New York City’s mayor and Curtis Sliwa put their political differences aside to promote flu vaccination. The central message is consistent with CDC guidance — but federal records provide a more complicated picture involving limited vaccine effectiveness, rare neurological and allergic reactions, a federal injury-compensation system, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to remove thimerosal from U.S. flu vaccines.
New Yorkers do not often see Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa agreeing with each other.
But in a new video released by the NYC Mayor’s Office, the two put their political differences aside for a public-health message.
“Curtis Sliwa and I disagree about a lot of things,” Mamdani says.
“That’s for sure,” Sliwa responds.
“But not this, because this saves lives. You’ve got to get your flu shot.”
The video directs residents to NYC’s Health Map to find locations where influenza vaccines are available and emphasizes protecting older adults and children.
Sliwa jokes throughout the spot. After receiving the injection, he praises the person administering it for barely making him feel the needle, then asks whether proof of vaccination might allow him onto the subway instead of an OMNY card.
It is a lighthearted video with a simple message:
Get vaccinated. Protect yourself. Protect your neighbors.
But how closely does that message reflect the full federal record?
The answer is more nuanced.
CDC Still Recommends Annual Flu Vaccination
The basic recommendation in the NYC video is consistent with current federal guidance.
For the 2026–2027 influenza season, CDC says influenza vaccines are available for people six months of age and older.
CDC describes annual vaccination as the most important measure for reducing the risk of influenza and its potentially serious complications.
Federal guidance nevertheless contains an important qualification that does not appear in the short Mayor’s Office video:
Vaccination is recommended for people six months and older who do not have a contraindication.
Different flu vaccines are approved for different ages and medical circumstances, and not every formulation is appropriate for every person.
How Effective Is the Flu Vaccine?
A viewer hearing that the flu shot is “the best way” to protect against influenza could easily interpret that phrase as meaning the vaccine provides very high protection against getting the disease.
The federal numbers tell a more complicated story.
CDC’s interim estimates for the 2025–2026 influenza season found that, across all age groups, vaccine effectiveness against medically attended influenza was approximately:
- 24% in the U.S. Flu VE outpatient network;
- 36% in the VISION outpatient network;
- 31% against influenza-associated hospitalization in the VISION network.
CDC concluded that vaccination reduced influenza-associated outpatient visits by roughly 24% to 36% and influenza-associated hospitalizations by about 31% during that season.
That does not mean the vaccine was ineffective.
It means influenza vaccination is a risk-reduction measure, not a guarantee against infection or hospitalization.
Effectiveness also changes substantially from season to season as circulating influenza viruses evolve.
CDC’s historical estimates show overall seasonal effectiveness varying significantly over the years.
Federal Government Recognizes Rare Serious Vaccine Injuries
The NYC video does not discuss adverse events.
Federal documents do.
The Health Resources and Services Administration maintains an official Vaccine Injury Table for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
For seasonal influenza vaccines, that federal table specifically lists:
- Anaphylaxis when onset occurs within four hours;
- Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration within 48 hours;
- Vasovagal syncope within one hour;
- Guillain-Barré syndrome when onset occurs between 3 and 42 days following vaccination.
The table is not simply a list of complaints submitted by patients.
Under the compensation system, an injury that meets the table’s medical definition and timing requirements receives a legal presumption of vaccine causation unless another cause is established.
That distinction matters.
It does not mean every case of GBS or every medical problem occurring after vaccination was caused by the vaccine.
But it does demonstrate that the federal government formally recognizes specific serious conditions in connection with seasonal flu vaccination for vaccine-injury compensation purposes.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome
Guillain-Barré syndrome, or GBS, is a rare neurological disorder in which the immune system attacks peripheral nerves.
It can cause weakness and paralysis.
Most patients recover, but CDC acknowledges that some people can experience long-term nerve damage, and in rare cases GBS can be fatal.
CDC estimates that when an elevated risk has been detected after seasonal influenza vaccination, the increase has generally been around:
one to two additional GBS cases per one million flu-vaccine doses administered.
CDC also emphasizes an important comparison: influenza infection itself is associated with GBS, and the available evidence suggests a person is more likely to develop GBS after influenza illness than after flu vaccination.
This is therefore a genuine but very rare recognized safety issue — not evidence that GBS is common following vaccination.
Can People Die From a Flu Vaccine?
This question requires particular care.
The federal Vaccine Injury Table states that acute complications or sequelae of a qualifying listed injury, including death, can qualify as a Table injury under the program.
For example, the same federal document describes anaphylaxis as a severe and potentially lethal systemic reaction.
But that does not produce a simple national number for “people killed by flu vaccines.”
A common mistake is to take deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)
— and treat every report as proof that a vaccine caused the death.
That is not how VAERS works.
CDC explains that VAERS is an early-warning surveillance system. Anyone can submit a report about a medical event occurring after vaccination.
A report by itself does not establish causation.
Serious reports can trigger further investigation, medical-record review and analysis, but the raw number of reports cannot legitimately be presented as the number of confirmed vaccine deaths.
So far, Midtown Tribune has not located a current federal statistic establishing a specific annual number of American deaths scientifically proven to have been caused by seasonal influenza vaccination.
