaccine because they think the illness is no big deal. In bad years like this one, they complain that it doesn’t work well enough.
But the biggest problem, says Dr. Gregory Poland, a vaccine researcher, is that scientists are still trying to understand the flu virus and come up with a better alternative. That means that every flu season, officials confront the challenge they face this year as deaths and hospitalizations mount: pleading with people to rally behind their best line of defense.
“Like every single man-made product, influenza vaccine is imperfect,” said Poland, head of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic. “But I liken it to seat belts. Who would want to be in a crash without a seat belt?”
The truth is that the flu shot, with all its imperfections, is as vexing to scientists like Poland as it has been to the general public.
On Friday, federal officials estimated that this year’s flu vaccine is only about 60 percent effective. That’s better than nothing, said Dr. Edward Ehlinger, the Minnesota health commissioner. But, he admits, “I think we’re all in agreement that we need a much better vaccine.”
The flu vaccine, Ehlinger said, never has been “one of the star performers.”
University of Minnesota scientist Michael Osterholm is even more blunt, calling the flu vaccine “overpromoted and overhyped.”
Osterholm, a former Minnesota state epidemiologist, hastens to point out that he and his family still get flu shots. But his research suggests that, over time, the vaccine has worked on little more than half of adults under 65, and offered little if any protection to those most at risk — the elderly.
Osterholm said researchers need at least a billion dollars to develop a better way of protecting people from a disease that kills thousands of Americans, mostly the frail and elderly, every year.
Poland, who has studied vaccines for 25 years, says there are plenty of reasons a particular vaccine might not work.
“Not all people respond to all vaccines,” he said. In his research, for example, he found that 10 percent of children have little or no response to the measles vaccine, apparently due to a genetic quirk.
Age makes a difference, too. Scientists have discovered that the older we get, the weaker our immune systems become. As a result, they don’t respond as well to vaccines, which are designed to rev up the immune system to fight off disease.
It’s even trickier when it comes to the flu, Poland said. Unlike measles, the flu virus changes constantly—so it becomes a moving target for vaccine designers.
When the flu vaccine goes into production, often early in the year, scientists have to guess which strains will be circulating among the general population six to nine months later. And by that time, the virus might have changed again.
“It’s why we have to give (a different) vaccine every year,” Poland said.
Eventually, Poland says, that should change. Scientists are working on what some call the “Holy Grail” of flu shots—a universal vaccine that would have to be given only two or three times in a lifetime.
Those vaccines, which are in early testing, target microscopic bits of the influenza virus that don’t change from year to year. But realistically, he said, it might take up to 10 years before a universal flu vaccine is ready.
The vaccine evolves
In the meantime, Poland says, new flu vaccines have come on the market designed especially for older patients (with quadruple the regular dose) and the needle-averse (a micro-shot). And future flu vaccines might be available by patch.
But until they find a way to eliminate the annual flu shot, he said, they’ll always encounter resistance.
“You hear people say, ‘It’s just the flu …. I’m not going to get the vaccine unless I hear that it’s a really bad year,’” Poland said.
“And this weighs on me heavily. Every year, people have to die and be hospitalized before the population tends to take it seriously.”
Ehlinger says it’s a tough message to get across, but flu shots aren’t just about individual protection.
“It’s not just about you getting protected, but the people around you,” he said.
Studies have shown, for example, that vaccinating children can lower the risk of disease for their grandparents.
“Our message is that we need to take flu seriously because it is a serious illness,” Ehlinger said. “And the best protection that we do have, although it’s not perfect, is flu vaccine.”
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Kelly Smith contributed to this report.
