The op-ed piece by Lee Witting in this weekend’s edition (BDN, Oct. 20/21) includes misrepresentations of influenza and the flu shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an excellent review of influenza and the flu shot at www.cdc.gov/flu. Most of the concerns and issues raised by Pastor Witting are addressed.

As an internist, I do encourage my patients to get a flu shot, not to prevent their death, but simply to prevent a miserable illness. An end point of death, a relatively rare event, is an inappropriate measure of the effectiveness of the flu shot. Well done studies quoted in the original editorial on Oct. 3 confirm that flu shots work in healthy adults. It is also well established that immunizations of all kinds do not work as well in the elderly. This is no secret.

I would encourage anyone who read either the original editorial or last weekend’s op-ed piece to review the CDC site above for a balanced look at the pros and cons of a flu shot.

William Wood Jr. MD

Bangor Internal Medicine

Bangor