Activist Post | January 16 2013
How effective are flu vaccines? Well, long story short—not very! What? you probably are lamenting, in view of the present push to vaccinate everyone six months and older against the present seasonal influenza outbreak in the USA. That is the consensus of a report published in theBritish Medical Journal (BMJ) November 19, 2012 [1] wherein flu vaccine efficacy claims have been exaggerated significantly.
Those conclusions came out of a report generated by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy analyzing data from 1967 to 2012 that was based upon the review of the prestigious Cochrane Library studies.
In 2011 this author co-edited the monograph Vaccines & Vaccinations: The Need for Congressional Investigation wherein we cited the Cochrane Library’s work regarding influenza vaccines effectiveness in children, adults, and the elderly.
The Cochrane Library published the article “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children” January 25, 2006 wherein the authors’ conclusion in the Abstract stated:
Influenza vaccines are efficacious in children older than two but little evidence is available for children under two. There was a marked difference between vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. No safety comparisons could be carried out, emphasizing the need for standardization of methods and presentation of vaccine safety data in future studies. …If immunisation [sic] in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required. [2]
In Issue 7 (2010) of the Cochrane Library, the article “Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults” concluded that:
Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission.
Furthermore, there was this WARNING: