Flu Vaccine Doesn’t Protect Seniors From Pneumonia

Older, frail adults are more susceptible to getting the flu, even if they have been vaccinated, and once getting the flu, they are more susceptible to such complications as pneumonia. It had been thought that flu vaccine would prevent flu — and pneumonia — across all groups of seniors, but this benefit appears to be largely confined to younger, healthier seniors.

“Flu vaccine may not protect older people from pneumonia once they get the disease,” said lead researcher Michael L. Jackson, a postdoctoral fellow at the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle.

The researchers found that vaccinated seniors who got the flu were as likely to develop pneumonia as unvaccinated seniors who got the flu.