Claiming otherwise would go beyond the available evidence.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Changed Flu-Vaccine Policy
One of the most significant recent changes came from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In July 2025, HHS announced that Kennedy had adopted an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendation calling for the removal of thimerosal-containing influenza vaccines from the U.S. vaccination program.
Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative historically used in some multi-dose vaccine vials.
According to HHS, children, pregnant women and adults were to receive single-dose influenza vaccines without thimerosal as a preservative.
Kennedy characterized the move as eliminating unnecessary mercury exposure from vaccination.
And current CDC guidance reflects that policy.
For the 2025–2026 season, CDC said flu vaccination for children, pregnant women and adults should use single-dose formulations free of thimerosal as a preservative.
But FDA Says Thimerosal Was Not Shown to Be Harmful
Here is where the federal record becomes particularly interesting.
Kennedy’s HHS removed thimerosal from recommended influenza vaccines.
Yet FDA’s scientific assessment says something quite different about the evidence.
FDA describes thimerosal as an organic mercury-containing compound used to prevent microbial contamination in multi-dose vaccine containers.
According to FDA, a large body of scientific research supports the safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines.
FDA says its review found no evidence of harm from thimerosal used as a vaccine preservative apart from hypersensitivity or local reactions, and says scientific evidence has not established a causal relationship between thimerosal exposure in vaccines and serious neurodevelopmental disorders.
That creates a noteworthy policy-science distinction.
Kennedy’s HHS concluded that continued mercury exposure from flu vaccines was unnecessary and changed policy to eliminate it.
FDA’s scientific position, however, remains that the evidence did not establish that the previously used doses were causing serious harm.
Kennedy’s decision therefore should not be described as federal proof that thimerosal-containing flu vaccines had been killing or poisoning Americans.
It is a policy decision made in the name of reducing an exposure that HHS concluded was unnecessary.
The 2026–2027 Vaccine Is Also Different From Last Year’s
Another detail missing from most public-service announcements is that the influenza vaccine is reformulated from season to season.
For 2026–2027, FDA recommended changing all three viral components compared with the 2025–2026 formulation.
CDC says the update included a change intended to address the influenza A(H3N2) subclade K virus that circulated widely during the previous season.
In other words, there is no single permanent “flu shot.”
The composition is updated according to surveillance and predictions about which influenza strains are expected to circulate.
What Mamdani and Sliwa Got Right
The Mayor’s Office video is correct on several important points.
CDC continues to recommend annual flu vaccination for most people six months and older.
Influenza can cause serious illness, particularly among vulnerable populations.
Vaccination can reduce the probability of medically attended influenza and hospitalization.
And the vaccine has an established safety-monitoring system.
But the message becomes less complete when reduced to:
“This saves lives. You’ve got to get your flu shot.”
Federal documents contain additional information New Yorkers may reasonably want to know.
There are contraindications.
There are rare serious adverse reactions.
The federal government maintains a vaccine-injury compensation system.
Guillain-Barré syndrome is formally listed in the federal Vaccine Injury Table for seasonal influenza vaccines within a defined post-vaccination window.
Effectiveness is not 100 percent and can vary substantially from season to season.
And the Trump administration’s HHS under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. changed national policy to eliminate thimerosal-preserved flu vaccines — even while FDA continues to say scientific studies do not demonstrate serious harm from the preservative at the doses previously used.
The Bottom Line
The federal evidence does not support the claim that seasonal influenza vaccines are killing large numbers of Americans.
Nor does the existence of VAERS reports prove that every illness or death occurring after vaccination was caused by vaccination.
At the same time, it would also be inaccurate to tell New Yorkers that influenza vaccination is completely risk-free.
The government’s own documents recognize rare serious injuries, maintain a compensation system for qualifying vaccine-related harm and specify contraindications and precautions that depend on the individual patient and vaccine formulation.
That distinction is important.
Public-health campaigns are designed to deliver a simple message.
Medical decisions are rarely quite that simple.
New Yorkers who want to be vaccinated should know both the benefits and the documented risks — and people with a history of severe vaccine reactions, Guillain-Barré syndrome or other relevant medical conditions should discuss the appropriate influenza vaccine with a qualified medical professional.
Official Sources
CDC — 2026–2027 Flu Season
CDC: 2026–2027 Flu Season
CDC — Interim Clinical Considerations for Seasonal Influenza Vaccines
CDC clinical guidance
CDC — Preliminary 2025–2026 Flu Vaccine Effectiveness
CDC vaccine-effectiveness data
CDC — Guillain-Barré Syndrome and Flu Vaccine
CDC GBS and flu-vaccine safety information
HRSA — Vaccine Injury Table
Federal Vaccine Injury Table
HRSA — Vaccine Injury Compensation Program FAQ
HRSA compensation-program information
HHS — Kennedy Adopts Recommendation Removing Thimerosal From U.S. Flu Vaccines
HHS announcement on thimerosal
FDA — Thimerosal and Vaccines
FDA scientific review of thimerosal
NYC — NYC Health Map
NYC Health Map
NYC Mayor’s Office — Original video: “One thing all New Yorkers can agree on? It’s time to get your flu shot!”
Watch the Mayor’s Office video
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