Do Flu Shots Work?

"The vaccine is completely worthless, and the government knows it," says Dr. Blaylock. "There are three reasons the government tells the elderly why they should get flu shots: secondary pneumonia, hospitalization, and death. Yet a study by the Cochrane group studied hundreds of thousands of people and found it offered zero protection for those three things in the general community. It offered people in nursing homes some immunity against the flu --- at best one-third --- but that was only if they picked the right vaccine."

The government also says that every baby over the age of six months should have a vaccine, and they know it contains a dose of mercury that is toxic to the brain. They also know the studies have shown that the flu vaccine has zero --- zero --- effectiveness in children under 5.

Here's the bottom line: The vast number of people who get the flu vaccine aren't going to get any benefit, but they get all of the risks and complications.

Flu vaccines contain mercury in the form of thimerosal (ethylmercury), a brain toxin, which accumulates in the brain and other organs. "It's incorporated into the brain for a lifetime," says Dr. Blaylock. "After five or 10 years of flu shots, enough mercury accumulates in the brain that every single study agrees is neurotoxic. Mercury is extremely toxic to the brain even in very small concentrations, and there are thousands of studies that prove it."

The changes that we see in the brain associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are all easily produced by mercury in these doses.


Do flu shots work?


Not in babies: In a review of more than 51 studies involving more than 294,000 children it was found there was "no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shotwas any more effective than placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in preventing the flu.

Reference: "Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children." The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2 (2008).



Not in children with asthma: A study 800 children with asthma, where one half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Reference: "Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations." Christly, C. et al. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5.



Not in children with asthma (2): "The inactivated flu vaccine, Flumist, does not prevent influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma...In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than children who do not get the vaccine."

Reference: The American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference, May 15-20, 2009, San Diego.



Not in adults: In a review of 48 reports including more than 66,000 adults, "Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go to hospital or take time off work."

Reference: "Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults." The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1 (2006).



Not in the Elderly: In a review of 64 studies in 98 flu seasons, For elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.

Reference: "Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly." The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.3 (2006).

The Hype of the Flu season with children going back to school will be peaking soon as it does every year. Facts are facts and real literature does not support the effectiveness of the flu vaccine. Skewed statistics from pharmaceutical companies trying to push their products may support it but is the risk worth the benefit? Some previous studies have shown the Flu vaccine has more of a placebo effect than it does a beneficial factor. So what about prevention? September is the time of year we like to get more aggressive with our Vitamin D supplementation with patients. The adult daily dose is 5-6,000iu's a day and has shown to be beneficial during Flu season.
Dr. J