The news in this area has been reporting the shot to be 11% effective. Not even sure what this would mean to patients, but to me I take it as about one out of ten will not get the flu, with the shot. That is very poor performance in my way of thinking and why would you not get a 89% discount off of the cost if it performs at 11%. Several years ago I happened to be in the docs office and he convinced me to get the shot (I've not had one before that, unless it was as a child). I got the flu (severe) and the doc basically stated that the mix of what to cover wasn't very good that year. Since then no more flu shots. It is basically a gamble of what flu will be in play and did they guess right and get the strain into the mix. Now that I told my story, I'll probably get the flu, which medicine can't cure (just has to run its course, heard that too many times in my life) and may or may not prevent. This picture, to me, is what's wrong with medicine. Medicine cures very little, yes they can set a bone but it is your body that fixes the bone not medicine. Most medicine alleviates the pain and the body cures itself or doesn't. I have a cabinet full of crap that doesn't "fix" my medical issue, it masks the symptoms. Sorry for the rant, too close to the issue and my Dad passed away in Oct., same scenario. They can't fix the results of a stroke and other things that were occuring. They are PRACTICING medicine!