October 2006
Flu vaccine propaganda is gearing up again and the powers that be are in a major snit because Dr. Thomas Jefferson of the Cochrane Vaccines Field is telling the public and medical community, the second year in a row, that the kind of benefits being ascribed to flu vaccine are simply not justified. See Dr. Jefferson’s article in the British Medical Journal: Influenza vaccination: policy versus evidence.
Last year Jefferson and his colleagues at the Rome-based Cochrane Collaboration, an international not-for-profit network aimed at promoting evidence-based health care, published similar findings in the Lancet. They basically reviewed the world literature and all studies done on influenza vaccination over many decades which led them to conclude that the benefits of influenza vaccination are “wildly overestimated”.
Jefferson suggests there may be a confusion between influenza and influenza-like illness, where people are being diagnosed with the flu when they have something else”. Jefferson says there’s evidence proving these vaccines have little or no effect on things such as hospital stay, time off work, or even death resulting from influenza and its complications — especially in elderly people.
Every year Health Canada publishes the results of laboratory confirmed tests of swabs taken from people suffering from Influenza Like Illnesses (ILI), and every year, it is clear that the majority of cases, anywhere from 80% to 95% are attributable to other pathogens and NOT the influenza virus. Read our report on this and Dr. Jefferson’s findings at the VRAN website: Effectiveness of Flu Shots Wildly Overestimated.
Share the following with your friends and colleagues: From August 28, 2005 to April 22, 2006, Health Canada received a total of 68,439 laboratory confirmed lab tests from across the country. Of these, 3,914 tested positive for influenza A and 2,676 tested positive for influenza B. A total of 6,580 tests confirmed the presence of influenza virus or 10.4%. The rest of the lab tests, a total of 61,849 or 89.6% involved other pathogens against which the vaccine is completely useless.
We see the same pattern year in and year out — a pattern clearly demonstrated by confirmed laboratory testing which plainly shows that the influenza virus is only present in a small percentage of the total ILI or influenza like illnesses people experience. Clinically, the symptoms experienced by people are the same, whether caused by the influenza virus or another bug.
Dr. Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues know very well from the research they have been doing these last few years, that influenza viruses are only a small part of the pathogens that are involved in seasonal outbreaks of Influenza Like Illnesses. But the reaction of the medical people with vested interests in promoting influenza vaccination won’t hear of this truth – they just keep pushing those flu shots even if they are shown to be worthless. Now they are insisting that your babies, toddlers and young children get the shots every year as well as pregnant women. There are NO studies that demonstrate flu shots are safe for pregnant women or for the developing fetus. Read Dr. Edward Yazbak’s and Dr. David Ayoub’s excellent article which cautions about vaccinating pregnant women in the Journal of the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons: Influenza Vaccination During Pregnancy: A Critical Assessment of the Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Following are links to media articles reporting Dr. Jefferson & his team’s findings along with the usual vitriol from monopoly medicine in defense of its almighty flu vaccine program:
With gratitude to Rita Hoffman for searching out all the articles.
Report casts doubt on flu vaccine effectiveness
Not enough proof that flu shots work, researcher warns
Science on flu shot effectiveness doesn’t support flu shot policies: researcher
Winter flu jabs evidence queried
Flu vaccines ‘not worth the bother’ says expert — Daily Mail, UK — “Tom Jefferson, co-ordinator of the vaccines field of the highly-respected Cochrane Collaboration, called for an “urgent” re-evaluation of vaccination campaigns.”
Those flu jabs could be a waste of time, says expert – Telegraph, UK – “Dr Jefferson argues that all campaigns must have targets, such as reducing the number of cases and deaths and keeping people working and in school. In infants up to two, vaccination was no better than placebo and in older children there was little evidence of benefit. Nor could he find enough evidence of benefit among people with chronic chest problems, asthma and cystic fibrosis. In healthy adults the best evidence was that, on average, flu vaccination of a population would prevent 0.1 per cent of a working day lost.”
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