Flu season is rapidly approaching and, with it, constant reminders to get vaccinated. This despite the fact that mounting research suggests this approach to flu prevention may be ill advised for long-term health, and doesn't actually work in the first place.

In January 2015, U.S. government officials admitted that, in most years, flu shots are, at best, 50 to 60 percent effective at preventing lab confirmed influenza requiring medical care.¹

Then, in December 2015, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis² of flu vaccine effectiveness revealed that, between 2005 and 2015, the influenza vaccine was less than 50 percent effective more than half of the time.

Flu Vaccine Keeps Missing the Mark

In the 2004/2005 season, the flu vaccine was 10 percent effective. Put another way, 90 percent of the time, it failed.³ During the 2012/2013 flu season, the seasonal flu vaccine was 56 percent effective across all age groups, but only 9 percent effective in seniors.

The 2014/2015 flu vaccine flopped with a mere 18 percent effectiveness rate; 15 percent among children aged 2 to 8, and Fluzone — which delivers FOUR TIMES the normal dose of antigen — was found to lower seniors' risk of influenza by a modest 24 percent compared to the standard-dose vaccine.⁴

Undeterred by such stupendous failure rates, the CDC expressed unreserved confidence in the 2015/2016 vaccine. In September 2015, CDC Director Tom Frieden said:⁵

"Get vaccinated … That's the best way to protect yourself, your family and your community against flu."

In the 2015/2016 season, the injectable flu vaccine ended up having a 63 percent effectiveness. However, the popular live virus nasal flu vaccine did not fare nearly as well.

This fall, don't be surprised if the pressure gets ratcheted up a notch, as health authorities fear the CDC's recommendation to avoid the nasal spray (FluMist) this year, due to evidence that it failed to provide any protection to children for three years in a row.

"We're concerned that vaccination rates could be lower this year because the mist isn't available," Frieden recently told The Washington Post.⁶

Also, while flu vaccination rates among children have steadily climbed, vaccination rates among adults over 50 are dropping, which means extra pressure will likely be applied to get more adults to get flu shots this year.

What Recent Science Says About Annual Flu Vaccinations

It seems no matter how poor influenza vaccine effectiveness is, the call to vaccinate remains. But is getting an annual flu shot really "the best way" to protect yourself against influenza? Research frequently tells a very different story. For example, recent studies have shown that:

• With each successive annual flu vaccination, the protection afforded by the vaccine appears to diminish.^7,8 Research published in 2014 concluded that vaccine-induced protection against influenza was greatest among those who had NOT received a flu shot in the previous five years.⁹

• The flu vaccine may also increase your risk of contracting other, more serious influenza infections.

◦ Data shows that people who received the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008 had twice the risk of getting the H1N1 "swine flu" compared to those who didn't receive a flu shot.¹⁰

◦ Compared to children who do not get an annual flu vaccine, those who receive influenza vaccinations have a three times higher risk of hospitalization due to influenza.¹¹

• Statin drugs — taken by 1 in 4 Americans over the age of 45 — may undermine your immune system's ability to respond to the flu vaccine.^12,13

After vaccination, antibody concentrations were 38 percent to 67 percent lower in statin users over the age of 65, compared to non-statin users of the same age.¹⁴ Antibody concentrations were also reduced in younger people who took statins.

• Independent science reviews have also concluded that flu shots do not appear to prevent influenza or complications of influenza.^15,16

Influenza vaccine does not appear to prevent influenza-like-illness (ILI) associated with other types of viruses responsible for about 80 percent of all respiratory or gastrointestinal infections during any given flu season.^17,18,19,20