Over 60 - get hi-dose flu vaccine

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I get a flu vaccine every year. I got the 1968 “Hong Kong” flu and never want to repeat the experience. I felt terrible pain in my bones as well as weakness. And I was only 14 at the time. I’m sure I would get much sicker now since I have asthma caused by industrial poisoning.

CDC estimates that flu has resulted in 9 million – 41 million illnesses, 140,000 – 710,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 – 52,000 deaths annually between 2010 and 2020 in the U.S. This is big enough to have Macroeconomic impact due to the work time lost and high cost of hospitalization. (Not to mention the pure misery of the patients.)

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

A new Danish study shows that a high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine versus a standard dose gives morbidity and mortality benefits. The great thing about European health studies is that they have national health databases which enables “big data” that are hard to come by in the fragmented U.S. health system.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/esc/100436?xid=…

In the DANFLU-1 study, there was a 48.9% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality and a 64% reduction in the incidence of hospitalization for influenza or pneumonia for high-dose versus standard-dose vaccination. Also, hospitalization for cardiorespiratory complaints – a combination of any cardiovascular or respiratory illnesses – was reduced by 12% with the high-dose vaccine.

The open-label DANFLU-1 enrolled about 12,000 patients (median age 71.7; 47.1% women). The researchers think this data set is too small and they are planning enroll 208,000 Danish citizens to have sufficient power to assess whether the high-dose vaccine will reduce specific, detailed health problems (like separating cardiovascular from pulmonary problems).

I don’t care about the details. I’m convinced by the current study that shows a reduction by half of deaths and 2/3 of hospitalizations.

High-dose vaccines contain 60 µg of hemagglutinin antigen for each strain, while standard-dose vaccines contain 15 µg. High-dose vaccines are approved for adults aged 65 years and older in most countries, and for those 60 years and older in some countries, including the U.S.

The problem is that doctors and pharamacies may not automatically give the high dose flu vaccine even to seniors.

Bottom line: ASK for the high-dose flu vaccine if you are older than 60.

Wendy

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I’ve been doing this for years

Jeff

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What Wendy says!

Problem with the flu vaccine, though, isn’t so much whether folk get the appropriate strength vaccine…but whether they get the shot at all. Flu vaccination has been a victim of the anti-vax movement for a good couple of decades with all the usual excuses trotted out…including, but not limited to, the assertion that the morbidity/mortality figures of seasonal flu are inflated in order to allow the manufacturers to make LOADSAMONEY from a disease that’s often seen as little more than a bad cold.

Things were altered a bit by Covid, even if temporarily. It took me 3 goes to get my industrial strength flu shot in 2020…my local pharmacy was running out within hours of delivery and couldn’t even make appointments. Last year, no problem. I actually asked the pharmacist if the increased availability was due solely to increased production and supply (after years of reduced demand) or were folk slipping back into old ways. Although the supplies were better, she’d definitely seen a reduction in demand.

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Ms. Wolf and I always get the high-dose.

Sometimes I have to knock over a few little old ladies (including Ms. Wolf) to get to the front of the line.

Survival of the fittest and all that.

AW

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I should’ve waited a bit before responding. As incongruous as I find it that folk fall for the anti vaxx messages with flu (and even Covid), it really is unbelievable that there are some who’ve avoided polio vaccination. This just drifted across my radar screen…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/polio-us-vac…

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Walmart now advertising flu vaccines…along with the ‘old’ COVID boosters.

Wonder when the new Omicron specific shots will be available.

Didn’t check if they had high dose ones yet - still a bit early. Might do in Sept for flu shot although flu season starts later in year.

My doc organization usually has a ‘flu shot’ evening and weekend where they do mass shot for a hundred or two at a time… haven’t heard yet…usually later in year.

t.

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I’ve been taking the flu shots from way back when the Company provided them… Even then at times I’d pick up either the flu or another bug, head cold, generally going deeper, even to pneumonia a few times… Ages ago, Doc wanted to yank my tonsils out, they gave me troubles, but model antibiotics fixed that, I have to assume they are meant to be part of the system, so I kept 'em…

I’ll wait a bit fir the flu, maybe once we see the new BA5 covid come out, go for it then it wasn’t clear last year if getting both at the same time was a good idea, so I waited a week or two after…

Shingles is on the list, I think the Pneumonia is good for now…

Before working out in the Pacific, Marshall Islands, we had Typhiod and a couple others before hopping on the plane…

Anyway, Thanks for the reminder, might consider also posting on the Budget Health board…

weco

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A new Danish study shows that a high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine versus a standard dose gives morbidity and mortality benefits. The great thing about European health studies is that they have national health databases which enables “big data” that are hard to come by in the fragmented U.S. health system.

I agree with getting a flu shot (for everyone who can safely get it).

Denmark has a population of about ~5M.
Kaiser Permanente (HMO) in the US has ~12M members. Is that not also Big?
They routinely publish data that seems to come from data mining.

There are numerous health insurers that are bigger but I don’t tend to see published studies from the likes of UHC.

Mike

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Thanks for this post. I will definitely do that at my annual wellness visit at the end of Sept.