by THOMAS on Jan 10, 2014
Well here we are in the flu season again and I am literally getting bombarded with folks asking me about the vaccine. I have looked into the flu vaccine extensively, read numerous articles, checked medscape etc. I can honestly say at this point that this “new” vaccine will not prevent you from getting the flu, especially if you are a member of the elderly population. There have been NO definitive studies showing the effectiveness of the ANY of the flu vaccines and yet the FDA went ahead and gave this new one the “fast track” treatment for approval?
Here are the exact results of the recent study:
The trial used 32,000 adults aged 65 yrs and older in the U.S. and Canada. It was performed during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons. Subjects were randomly received either the regular (Fluzone) or the higher dose versions. The rate of laboratory confirmations of the flu among subjects receiving the high dose vs. the regular vaccines was 1.43%/ 1.8% relatively. The researchers stated that there was a 24% improvement in the subjects receiving the higher dose vaccine. The 24% figure is an accurate one when comparing the 1.4% to 1.8% but this is the “relative risk difference. This number should not be used when considering whether a particular therapy would help a patient. The more accurate number would be the absolute risk. The absolute risk between the two numbers (1.4%/1.8%) is 0.46%!
This means that the results of this study should read, “The new flu vaccine is 0.46% more effective! Taking this a step further you would say that it takes 217 elderly people to receive the high dose vaccine to prevent ONE case of the flu! That would mean that 216 out of 217 elderly folks would be receiving this vaccine for nothing-it did not help one iota. They literally paid double the price and got exposed to potential adverse health effects.
Both vaccines are worthless. Case closed.
For more info on this topic I would direct you to Dr. David Brownstein MD.