Uber delivers flu shots in 36 cities across the U.S.

National car service pushing risky flu shot

Talk about getting “stuck” in traffic!

You can’t walk into a doctor’s office, a CVS or even your local supermarket without seeing an ad practically begging you to get a flu shot.

It’s enough to make you want to hitch a ride out of town until flu season is over.

Except it doesn’t look like that’s safe anymore either.

Uber — the online taxi service your grandkids are raving about — has launched a nationwide plan to give you a shot when you order a car.

It may be the craziest vaccine scheme I’ve ever told you about — and you’ll never believe why they’re doing it.

There’s an app for thatThe only thing crazier than a car service handing out the flu shot is the story of how the whole idea was hatched in the first place.

Dr. John Brownstein of Boston Children’s Hospital said he was worried that Uncle Sam is making it too hard for you to get the flu vaccine.

And if you want to drop Dr. Brownstein a line letting him know how wrong he is, you can address it to the rock he’s been living under.

I mean, come on! They’re practically putting the flu vaccine in the water supply!

But Dr. Brownstein got a sympathetic ear from the folks at Uber. That’s the smartphone app that lets you order a ride to just about anywhere — to the mall, to Mars, and everywhere in between.

This year, the company started delivering flu shots to folks in 36 cities across the country.

Here’s how it works. You order a flu shot off the Uber app, and one of their drivers shows up with a nurse toting a dose just for you.

She brings it right to your door (or wherever you are) like she’s delivering a pizza! How much do you tip a nurse with a syringe anyway? Fifteen percent?

And once you get your shot, I guess your Uber driver can take you to the mall, to church, or — if you’re like lots of people who get the vaccine — straight to the hospital.

You see, that’s the dirty secret that nobody likes to talk about with the flu shot. It’s bad enough that it doesn’t work (it’s failed as often as 90 percent for seniors some years), but over the years it’s become downright dangerous.

Figures tallied for just the first three months of 2013 found that more money was paid to settle injury claims from the flu vaccine than for 11 other types of shots.

That “harmless’ flu shot that everyone wants you to get can even cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a paralyzing illness similar to polio. In fact, GBS makes up most of the flu vaccine injury reports.

Of course, the mainstream is as pleased as punch with the new Uber experiment.

“The more people we get vaccinated against influenza, the better off we all are,” said Dr. Anita Barry, from the Boston Public Health Commission.

Sure. Try telling that to the vaccine victims with GBS or the millions of poor folks who got no protection from the shot at all.

Listen, I’ve been telling you for years that you don’t need some vaccine to beat flu. You just need Mother Nature and some common sense.

In fact, here are four things you can do right now to stay flu-free this season.

Step 1: Get enough sleep. That’s the easiest way to keep your body from being susceptible to illness.

Step 2: Become fanatic about washing your hands. Skip the antibacterial gels — good old soap and water work just fine.

Step 3: Take a daily probiotic. That helps support your immune system by building up your levels of healthy gut bugs.

Step 4: Load up on proven virus-fighting supplements. That means zinc, selenium and olive leaf extract.

And if you ask me, these four simple steps sound a lot better than letting vaccine pushers like Uber take you for a ride.

Sources:
“Uber delivers flu shots in 36 cities, in one-day experiment” Felice J. Freyer, November 20, 2015, The Boston Globe, bostonglobe.com