Uh oh…the CDC is NOT going to want to see this flu shot study

Speaking of drugs that don’t work…

The folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would probably not want you to check the website for The Lancet (the nearly 200-year-old UK medical journal).

There’s a new flu vaccine study, not yet available in print, that’s posted on the website. And if you work for the CDC and you’re involved with their yearly push to convince everyone to get a flu shot, then this study is the LAST thing you want to see.

Now, you know I’m not a fan of meta-analysis studies. It’s too easy for researchers with an agenda (like drug company employees) to manipulate data.

That said, a team of University of Minnesota researchers, with no obvious agenda that I can see, conducted a meta-analysis of about 30 studies and came up with two key conclusions…

1) When 100 adults don’t get a flu shot, less than three of them come down with the flu.
2) When 100 adults do get the shot, 1.5 of them get the flu.

So the flu shot works! Kinda. Sorta. Slightly. Hardly.

Sources:
“Efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccines: a systematic review and meta-analysis” The Lancet, published online ahead of print 10/27/11, thelancet.com