Consumer Reports Survey: Nearly Half of Adults Won't Get Flu Vaccine, Citing Poor Excuses Like 'I Don't Get Sick'

According to a new survey from Consumer Reports Health, just 52 percent of Americans plan to get the flu vaccine this year, despite its being the best option for prevention. The Consumer Reports Health survey uncovered a long list of poor excuses for not getting the vaccine, including 5 percent of people who say they would rather get sick than go to work.

The vaccine is available for free for many (65 percent of those who have already been vaccinated reported no out-of-pocket expense for the vaccine), and at nominal cost for others, and requires very little time, Consumers Reports says.

The survey was conducted in early October by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, right as the flu season was getting underway this fall. Flu season typically begins in late October and can run through early May. Some 67 percent say it was better to build your own natural immunities.

"There is no evidence that people who get flu shots have lower natural immunities or that people who don't get flu shots have higher immunities," says Dr. John Santa, M.D., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. Those surveyed cited the following other reasons for not getting the vaccine: They do not get sick (45 percent), they have themselves or know someone who has gotten sick from the vaccine (41 percent), or they believe the vaccine is ineffective (26 percent).

Other consumers not planning to get a flu vaccination said that they were worried about side effects (35 percent), medication is now available to treat the flu (28 percent), they don't like getting shots (27 percent), or they don't like going to the doctor (23 percent). And some (5 percent) even say that they'd rather get sick than go to work. "Sounds like a lot of excuses and misconceptions to avoid a quick and inexpensive, if not free, shot," says Santa.

Influenza (the flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that, in milder cases, can make people sick for several days, and at times can lead to death. Nearly all adults who responded to the Consumer Reports survey (83 percent) report that they have had the flu.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized each year from flu complications and about 36,000 people die from flu. Older people, young children, and people with certain health conditions are at high risk for serious flu complications.

"Despite the prevalence and potential seriousness of the flu, we found that many adults are surprisingly misinformed about both the flu and flu vaccination," says Santa. "People need to know that getting a flu vaccination every year is the best way to prevent the flu. The vaccine will not make them sick or give them the flu. Without it, they and their families are at higher risk for getting the flu. If they get the flu they may transmit it to vulnerable people for whom the consequences may be serious."

Fewer than half of those surveyed (49 percent) by Consumer Reports knew that the government recommends that everyone over 6 months old get vaccinated against the flu.

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Efforts to Eliminate TB in US by 2010 Fall Far Short

The U.S. is likely to fall far short of its benchmark goals toward eliminating tuberculosis as a public health problem, according to data from a nationwide survey.

Latent TB infection (LTBI) prevalence in the 1999-2000 U.S. population (excluding homeless and incarcerated individuals) was found to be 4.2 percent, according to the survey. The current infection rate would have to be 1 percent and decreasing if the U.S. were on course to reach its goal of TB incidence of less than one per million by 2010. These are the first survey-based national LBTI estimates since 1971-1972.

The findings were published in the first issue for February of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

“Persons with LTBI are not infectious and cannot transmit TB to others, and only 5-10 percent of individuals with LTBI will go on to develop active TB, which is infectious. But because the risk of progression to TB can be substantially reduced by preventive treatment, it is crucial that LTBI by detected and treated,” says lead author Diane Bennett, M.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES), a cross-sectional series of nationally representative health examination surveys, suggests that of the 11,213,000 with LTBI in the overall U.S. population, only one in four had been diagnosed, and only 13 percent had been prescribed treatment.

"The LTBI rates among non-Hispanic whites, 1.9 percent, is close to that required for TB elimination, but the far higher rates among all other groups make U.S. TB elimination by 2010 unlikely," writes Dr. Bennett and senior author Kenneth Castro, M.D., M.P.H.

In this study, researchers used data from 1999-2000 on 7,386 participants with TB skin test results. They intentionally over-sampled people with low income, adolescents, people over age 60, African-Americans, and Mexican-Americans so as to allow for separate analyses of these groups. The survey estimated that approximately 11 million individuals had LTBI in 1999-2000. While that represents a marked decline from the early 1970s, it also masks the shifting demographics of those who have LTBI.

Latent TB infections among individuals living below the poverty level, at 6.1 percent, were significantly higher than the 3.3 percent among individuals living above the poverty level. Because the data excludes homeless and incarcerated individuals, who make up much of the U.S. population living below the poverty line, the association may be even stronger than suggested.

Race and ethnicity were also associated with LTBI, even after accounting for socioeconomic status. “Among individuals born in the United States, higher LTBI rates were seen among non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican Americans compared with non-Hispanic whites,” writes Dr. Bennett.

Most striking, however, was the rate of infection among foreign-born individuals. In this survey, 18.7 percent of foreign-born individuals were infected with TB, compared to 1.8 percent of those born in the U.S. In 1999-2000, 6.9 million of the individuals with LTBI were foreign-born, as compared with 4.1 million U.S.-born; only 12 percent of the foreign-born and 16 percent of the U.S.-born had received treatment.

“The higher LTBI rates among some subgroups suggest that specific public health actions should be taken for and with immigrant communities, racial minorities and individuals living in poverty,” Dr. Bennett says. “While LTBI is not infectious and latently infected individuals are not a threat to others, increased outreach for education, diagnosis and provision of appropriate preventive treatment could prevent many future cases of active TB.”

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Infant Formula Manufacturers' 'Marketing Gimmick' Linked to Serious Illness

A report released today by The Cornucopia Institute presents research indicating that new additives placed in infant formula are seriously endangering the health of
some formula-fed newborns and toddlers.

The report, 'Replacing Mother--Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory,' details research questioning the alleged benefits of adding "novel" omega-3 fatty acids, produced in laboratories and extracted from algae and fungus, into infant formulas. The additives raised health and safety red flags during preapproval testing while aggressive marketing campaigns by some infant formula manufacturers appear to have encouraged new mothers to give up nursing for the questionable products, according to a statement by the institute.

"When I worked in the hospital's neonatal ward, the nurses all called it 'the diarrhea formula'," says Sam Heather Doak, LPN, IBCLC, from Marietta, Ohio. "We've seen infants, tiny little humans, with diarrhea that just wouldn't stop after being given this formula." For infants, virulent and long-term diarrhea is considered a serious and life-threatening event.

The infant formula referenced by Doak was supplemented with Martek Biosciences Corporation's laboratory-produced oils containing DHA and ARA. DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, and ARA, an omega-6 fatty acid, are naturally found in human breast milk and are considered important nutrients for infants.

But laboratory-produced DHASCO and ARASCO (Martek's names for their proprietary oils) are materially different from the fats found in a mother's breast milk. Martek's products are extracted from fermented algae and fungus, with the use of the neurotoxic solvent hexane. They contain only 40 percent to 50 percent DHA and ARA, with the balance from sunflower oil and other components, including some not found in human breast milk and never before a part of the human infant diet, the statement says.

"It's true that DHA and ARA are important nutrients for developing infants--that's why they're found in human breast milk. But we have also seen that some infants are experiencing side effects like diarrhea from consuming the manufactured DHA and ARA oils in formula," says Jimi Francis, a biochemist specializing in DHA in infant nutrition at the Allie M. Lee Laboratory for Omega-3 Research at the University of Nevada at Reno.

Also, humans produce DHA and ARA on their own from other fats.

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Genetic Study May Help Predict Diseases

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