Dr. Oz calls flu vaccine ‘controversial of late’

Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on Tuesday called the seasonal flu vaccine “controversial of late” and advised various Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiatives as ways to “overcome” the virus.

Appearing on Newsmax, Oz spoke on this year’s flu season, which has been marked by a more severe strain than previous years.

“Flu is always a problem. Every year there’s a flu vaccine. It doesn’t always work very well. That’s why it’s been controversial of late,” Oz said. “But like many illnesses, the best news out there is if you can take care of yourself, so that when you do end up running into the flu, you can overwhelm it.”

While there are concerns that the current flu vaccine may not be a good match for the H3N2 subclade K virus, which is the predominant flu strain this year, experts say the shot should still offer significant protection from transmission and severe illness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the flu vaccine for everyone 6 months and older, ideally by the end of October each year.

Jerome Adams, who was surgeon general during President Trump’s first term, said Monday that despite the mismatch, this year’s vaccine will make flus milder and make hospitalizations less likely.

“Even in mismatched years, flu vaccines provide cross-protection because the strains are related. Historical data … show mismatched vaccines can still reduce lab-confirmed flu risk by around 50-60% overall and are particularly good at preventing severe outcomes like hospitalization and death,” Adams wrote on social platform X.

However, figures aligned with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have argued in recent months that the flu vaccine is ineffective and may even make respiratory illnesses more likely.

Aaron Siri, a Kennedy-aligned attorney who presented to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee earlier this month, argued in October that studies showed “no convincing evidence — none — that flu shots lowered the chances of dying, being admitted to the hospital, suffering serious complications from the flu, or transmitting flu to others.”

“That said: get a flu shot, don’t get a fu shot. That’s freedom. Everyone should be free to choose,” he added.

Oz, during his Newsmax appearance Tuesday, promoted healthy living as the next protection against severe flu.

“Things like getting sunlight, and you can’t do that in northern parts of the country, which is tough this time of year, take some vitamin D. Zinc seems to be effective as a basic supplement,” he added. “But fundamentally, the MAHA initiatives: Eat the right food, food that came out of the ground looking the way it looks when you eat it and consume it, and getting physical activity actually makes sense. But the most important tool of all is sleep.”

The so-called super-flu variant, H3N2 subclade K virus, has spread throughout the U.S. this year, with infected people reporting more severe and longer symptoms.

According to the CDC, 42.2 percent of adults reported receiving the flu vaccine this year as of Dec. 13, a higher rate than this same time last year.

There are four CDC-recommended treatments for the flu: Tamiflu, Xofluza, Relenza and Rapivab.