BehindTheMedspeak: Flu Shot Follies

I wasn't even gonna bother with this whole subject, the flu and the surrounding uproar over the vaccine shortage, but I've gotten kind of annoyed reading the big headlines every morning about how getting a flu shot has become, for many people, the focus of their existence.

I mean, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reports that one man arrived just after 4 a.m. at our local Kroger to get in line for a shot that wouldn't be given until 1 p.m. that afternoon.

Hey, gang, these aren't World Series tickets they're selling, they're flu shots.

I never understood why people got flu shots, anyhow.

I mean, the shot hurts, your arm feels sore and aches, you get a little sick, and for what?

So that maybe - maybe - you don't get the flu?

Here's a dirty little secret about flu shots: you can still get the flu even after you've had a shot.

Between 10% and 30% of those vaccinated get it anyway.

And there's one thing you can get from a flu shot you won't get from the flu.

It's called Guillain-Barré syndrome.

It's devastating.

And it's associated with flu shots.

True, it's rare.

But it'll destroy your life.

Victims often are on respirators for months.

No one knows how many, really.

Because no one really can keep track of the scattered, infrequent cases.

Me, I take the Warren Buffett approach to flu shots, just like I do with anything medical or, for that matter, life-related.

If the downside is enough to wreak havoc with me, no matter how unlikely it is to happen, then no matter how good the upside is, I'll pass.

So I'll pass on the flu shot once again this year, just like I have every year.

Even though I'm a doctor with patient contact, and so eligible to go to the head of the queue.

You can have mine.

Anyway, for most people the flu is like a cold.

You get it, you live with it a few days, you get over it.

I mean, the fact people actually go to the doctor or ER because they have flu symptoms is, to me, beyond bizarre.

Then there are the various companies out making big bucks on various useless things.

For example, Quidel Corporation took out a full-page ad in Monday's USA Today touting their QuickVue flu test.

You go in and get a test to prove you have the flu.

Wonder what that costs.

Hey, gang - if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and quacks like a duck - it's probably a duck.

You don't need a weatherman to see which way the duck flies.

Wait a minute.

That's not how it goes.

Is it?

Wind blows, yeah, that's right. Where was I?

Oh, yeah, flu-associated medical rip-offs.

I believe doctors who prescribe the currently available anti-viral drugs for the flu are just this side of practicing bad medicine.

These drugs won't do much good, and they may have side-effects far worse than any flu.

Besides, they're expensive as heck; just a complete Big Pharma scam on the hapless consumer/patient.

You sit home, you drink tea, you take some Tylenol, you rest.

Trust me.

I'm a doctor.