The CDC recommends everyone over the age of six months get a routine annual flu shot every year,

unless you have some sort of contrary indications, such as an allergy to any of the

components.

They recommend trying to get it by the end of October, but maybe beneficial even December

or later.

How effective are flu vaccines?

It depends on the year, but typically it reduces the risk of getting the flu by about

40 to 50 percent.

So in healthy adults, we can say with moderate certainty, we can decrease the risk of getting the flu by about 40 to 50 percent. So in healthy adults, we can say with moderate certainty,

we can decrease the risk of getting it from like 2 percent each year down to just under 1 percent.

Among older adults, you may get a similar relative risk reduction,

but the baseline risk is higher and the consequences greater.

So the absolute benefits are greater, too.

In kids, flu vaccines really shine a high certainty of evidence of a substantial drop in risk,

but even in this kind of best-case scenario with vaccination, there's still a risk.

So what else can we do?

Each year, Americans experience millions of cases of influenza and hundreds of millions of

colds.

What about elderberry supplements?

In a test tube, elderberry extracts can inhibit pathogens, including the flu virus, and

in a petri dish it can rev up the production of flu fighting molecules

from human immune system cells like tumor necrosis factor as much as nearly 45-fold,

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