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Like many parents, I was thrilled when our family doctor first told me about the FluMist vaccine in 2014. Instead of having to go through the annual flu shot drama with our needle-phobic daughter, who was two at the time, she could get the vaccine with a quick, painless squirt of mist up her nose. Our doctor went on to explain that there was evidence the nasal spray?which contains live strains of the flu virus?was actually more effective than the flu shot for children aged two to six. The mist made my daughter giggle as it tickled her nose, a far cry from the panicked protests that often precede her shots. I was sold. And I looked forward to sailing through the school years flu-shot-free.
But now, according to new research from the US, the FluMist vaccine hasn?t been working as well as predicted in recent years. In fact, a study presented to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said that in 2015-2016, the vaccine was only three percent effective at preventing the flu in American children aged two to 17?which means there was no measurable ?protective benefit? to the vaccine at all. (The flu shot had an effectiveness rate of 63 percent for the same age group.) This, along with the results of other studies showing poor effectiveness of the nasal spray over the past three seasons, led the committee to recommend that the FluMist vaccine should not be used for anyone in the upcoming 2016-2017 flu...