Everything you know about the flu and the flu shot is probably wrong, according to a mainstream flu expert

Red, white & flu

If the CDC had their way, you would never hear a word from Peter Doshi. They would lock him in a bunker and throw away the key.

That’s because if Doshi had HIS way, you would hear nothing but the truth about the flu shot.

Great expectations

With summer just kicking off, this might seem like an odd time to talk about flu shots. But Peter Doshi is talking.

And Doshi is not just any flu expert. He’s Johns Hopkins’ flu expert. And his most recent takedown of the flu shot appears in the British Medical Journal.

So he’s a CDC nightmare. Because his reality-based message about flu vaccines comes straight from the heart of mainstream medicine.

For years, I’ve been calling the CDC the advertising agency for flu vaccines. Doshi confirms that with the title of his BMJ piece… “Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease.”

And oh boy, do they market the disease.

The CDC links the flu to risk of serious complications. But Doshi says, “The risk is quite a bit lower than we’re led to believe.”

You know why?

For starters, the CDC bundles influenza with pneumonia to calculate yearly “flu-related” deaths in the tens of thousands.

In reality, the yearly number of deaths associated with the flu is closer to 500 than the often-quoted 36,000. The number of actual, confirmed deaths is quite a bit lower.

And the danger to older people has turned out to be another pumped up scare tactic.

Three years ago, I told you about stunning new research. It found that the flu shot does NOT reduce deaths due to flu among people over 65. And other research shows no difference in the totals of pneumonia deaths between people who get a flu shot and those who don’t.

Doshi notes that we’re given “unrealistically high expectations” of what the flu shot can do. And he flatly states… “There’s no reason to have those high expectations.”

And that’s straight from the heart of mainstream medicine — and straight from the heart of Baltimore.

Sources:
“Johns Hopkins Scientist Blasts CDC for Pushing Flu Shot” Nick Tate, Newsmax Health, 6/14/13, newsmaxhealth.com

“Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease” Peter Doshi, British Medical Journal, Vol. 346, 5/16/13, bmj.com

“Are US flu death figures more PR than science?” Peter Doshi, British Medical Journal, Vol. 331, 12/8/05, bmj.com