The actions reportedly being taken by Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to impede the development of the flu and COVID vaccines for this coming year call into question whether these life-saving vaccines will be available for Americans this fall.
Annual flu and COVID shots are the best protection for all Americans from these two diseases, especially for senior citizens and those with compromised immune systems. Approximately 40,000 Americans die each year from the flu, of whom about 80% are over the age of 65. It is estimated that the annual vaccines prevent about seven million illnesses, three million doctor visits, 100,000 hospital stays, and 7,000 deaths. A substantial percentage of those who die from the flu are unvaccinated.
As for COVID-19, there were 76,446 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19 in 2023, the vast majority among the elderly, the oldest of whom are 97 times more likely to die from a COVD-19 infection than a person under the age of 20. In addition, the lingering effects of COVID-19, known as long COVID, impact tens of thousands more Americans.
The flu vaccine is forward-looking. Scientists examine the data of the various strains floating around the world and then make a guess as to which ones will be most-prevalent in the coming winter season, and a vaccine is developed to target those strains.
However, the COVID vaccine looks only at the present, with the vaccines aiming to target the most prevalent variants at the time the vaccines are being developed. COVID always is mutating, so it is impossible to know what variant will come next. However, even though the COVID vaccines are outdated to some extent by the time most people receive them, the vaccine still offers substantial protection against the disease.
However, whether these life-saving vaccines, which must go through an approval process before the FDA, will be ready in time for the fall flu and COVID season is an open question given the gamesmanship being displayed by RFK Jr., who reportedly is creating new barriers in the approval process.
These vaccines literally are a matter of life and death for America’s ever-aging population, but it would seem that those in charge these days could care less — and that we are all just one big experiment for their dangerous and off-the-wall “theories.”
