Benefits and Side Effects of the Flu Vaccine
Flu shots can prevent more than just the flu. Randomized placebo-controlled trials show that they can be extraordinary lifesavers.
Stay tuned for the next two videos, which examine the benefits and side effects of the pneumonia ( ) and shingles ( ) vaccines.
Can you prevent the flu with foods and supplements, like elderberry and echinacea? See Elderberry Benefits and Side Effects: Does It Help with Colds and the Flu? ( ).
I don’t have many other videos on the flu, but here are a few on preventing and treating colds:
Can Gargling Prevent the Common Cold? ( )
Preventing the Common Cold with Probiotics? ( )
Kiwifruit for the Common Cold ( )
Benefits of Garlic for Fighting Cancer and the Common Cold ( )
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Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM
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I love this channel! And equally, I love vaccines. They’ve saved my life on more than one occasion.
How do you know? You don’t have two versions of yourself, one vaccinated and one not. So how can you be sure what saved your life?
@@johnnyblue4799 Clearly I can’t know with absolute certainty. However, I know that I have in my 60 years had a few episodes of bed flu, for example. I recall that after one such episode the doctor treating me told me he believed that my having had a flu vaccination earlier that year had mitigated the severity of the disease and that without it the outcome of my infection could have been death.
So if I’m under 65 and relatively healthy I don’t need it? What’s the government’s accuracy of picking the correct flu strain to vaccinate against?
Look it up. Just like anything , they track flu viruses as they move through countries.
The institutions are very good at the picking the strain (they are funded by the government but they aren’t strictly the government, at least not in my country) You can get the vaccine to protect others as well because the chance that you’ll carry the virus is much smaller and you’ll still reduce your own risks with the flu.
just waiting for the anti vax comments lol
Had my first autoimmune flair after a flu vaccine. Battling 10 years now. “Anti vax”. Whatever you say.
Good for you
@nicolcacola and you know for certain it was the vaccine that caused the flair or just assuming?
RFK just checked out.
It’s the pro vax ones that are cringe. Imagine falling for the recent ones they tried to force on us all. You have to be a special kind of stupid.
0:47 how is the vaccine supposed to reduce transmission?🤔
With lower disease shedding while infectious, due to your immune system being trained by the vaccine.
@@DoubtingThomas333 Dr John Mcdougall doesnt agree at all because the virus change everytime.
@@DoubtingThomas333 how would the total virus transmission differ between those two examples?
1. is infected but vaccinated and therefore doesn’t feel any significant symptoms. He goes to work and to a party or family meeting afterwards.
2. is infected, feels sick, goes to the doc and spends the rest of the day at home in bed.
@@wiezumteufel9024 In your specific example assuming the patient doesn’t infect the doctor or his family that could be a theoretically better scenario but it is like saying you shouldn’t put helmets on kids who cycle because in one case a kid might get overconfident and crash where he otherwise wouldn’t.
These are just isolated examples. The data show that vaccinations cut infection rates and deaths the same way helmets reduce the harms of crashing a bike. You can concoct whatever scenarios you like but you have to look at the population data rather than hypotheticals. The CDC helpfully link a lot of studies done on the effectiveness of specifc vaccines on their website. Here is the conclusion from a study on the 2019-2020 season:
“CDC estimates that flu vaccination during the 2019–2020 flu season prevented 7.1 million illnesses, 3.4 million medical visits, 100,000 hospitalizations, and 7,200 deaths associated with flu. This report underscores the benefits of the current vaccination program, but highlights areas where improvements in vaccine uptake and vaccine effectiveness could deliver even greater benefits to the public’s health.”
@@wiezumteufel9024 I think in both cases you are infecteous in the days before you feel sick, the virus load being higher without vaccination. And also with the vaccine you will feel sick and stay in bed but the disease is not as harsh or life threatening.
So fascinating! Thank you so very much for sharing <3
Good information, thank you
Read Turtles All The Way Down, Vaccine Science Vs Myth
So,is it “safe and effective”?
Unlike the clot-shot?
Based and clot pilled.
“safe and effective” that dr. Greger was heavily promoting few years ago?
Since going vegan in 2010 my wife and I have never had the flu or a cold. I worked in an office of heavy carnivores and they were always getting sick. I would have thought Dr. Greger would have mentioned the benefits of going plant based or how it can effect this data.
Same here. I’m 67 and never had a shot. Everyone else at work can have an annual free flu shot and nearly all get the flu which tends to last weeks….I sit in the vehicles with these snifflers and never get sick.
1:18 – Wait…as an unvaccinated healthy adult I am going to get the flu about once every 50 years???
already had a flu at least twice
@@retrospiel 🤔
More like a 2% chance every year, I don’t think they’re looking at life time risk there
There were also around 4 studies last year showing an upto 40% reduction in Alzheimers, and also a reduciton in other neurodegenerative diseses such as Parkinsons.
I am curious if there are any studies on the impact of vaccines to our immune system versus un-vaxxed tolerance building.
Vaccines make your immune system better, literally. Being too clean, too dirty and not eating a well rounded diet rich in whole foods will reduce your immune system.
Arentt plant foods better than 💉 for reducing the risk of getting the flu??
You do both
The vaccine is complementary, but I agree that if you have to choose, a good diet is better.
Who funded those studies? Drug companies……
The government in most cases. The government make more money from a healthy population, so it has the incentive to make sure a good vaccine is produced. The less you let capitalists influence the government the better the products produced by big pharma will be.
Need to tell us absolute rather than relative benefit.
He says the absolut risk in the video, you need to watch it before you comment.
compare it to ivermectin
Are you a veterinarian?
@@DoctorRevers The FDA was eventually forced to delete that tweet. But it’s still funny, right?
I’m proud of Dr. Greger and his team for producing this video. It’s so important to get this information out. Vaccine hesitancy is NOT unreasonable. So giving people real, science based evidence of its benefits is really important.
Say NO to any vaccine.
The liability shield is peak crony capitalism.
Ok. Doc. the covid vaccine is conspicuous by its absence in this video.