Fascinating Flu Season Facts

Transcript Generated by AI.

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show, hosted by Kevin Kettings of WSOS in Onclock Radio and powered by Encore Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Corin calls out to bring you the latest medical updates of insightful discussions. MetaEvidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data of medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence.

KevinGeddings: 0:30

Dr. Michael Koren joining me live on the studio line as he does most Monday mornings. We appreciate him. He is a medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist, with some great opportunities for folks here in St. John's County and St. Augustine who normally get a flu shot anyway. They could really do something pretty cool and be a part of some leading edge medical research, right, Dr. Koren?

Dr.MichaelKoren: 0:50

That's right, Kevin. Good morning.

KevinGeddings: 0:51

Good morning. Well, doing well. It's a Jaguar Victory Monday, so we're all happy over here.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 0:56

Yeah. Always makes somebody feel a little bit better about the week to come.

KevinGeddings: 1:00

Yeah, but I know this is the season, right, to get your flu shot. A lot of folks typically get them anyway. Maybe they don't get them at the exact same time every year, but I would imagine a lot of our listeners have not got received a flu shot yet, and they should, and they could do this in a really interesting way by working with encore docs, right?

Dr.MichaelKoren: 1:18

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, in St. Augustine, as we speak, we're starting to recruit patients for an interesting program that's comparing two types of flu shots. So this is one of those examples where everybody gets an active therapy, but we're looking to see if a standard three strain flu shot and a standard four strain flu shot result in any differences. So this gets into some of the technicalities of how flu shots work, but every year we anticipate what strains may hit a community. And you can put a certain number of strains in any particular vaccine. Sometimes it's three, sometimes it's four, and want to see in this case is three better than four. So in this case, everybody gets uh a flu shot, so that's good. And in fact, you get paid for this. So people can expect an extra little bit more than $500 for participating in this program where we just see how people do with the three versus the four strain shot.

KevinGeddings: 2:14

Oh, that's great. And of course, all that's involved, I would imagine, is that the uh patient is then or the participant is tracked to see, you know, what the impact of the different shots might be over time.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 2:25

Yeah, exactly. Just keep it keep in touch. There'll be a diary. You let us know if you feel sick, and we'll check you out. That's actually one of the really nice things about the programs is that if you do get sick over the next six months, we'll see if you have the flu.

KevinGeddings: 2:38

Right.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 2:39

And so you'll you'll get uh you'll you'll be you'll be in a situation where you get a lot more information than you would if you're not in a program. Uh we are taking reservations for the study now as we speak. Uh this particular study though, by the way, is for older people, 65 and up. So just want to make sure everybody understands that.

KevinGeddings: 2:56

Yeah. Yeah. If you're aged 65 and older and you have not yet received your flu shot, this would be a great way to participate in one, like Dr. Koren indicated. You're going to get a flu shot. It's not that you're going to get, you know, uh, you know, something that's not going to take a look at the case.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 3:09

No placebo.

KevinGeddings: 3:10

Yeah, no placebo. Right. Uh and all you have to do is once again call them here locally in St. Augustine. They're convenient right there in the Whetstone building next door to Flagler Hospital. 904-730-0166 and ask about the study that Dr. Koren has mentioned about the flu shot this morning. Once again, you have to be aged 65 and older. 904-730-0166. And just, I guess, me being a layman here, so I I guess the theory is that if it's four strains instead of three strains, it's better coverage. I mean, that's what we're going to try to figure out with this study.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 3:44

Yeah, basically, that's right.

KevinGeddings: 3:45

Okay.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 3:46

Uh so there's a little bit of a trade-off between having more strains and having a local skin reaction, for example. So uh do more people get a local skin reaction with four versus three versus more protection? So these are the kind of research questions that we ask, and then we hopefully solve with research programs.

KevinGeddings: 4:04

I've always wondered about this too, and just getting mine earlier this year or a couple you know, a couple weeks ago. Um you have the option, they'll say, like even at Publix or something, that you can get a flu shot, the regular flu shot, and then if you're over 65, you can get a different flu shot. What's that? What are we experiencing when that happens?

