Summarised by Centrist
A recent preprint, authored by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) U.S. Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Network, indicates that individuals who receive annual influenza vaccines repeatedly may face an elevated risk of contracting influenza.
The study, spanning the 2011 to 2019 seasons, involved over 55,000 clinical visits. According to The Epoch Times:
“Repeat vaccinees, when compared against non-repeat vaccinees, had a 10 percent increased risk of contracting the influenza type A H3N2 virus, but not for influenza type B and influenza type A H1N1 variants.”
The study’s authors ruled out vaccination timing and prior-season infections as the primary causes for this phenomenon.
These findings align with historical observations that repeat influenza vaccination can lead to reduced vaccine protection. One theory is that the body’s immune response remains biased toward older viral strains, diminishing the effectiveness of repeat vaccinations – a concept known as ‘original antigenic sin’.
