Michael’s a flu jab hit... if you find him funny

SCIENCE is to investigate if the effectiveness of the flu jab given to pensioners can be enhanced by comedian Michael McIntyre.

Those tested will be between 65 and 85 in a Medical Research Council funded project conducted by Nottingham University.

They will have blood tests before receiving the jab, then watch 15 minutes of the comedian in the hope that the happiness factor of having a laugh can boost its effect. Four weeks later another blood test will see if they have higher antibody responses.

Health psychologist Professor Kavita Vedhara said: “We want to be able to improve the effectiveness of vaccinations so that fewer older people end up with flu, which can be a devastating condition on the elderly.”

All well and good, but Michael McIntyre?

He may be a brilliant performer but not everybody will find him funny.

Wouldn’t it be better to give pensioners a choice? Katherine Ryan, Sean Long, Jon Richardson, Jo Brand or Lee Mack, maybe. Go on then, Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise and Les Dawson as well, to cover new and old. Wouldn’t it be better to

give pensioners a choice? Katherine Ryan,

Sean Long, Jon Richardson, Jo Brand or Lee Mack,

maybe.

I hope the research has positive results although it does seem a little frivolous. But then again, science has been involved in far more bizarre projects.

Genuine academics have investi- gated whether woodpeckers get headaches and asked which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead. How often deployed American servicemen get constipated, whether teenagers pick their nose a lot (they do) and does listening to country music increase suicide risk (apparently it can) and found that breaking wind can prevent depression. Well, it would, wouldn’t it?