Myths and Facts about Flu Shots

Introduction

It’s flu shot propaganda season again, so beware of government-sanctioned disinformation from your health care provider! As an example, take Munson Healthcare, a provider in my home state of Michigan, which directs patients to a “Myths and Facts” page of its website intended to overcome flu shot “hesitancy”, as any decision not to accept a vaccine is termed in the literature.

The underlying assumption behind research into “vaccine hesitancy” is that there are no legitimate reasons not to accept any vaccine recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), apart from the CDC’s narrowly defined “contraindications” to vaccination, which don’t include conditions like having a mitochondrial disorder even though the US government has acknowledged that can be genetic predispositions children to vaccine injury.

The further assumption underlying this body of literature is that anyone who decides that it would not be in their own best interest to strictly comply with the CDC’s recommendations must simply be misinformed. It is axiomatic that nobody who understands how truly miraculous vaccines are could possibly make a rational decision not to get vaccinated.

The basic aim of the research into vaccine “hesitancy” is to try to figure out how to create more effective propaganda to delude people into compliance.

With every vaccine, you will see the same basic talking points repeated over and over regardless of whether the source is a “public health” official, a mainstream media outlet, a pharmaceutical company, or a healthcare provider.

Munson’s “Myths and Facts” page provides a useful summary of key propaganda claims about flu shots, so let’s take a look.