Flu Vaccines Given to Prevent Disease, Not Just to Support Pandemic Vaccine Manufacturing

SciCheck Digest

Seasonal influenza vaccines are recommended because they help prevent illness and death. Dr. Robert Malone incorrectly suggested that the annual shots are only given in the U.S. to support vaccine manufacturing in case of an influenza pandemic.

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Since the 2010-2011 season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that everyone 6 months and older get an annual flu shot, with rare exceptions. This is based on evidence that vaccination can prevent people from getting sick with flu and reduce the severity of disease if someone does fall ill.

For the past 10 flu seasons prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC estimates that on average vaccination has prevented more than 5 million illnesses, over 70,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 deaths each season.

Dr. Robert Malone, however, recently suggested that flu vaccines are given not because they help protect people from flu, but so that manufacturing capacity exists in case of an influenza pandemic.

“The annual influenza vaccine program, if you dig down through all the logic of the federal funding, et cetera, it’s wrapped around the idea that we should force — we should coerce, basically, the population to take a product on an annual basis so that we can maintain warm base manufacturing in case something like 1918 ever happens again,” he said in remarks at a paid event in Florida on Oct. 22, referring to the worst influenza pandemic of the 20th century.

A clip of his comments spread on social media two days later.

Malone, who was speaking at