The Fading Flu Shot
By Cathy Jameson
Years ago, you couldn’t miss flu shot propaganda. On signage at the grocery store, in multiple magazine ads, on radio and television ads, too - It. Was. Everywhere. For some time, reminders came to our house weekly on the backs of envelopes. The flu, and the flu shot, took a backseat last year though. Hardly anyone seems to be talking about both of them this year also.
From the CDC’s website regarding the 2019-2020 flu data: April 4, 2020 was the last in-season preliminary burden estimates were provided.
In all the years I’ve spent reading about vaccines, I found that note from the CDC to be one of the oddest statements ever posted. It didn’t matter if it was in-season or off-season. Flu stats were jammed down our throats incessantly and forever! It was so unexpected, for me at least, to learn that those incredible numbers would not be crunched or broadcasted. Now knee-deep in COVID19, those who liked to blow up our newsfeeds with flu news just gave the flu a free pass.
That incessant yearly vaccine-pushing opportunity popped into my head as fall turned into winter in late 2020. Would the flu shot be put back in the spotlight, I wondered? Like clockwork it did get some airtime, but not nearly to the extent that it usually does. Good, I thought. With the COVID19 countermeasures coming out, mixing a frequently failing flu shot with an experimental vaccine may not be wise.
I’d forgotten about the flu, and the flu shot, this winter until I opened up one of my son’s e-medical records last week. This alert, which is usually visible only from October to April, greeted me when I logged in.
Ronan’s been to that clinic several times since last October, when flu shot season really kicks in. Not one of his providers has asked us if he needs one during any of his visits. Too busy with managing and dodging COVID19, I’m grateful for the lack of flu shot attention. I certainly don’t want to poke the bear, but it’s still just so strange to think that the almighty flu shot has finally been knocked off its pedestal.
I’m not sure what the rest of the 2021 will look like, but this mail from the same company that loudly pushed the flu shot for years has kept the backs of their envelopes completely blank. The documents inside pertain to several of the medical issues Ronan has, so it’s been heavenly to not see propaganda on the envelopes before I open them.
I expect that that will change.
I wouldn’t be surprised if those envelopes will soon come with new messages. It would be great if they could use the space to educate clients and their caregivers about vaccine injuries instead of pressuring them to get another liability-free vaccine. But I won’t hold my breath for too long. The flu shot may not be making the rounds, but those Emergency Authorized Use COVID19 vaccines sure are. There’s good reason for that. The news is still selling coronavirus fear. They know that fear sells! They also know that when people are afraid, vaccines can be quite the $olution.
Cathy Jameson is a Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.
Benedetta,
I don’t know. It may be that your husband got strep through infected air getting around the edges of his mask or from touching something infected when he had taken the mask off. I got it at a play group I took my daughter to when she was little. In December 2004, no masks. The nurse who tested me didn’t think I could have it, she said everyone got it as a child or teen.
The interesting thing is how there was virtually no flu anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere last summer and virtually no flu anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere this winter. The only reason would have to be near universal mask usage. The article I linked said that Covid was more transmissible than flu. I don’t think hundreds of thousands of flu deaths worldwide are being massively covered up. What would be the point? Wouldn’t it be better to exaggerate them to sell vaccine, the way they usually do?
Posted by: Cia | March 01, 2021 at 07:05 PM
As we all know, no one does FLU shot better than Dr. Nancy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OtvzHwxLC4
Posted by: Still with Trump | February 28, 2021 at 10:05 PM
Cia; I don't think so.
We have never had the flu or sick in 20 years.
My son got strep last year with no masks though.
My husband got strep this Jan with a mask and only been one place, one time; to Wal Mart Christmas shopping, WITH A MASK!. I admit that this year I too was first - a couple of days before him. I did not test out for having strep, but it felt like strep. I too was at Wal Mart with him wearing a MASK.
I wonder if sniffing vitamin C powder up your nose makes the strep test come out negative?
Now you know that a strep bacteria is bigger than viruses.
So what to think?
Posted by: benedetta | February 28, 2021 at 03:23 PM
There have only been a small fraction, like a 98% reduction in Nov-Dec, continuing still in flu hospitalizations in the US. Same disappearance of flu as in the Southern Hemisphere last summer.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-the-flu-season-basically-disappeared-this-year#What-drove-down-flu-activity?
Because everyone has been wearing masks. An unintended benefit, but thousands of lives saved.
Posted by: Cia | February 28, 2021 at 10:53 AM
Even the CDC admits the numbers of deaths from Covid have been greatly exaggerated .. probably because doctors and hospitals get financial remittance for Covid that is much higher than for flu or other causes of deaths. Unfortunately it required Covid to decrease the annual public campaign for annual flu shots.
When will it all end and we can regain our NORMAL LIVES/????
Posted by: Bob Moffit | February 28, 2021 at 10:24 AM
Thanks Cathy great article and the latest Pharma silver bullet has arrived..
Covid vaccine side effects: Health benefits could include fighting cancer and Alzheimer's
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1403665/coronavirus-vaccine-latest-update-cancer-alzheimers
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: angus files | February 28, 2021 at 08:26 AM
Wonderful piece on the flu shot. Not one time on are local news in the morning do they mention the flu cases this year. Remember the H1N1 vaccine? Police dogs around the Prince George's county court house, frightening families. The only positive thin about the lockdown's this year is LESS vaccines given to children, because they are not in school. I am afraid they are going to make the covid19 mandated to children along with the other catch-up vaccines and we are going to see mass harm to the health of the kids.
Posted by: elaine dow | February 28, 2021 at 08:08 AM