Get Your Flu Shot Before the Flu Is Widespread: CDC ... Everyone 6 months and older should be vaccinated before holiday trips and gatherings, experts say ... While relatively few cases of flu have surfaced so far in the United States, health officials say the holiday season will likely change that, so everyone should get a flu shot now. People will be shopping, traveling and going to gatherings – all excellent ways to be exposed to flu, said Dr. Michael Jhung, a medical officer in the influenza division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "People get flu when they are around people with flu," he said. "If we can get people to get vaccinated in the weeks before they leave for their holiday trips, that would be ideal." – HealthDay

Dominant Social Theme: It's flu season. Time to get vaccinated.

Free-Market Analysis: We can see from this excerpt that the US medical establishment – aided by the mainstream media – is advancing the idea of flu vaccinations once again. The controversies over vaccines remain significant but you wouldn't know it from articles like this one.

More:

Now is a great time to get vaccinated, before flu is widespread, Jhung said. "It's December and we don't have much flu activity in the U.S., which is not too surprising." But low to moderate flu activity is starting to appear in Oklahoma and South Carolina, Jhung said. "That's a sign that flu activity is likely to pick up in a week or two," he said. The best way to protect yourself from the flu is to get a flu shot, even when the flu is epidemic, Jhung said. "It's never too late to get vaccinated."

Vaccines have been linked to the development of autism and also asthma in children. Flu vaccines are often recommended but the controversy here is that they are either ineffective or actually detrimental, causing more damage than they can possibly cure.

Dr. Joseph Mercola is a well-known osteopathic physician and nutritionist who runs one of the most popular alternative healthcare websites, Mercola.com. The site just posted an article on flu vaccines entitled "Flu Flop: Another Year of Dangerous CDC Lies."

Mercola writes:

Despite the fact that last year's (2014 to 2015) flu vaccine was a major flop with an abysmal 18 percent effectiveness rate, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publicly expressed unreserved confidence in this year's (2015-2016) vaccine. In September 2015, CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a news conference, "Get vaccinated ... That's the best way to protect yourself, your family and your community against flu."

The article also brings up the issue of "potential negative effects of frequent vaccination" on health. This wasn't such an important issue at one time, but as more and more vaccines are developed, the alternative medical media has led the way in questioning not just their efficacy but their safety.

Mercola mentions that "data collected from Canada and Hong Kong during 2009-2010 showed that people who received the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008 had twice the risk of getting the H1N1 'swine flu.' "