Posted by Bayareamom, a resident of San Ramon, on Sep 11, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Folks may want to view the following:

Medical reviews conclude influenza immunizations ineffective:

SNIP:

"Two separate reviews of medical data on the effectiveness of vaccinating people to prevent influenza showed there were no benefits to being vaccinated for the flu. Epidemiologist Dr. Tom Jefferson, who is with the Cochrane Vaccines Field, participated in two different reviews of medical studies related to influenza vaccines. Both reviews were published by the Cochrane Collaboration. Dr. Jefferson summarized the conclusions of the reviews in a podcast."

"... The reviews are very different in their content but not in their conclusions. Both ... highlight serious problems with the current evidence base."

... The implausible results of the studies are that the vaccines appear effective against those outcomes least likely to be caused by influenza viruses; such as influenza-like illness, hospitalization and death from all causes. In contrast they show only modest or no effect against influenza and hospitalization from pneumonia."

... our reviews include a number of studies funded by industry. An early systematic review of all influenza vaccine studies published between 1948 and 2007 found that industry-funded studies were published in more prestigious journals and were cited more than other studies but their methodological quality and size were the same as the other studies. Studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favourable to the vaccines."

"In conclusion we have no reliable evidence on the effects of influenza vaccines on the elderly and health care workers who work with the elderly. What we do have evidence of is widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies."

SNIP:

..."In Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly, Doctors Jefferson, Di Pietrantonj, Al-Ansary, Ferroi, Thorning and Thomas reviewed 40 years worth of gathered records on influenza shots given to adults 65 years and older, which included 75 studies. The reviewers concluded more testing was required before anyone could say flu shots are effective."

"The available evidence is of poor quality and provides no guidance regarding the safety, efficacy or effectiveness of influenza vaccines for people aged 65 years or older. To resolve the uncertainty, an adequately powered publicly-funded randomised, placebo-controlled trial run over several seasons should be undertaken."

"In the second review, called Influenza vaccination for healthcare workers who work with the elderly, Doctors Thomas, Jefferson and Lasserson looked at five available studies for the identified population group and concluded -

"... there is no evidence that vaccinating HCWs prevents influenza in elderly residents in LTCFs. High quality RCTs are required to avoid risks of bias in methodology and conduct, and to test these interventions in combination."

Read more: Web Link

Read more: Web Link

Posted by Bayareamom, a resident of San Ramon, on Sep 11, 2012 at 5:01 pm

More information regarding the flu vaccine from physician Dr. Sherri Tenpenny:

LINK: Web Link

SNIP:

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.”

Reference: The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.3 (2006).

Posted by Bayareamom, a resident of San Ramon, on Sep 12, 2012 at 1:41 pm

Here is one more article I just found and thought I'd pass it on:

LINK: Web Link

SNIP:

TORONTO – "A strange vaccine-related phenomenon spotted at the start of the 2009 flu pandemic may well have been real, a new study suggests.

Canadian researchers noticed in the early weeks of the pandemic that people who got a flu shot for the 2008-2009 winter seemed to be more likely to get infected with the pandemic virus than people who hadn’t received a flu shot.

Five studies done in several provinces showed the same puzzling and unsettling results. But initially research outside of Canada did not, and the effect was dismissed as “the Canadian problem.”

SNIP:

..."A group of Canadian researchers recreated the event in ferrets, the best animal model for predicting how influenza will act in humans. They worked with animals because it would have been unethical to subject people to the health risks the work entailed.

The findings of the ferret study were presented Sunday at ICAAC, a major international infectious diseases conference taking place this year in San Francisco. (ICAAC stands for the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.)

Lead author Dr. Danuta Skowronski outlined the work at a webcast press conference. Skowronski, an influenza expert at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, also led the first study that spotted the apparent interaction between 2008 flu shots and pandemic flu infection.

She and her colleagues worked with 32 ferrets, giving half the 2008 seasonal flu shot and the remainder a placebo injection. The work was blinded, meaning the researchers didn’t know which ferrets received which shot. Later, all the ferrets were infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus.

The ferrets in the vaccine group became significantly sicker than the other animals, though all recovered.

“The findings that we show are consistent with the increased risk that we saw in the human studies,” Skowronski said.

She said that in the time since the pandemic, researchers in other countries have reported a similar interaction..."

I would also encourage those who read this article, to pay particular attention to the comments below. Well worth the reading...

Posted by The Refusers, a resident of another community, on Sep 12, 2012 at 8:24 pm

The Refusers have a song on this vaccine topic entitled: Get Your Mandates Out of My Body.

Lyrics:

Vaccine mandates are out of control

They leave kids and parents with nowhere to go

We’ve got to fight back before it’s too late

They’re turning this country into a police state

Listen for free here

Web Link

Posted by Gord4356, a resident of another community, on Sep 13, 2012 at 9:35 am

I was with the Canadian Military in 2009, and was ordered to get the H1N1 shot (AREPANRIX by GSK GlaxoSmithKline). I had an adverse reaction to the vaccine which included PERMANENT neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and respiratory symptoms. It's difficult to believe but I now have dizziness, vertigo, irregular heart rythyms, shortness of breath, muscle weakness and pain, and numbness moving up my body, to name but a few of the serious symptoms. I went from special forces fit to that of a 70 year old in a matter of days. Please choose wisely if you do plan to have your next flu shot or vaccination. You may also ask your doctor and other Heath care workers if they will be getting these shots. My doctor flat out said "no way".