Dr.MichaelKoren: 4:20

Well, it it it's some of the same things. Um, you know, there there's actually a reasonable amount of competition amongst different manufacturers in terms of of flu vaccines, but most patients don't order flu vaccines based on any brand name or things of that nature. So uh a pharmacist would be helpful too, uh based on both FDA approval status and probably business deals between whatever the organization is that's giving the shot and the manufacturer, there'll be um the tendency to use one product versus another. It's very rare that patients actually ask for a flu vaccine by the trade name. But you can't do that actually.

KevinGeddings: 5:00

So And should we? I mean, is there a difference? Is there a uh a Chevy flu shot versus a Cadillac flu shot?

Dr.MichaelKoren: 5:07

Uh well uh what I would say is there's probably a uh Chevy flu shot versus a Tesla flu shot, uh meaning that they maybe have slightly different mechanisms, but they'll all get you to your destination quite well. There you go. So yeah, it gets gets into some of the subtle differences that we'd have to do an entire podcast to fully explain.

KevinGeddings: 5:31

That's something we should do that actually at some point. So Dr. Koren does such a great job of answering my dumb questions without actually saying that they're dumb questions, which I always think.

Dr.MichaelKoren: 5:39

It's not a dumb question, but um I do actually tell my patients uh um the ones that are more vulnerable that they may want the quadravalance shot, which is the four strains. Right. So that's one little take-home message. But the truth is that we're not sure if that makes that much of a difference for most patients. So we don't like to oversell things, especially if there's going to be a price difference on a retail basis.

KevinGeddings: 6:03

There you go. Well, once again, if you're just hopping in your vehicle or just tuning us in, Dr. Michael Koren is here with me, of course, medical doctor, cardiologist, and research scientists, and with ENCORE Research Group, and ENCORE Research Group is doing a study right now with flu shots. So if you're aged 65 and older, you can participate in the study. You'll obviously get a flu shot at no charge. You'll also get additional compensation, I think up to like $500. Um, and you'll be testing the difference between one flu shot that will take care of three strains of flu, the other four strains, but one way or the other you'll be covered, and then you'll also get some of the best healthcare, I would argue, that you've ever experienced by being a participant in this study. Go to Encorodocs.com. That's spelled E-N-C-O-R-E docs.com, Encoredocs.com. And before we let you go, of course, there's so much medical news out there, right, with RFK Jr. and all this other stuff going on in Washington. MedEvidence is a great platform to kind of sift through all this stuff, right, Doctor?

Dr.MichaelKoren: 6:58

It is. It it really is. I'm so pleased with that I'm getting tremendously positive feedback about MedEvidence. And you know, a lot of things in medicine are complicated, Kevin, and it's it's not things that are necessarily pat saying that this is great for everybody or this is horrible for everybody. Most things in medicine depend on who is involved in the decision making and who is going to be going to be getting the treatment or or the diagnostic procedure. So you have to individualize things. So how do you get information out to the public when the best information is individualized? And the way we do that is by just discussing the issue in general so then people can draw conclusions that are relevant for each particular person listening or viewing. So I hope that makes sense. Um but you probably go to family events, which I did recently, and I'll ask somebody, um, oh, what supplements do you take? And they'll give me a list of four supplements. And I ask them, Well, why do you take that? And they say, Oh, my friend said it was good. Well, medicine doesn't work like that. Things are not good or bad intrinsically necessarily. Things are good or bad for individuals based on circumstances. So we try to help people understand that for in Med Evidence. So a lot of things are appropriate under certain circumstances, but in many cases they're not appropriate. So you need to just become more educated, listen to experts talk about it, and then you'll draw the right conclusions for you and your family.

KevinGeddings: 8:27

Yeah. Well, and what I like about the MedEvidence platform, once again, go to Medevidence.com, it's very intuitive, very easy to navigate, and of course, information available on a variety of different platforms. So it's just easy to use. So I encourage you, you know, you always have time, of course, to surf the web a little bit. Go to medevidence.com. Medevidence.com, the truth behind the data. I promise you, it's going to be a good experience, and you're going to use it as a resource moving forward and share it too with other friends, family members, you know, who you may be having conversations with about various health topics. Medevidence.com. Dr. Michael Koren, thank you for all your time this morning. We appreciate you, and we'll talk soon, okay?

Dr.MichaelKoren: 9:04

My pleasure. Have a great week.

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