Resistance to flu drug widespread in US: study

[icarus]

And this would be why I don't get a flu shot:

Resistance to flu drug widespread in US: study

Viruses are highly adaptive. We've overused antibiotics. Many antibiotics are now ineffective. Now three flu drugs are ineffective: rimantadine and amantadine and Tamiflu. It's obvious to me that we've overused flu vaccines. Those should be for small children, the sick, and the elderly. Not pushed by companies that don't want to pay for sick days.

In other news: looking at a mountain of work for school.

Starting. That's the hard part. Starting.


ETA: Folks keep thinking that I'm mixing up vaccines with the drugs used to treat influenza. No. I'm not.

Doctors will still say get the flu vaccine, the same way they used to prescribe antibiotics like candy.

I was leery back in the 80s when everyone was prescribed an antibiotic for everything.

I evaded the antibiotics then. I'm not a bit surprised to find they were overused to the point of uselessness. People argued with me then, too.

Now I'm not buying it on the flu vaccines.

This is just one person's anecdotal observation, but I've noticed the flu season has been getting worse and worse. That spike began in the mid-to-late 90s when flu vaccines started being used to inoculate everyone who'd take it, and not just the vulnerable. (Actually, the spike started when flu vaccine makers began marketing to businesses that they'd have less loss of productivity if they got their employees to take it.)

Mark my words. In three to five years we'll start seeing studies that show an increase in the severity and number of flu viruses. In ten, we'll see a link between overuse of flu vaccines and the sheer variety and severity of flus.

Flu vaccines just aren't the same as your typical mumps, rubella, etc. vaccine. Viruses mutate. That constant mutation is why the flu vaccine has to be different each year, and why it only includes an immunization for the top seven or eight viruses the CDC guesses will be the "bad ones" for the season.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You've read this up thread already: I'm saying that our immunization strategy right now is actually making it worse.

This is not because immunization is bad -- in fact, if we could immunize 100% of the population it would work great. But since people who get the immunization become carriers without realizing it, they spread the viruses around. Now we're getting wider spread of the various flus.

rikibeth brings up that the increased mutation has been noticed (it's not just anecdotal evidence) and the theory is that Chinese farming practices might be at fault. That could very well be part of the problem. Looking at history it makes sense.

But my gut instinct is that when you immunize only part of the population -- and we can't immunize the whole population -- for only a small number of viruses, of course the viruses have to mutate, and of course they have plenty of opportunity to do so.

The net result is that half-assed immunization is making the viruses more widespread and varied, and I think, worse.