Claim that flu is “natural healing process” overlooks flu-related hospitalizations and deaths

Key takeaway

Although many people who get the flu develop mild illness and recover fully with time, a certain proportion of infected people become severely ill and die from flu-related causes. Public health agencies recommend getting vaccinated to reduce the risk of flu illness and severe disease. By priming the immune system to respond to different strains of flu virus before infection occurs, the vaccine enhances the immune system’s effectiveness at fighting the virus in the event of an infection.

Reviewed content

Verdict:

Incorrect

Claim:

Flu is the body “healing itself”, the flu vaccine removes that “natural healing process”

Verdict detail

Incorrect: While many symptoms of the flu are the result of our immune system’s response to the flu virus, the implication that the flu is a “natural healing process” that’s benign is incorrect. Hundreds of thousands die from flu-related illness worldwide every year.

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Full Claim

“a flu is your body healing itself”; “a flu shot is big pharma removing that natural healing process and profiting from it”

A Facebook post from early September 2024 claimed that “a flu is your body healing itself” while “a flu shot is big pharma removing that natural healing process and profiting from it”. The post, which received more than 10,000 user engagements, was published by the Facebook page “Exposing The Elite Agenda”, which has more than 304,000 followers on the platform. The page has a record of posting baseless conspiracy theories, as shown by previous PolitiFact and USA Today fact-checks.

However, the post’s claim is inaccurate and potentially harmful. In addition, the language of the post, specifically in using the term “natural healing process” and framing vaccines as the opposite of this “natural” process, exhibits the logical fallacy known as appeal to nature. This fallacy suggests that anything natural must be good, while anything “unnatural” or manmade must be bad.

Firstly, it’s true that many symptoms of the flu are indeed related to the immune system fighting off the flu virus infection. But the implication that this makes the flu benign is incorrect.

Seasonal flu places a significant burden on healthcare systems. According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated three to five million cases of severe flu-related illness worldwide annually. The flu is also responsible for an estimated 290,000 to 650,000 respiratory deaths every year. In the U.S., there were an estimated 21,000 flu-related deaths during the 2022/23 flu season.

While many people who get the flu experience mild illness similar to a cold and recover, certain groups in the population are at a greater risk of dying from the flu: these include children younger than two years old, those with a weakened immune system like cancer patients and people who received an organ transplant, pregnant women, and the elderly.

That said, predicting and controlling the course of an infection once it’s occurred is challenging. Even healthy people with no risk factors can develop life-threatening complications from the flu, as these patient stories demonstrate. Some complications associated with the flu are pneumonia, myocarditis, and sepsis. For pregnant women, getting the flu can also lead to additional complications, like stillbirth and preterm labor.

In the U.S., experts have sounded the alert on a record number of flu deaths in children for the current flu season. In September 2024, ABC News reported that there were “200 pediatric flu-related deaths in the 2023-2024 season, compared to the previous high of 199 during the 2019-2022 season”.

Public health agencies like the World Health Organization, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that the best way to reduce the risk of flu and its complications is getting vaccinated.

The flu vaccine doesn’t remove the “natural healing process” as the post claimed. Instead, by priming the immune system to respond to different strains of flu virus before infection occurs, the vaccine enhances the immune system’s effectiveness at fighting the virus in the event of an infection. Thus getting vaccinated is akin to equipping one’s army for a battle, not removing that army, as the post claimed.

The vaccine may not be able to prevent illness entirely, meaning some vaccinated people can still become infected and become ill. However, vaccinated people are less likely to become severely ill compared to unvaccinated people. Published studies show that the vaccine reduces the risk of severe illness in both adults and children^[1-5].

Conclusion

Although many people who get the flu develop mild illness and recover fully with time, a certain proportion of infected people become severely ill and die from flu-related causes. Those at a higher risk of developing severe illness include very young children and the elderly. However, even healthy adults can also develop severe illness requiring hospitalization.

Contrary to the post’s claim, the vaccine doesn’t remove our body’s ability to fight infection, but enhances it instead. Public health agencies recommend getting vaccinated to reduce the risk of flu illness and severe disease.

REFERENCES

• 1 – Rondy et al. (2017) Effectiveness of influenza vaccines in preventing severe influenza illness among adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of test-negative design case-control studies. Journal of Infection.
• 2 – Ferdinands et al. (2014) Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccine Against Life-threatening RT-PCR-confirmed Influenza Illness in US Children, 2010–2012. Journal of Infectious Diseases.
• 3 – Olson et al. (2022) Vaccine Effectiveness Against Life-Threatening Influenza Illness in US Children. Clinical Infectious Diseases.
• 4 – Thompson et al. (2013) Effectiveness of Seasonal Trivalent Influenza Vaccine for Preventing Influenza Virus Illness Among Pregnant Women: A Population-Based Case-Control Study During the 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 Influenza Seasons. Clinical Infectious Diseases.
• 5 – Thompson et al. (2019) Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness in Preventing Influenza-associated Hospitalizations During Pregnancy: A Multi-country Retrospective Test Negative Design Study, 2010–2016. Clinical Infectious Diseases.