Dr Sherri Tenpenny Reports On The Flu Vaccine

Written by Dr Sherri Tenpenny on her MySpace page.

The "life saving" benefits of influenza shots for elderly people have come under serious attack and received fresh support in recent weeks.

One group of experts, writing in the October issue of Lancet Infectious Diseases, argued that the mortality benefits of flu shots for the elderly have been greatly exaggerated because of a subtle bias and other methodologic problems in many of the relevant studies.

"The remaining evidence base is currently insufficient to indicate the magnitude of the mortality benefit, if any, that elderly people derive from the vaccination programme," says the analysis by Lone Simonsen, PhD, of George Washington University in Washington, DC, and colleagues.

Offering a sharp critique of the evidence, the authors of the study offered several reasons for questioning the notion that flu immunization saves lives in the elderly population:

1. Even thought vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15% to 65% since 1980, the overall mortality due to pneumonia and influenza in elderly people has increased in that period.

2. Few randomized, placebo-controlled trials have examined flu vaccine effectiveness in elderly people. The largest and best study, done in the Netherlands, showed a 50% reduction in confirmed flu cases among all the volunteers, but the reduction for those older than 70 was only 23%.

(Blogger's Note: for regular folks, that still left only a 50% effectiveness. The flu vaccine has more listed side effects than any vaccine package insert I have ever read, including a host of respiratory problems such as ASTHMA)

There was no significant reduction in influenza-like illness. (Blogger's Note - so you don't get the flu, but you get flu-like. What a nice exchange!)

3. A number of investigators have reported finding evidence of flu vaccination benefits in the elderly by analyzing the records of large healthcare organizations. But these studies typically are flawed in that investigators looked for an effect on all-cause mortality, a nonspecific outcome, rather than on lab-confirmed flu.

4, Further, many such studies may be marred by a subtle selection bias, wherein relatively healthy older people were more likely to be vaccinated, thereby making vaccination look more beneficial than it really was.

A further problem is that cohort studies typically have defined the flu season arbitrarily as December through March, rather than on the basis of flu surveillance.

COMMENT: In 2005, the Cochrane Collaboration reviewed studies that involved nearly 500,000 people and concluded that the vaccine was "no better than placebo" in all three age groups for which the shot is advocated: babies, middle aged adults and the elderly. I discussed this in detail in my book, FOWL!

If you know anyone you know still "believes" in the value of the flu shot, buy my book and have them read Chapter 8 and 9. The details will change their mind!

How many more studies will it take to prove the flu shot doesn't work and there are better ways to stay healthy in the winter?