Japanese company looks to end flu shots

The flu shot is a staple of American, and now global, tradition. Your coworkers, family, and friends, hassle you on an annual basis to get a flu shot. You tell them “no.” They react by telling you that you will get sick and potentially die and probably infect everyone else. You tell them that flu shots don’t work. Then the news breaks that flu shots don’t work and your friends, family, and coworkers, explain, “but it is better than nothing.”

Tradition is awesome.

Well, it seems that one component of our annual tradition may be changing – how our failed flu vaccines are delivered. A Japanese company called Vaxart claims they have a better flu vaccine in tablet form. Clearly, a tablet form vaccine would be more appealing to those who truly avoid the flu shot based on it involving a needle. While there are people who avoid flu shots due to the needle form, I would guess that the situation is a bit overstated. Those who preach flu shots typically accuse those of us who don’t want them of being afraid of needles, something that likely amounts to rogue, transparent attempts at remedial reverse psychology.

Last January, Vaxart that sales of Inavir, the oral flu vaccine, was better received by flu vaccine consumers than its counterpart injectable form. Here’s more from Cafe Pharma.

Specifically, only 37 percent of the Vaxart subjects developed influenza infection compared with 44 percent who received the injectable QIV and 71 percent who received placebo. In the analysis that was performed by BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

“These results suggest that our tablet vaccine has the potential to provide superior protection against influenza,” said Wouter W. Latour, M.D., chief executive officer of Vaxart. “Combined with the favorable safety profile and the convenience of a tablet, we believe that our oral influenza vaccine will offer invaluable advantages over currently available injectable vaccines, and could help increase vaccination rates and reduce the significant morbidity and mortality caused by influenza, a major public health objective.”

Soon, we will be able to easily swallow our mandatory flu vaccines. At least the elitist corporations and politicians are looking to make us more comfortable as we line up for our government mandated meds. I’m being dramatic, of course, but at this rate of legislative changes, I may not be being inaccurate.

Photo by NRCgov