Here's one you won't see reported on the evening news
Here’s one you won’t see reported on the evening news.
On issues concerning flu vaccinations, the major TV networks usually behave like in-house media outlets for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Health Beat” reporters deliver the official word put out by the CDC, and the basic pro-vaccine message rarely varies because most of those reporters are conventional doctors with unwavering mainstream views on health care.
So when a leading medical journal publishes a review of flu vaccine research and the findings don’t conform to the mainstream mindset, it’s not surprising that the networks (and probably your local stations and newspapers) let it pass without a mention.
But you can read about it here, and you can tell your family and friends: The evidence in support of getting a yearly flu shot is sketchy at best.
Precious little
No network news report will convince Dr. Tom Jefferson that the flu vaccine is effective. He’s examined the scant evidence firsthand.
This past September, Dr. Jefferson told HealthDay News, “The vaccine doesn’t work very well at all,” and he went on to make the point that the flu is caused by more than 200 different agents, but a vaccine is only designed to fight two of them. His assessment: “That is simply nonsense.”
Dr. Jefferson is an epidemiologist and the coordinator of the Cochrane Vaccine Fields, an organization that promotes vaccine reviews and develops criteria for assessing vaccine effectiveness and safety. In a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, Dr. Jefferson reported on the quality of existing research on inactivated flu vaccine (the type that requires needle injection).
In an article titled “Influenza Vaccination: Policy Versus Evidence,” Dr. Jefferson makes these four key points:
1) Most flu vaccine studies are poorly designed, giving unreliable validity to questionable results
2) Systemic reviews provide evidence that inactivated vaccines have “little or no effect” on measures such as time missed from work, hospital stays, or death (either directly from flu or flu-related complications)
3) Given the widespread use of flu vaccines, the available data concerning safety is remarkably small
4) The generally accepted confidence in the effectiveness of inactivated flu vaccines is at odds with the existing evidence
Going without the needle
In the e-Alert “Same Time Next Year” (10/17/06), I told you about research from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that compared flu-related mortality among older people to rates of immunization. Their finding: During the past quarter century, immunization rates for the elderly have climbed substantially while the elderly flu-related mortality rate has stayed the same.
But don’t despair. There are several ways to help prevent the flu without getting a flu shot.
In the e-Alert “Kall the Kops!” (1/4/05), HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., discussed three natural agents he uses in lieu of a vaccine: vitamin C, grapefruit seed extract, and olive leaf extract. Dr. Spreen told me that at the fist sign of aches, sore throat, cough or any other symptoms of flu (or cold, or other infections), he starts with several grams of vitamin C, and then follows that with 1,000 mg (one gram) every hour until symptoms recede. You can read the entire e-Alert at this link:
http://www.hsionline.com/ealerts/ea200501/ea20050104.html
HSI members can read about other flu fighting formulas in the article “Don’t Inject Yourself with Mercury and Anti-Freeze” which can be found in the September 2003 issue of the Members Alert, available at this link:
http://www.hsionline.com/articles/hsi_2003vas/hsi_200309.html
