Yesterday CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield was concerned that Sars-Cov-2
may be more dangerous next year because it will probably coincide with the start of flu season.
He was also worried that having these two viruses circulating simultaneously may lead to a shortage of hospital beds, leaving those stricken by these viruses in danger.
So what was Dr Redfield’s solution? He wants Health officials to encourage flu vaccines.
“U.S. health officials must encourage more people to get flu vaccines this summer to minimize the need for hospitalizations if the health care system is again strained to its limits by COVID-19 patients Redfield said”
This is a terrible and dangerous idea.
For starters influenza vaccines are not effective at preventing the flu.
In fact they can not be considered
Evidence based medicine.
The largest independent meta-analysis ever conducted on the flu vaccine
showed that it is only 1% effective.
This meta-analysis looked at 52 studies and included over 80,000 adult participants
from 1966 – 2017. It was conducted by the Cochrane Group, one of the most respected independent researcher organizations at the time.
They concluded “Healthy adults who receive inactivated parenteral influenza vaccine rather than no vaccine probably experience less influenza, from just over 2% to just under 1% (moderate-certainty evidence)”
They also stated that “71 people would need to be vaccinated to avoid one influenza case”
and that “Vaccination may have little or no appreciable effect on hospitalisations”
In Another study researchers wanted to know if influenza vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization. 4996 adult participants over the age of 20 were observed for 8 seasons.
1393 of them came down with influenza. The researchers saw that those who were vaccinated for the flu did not have a reduced risk of hospitalization.
The researchers concluded that “Influenza vaccination did not reduce the risk of subsequent hospital admission among patients with vaccine failure. These findings do not support the hypothesis that vaccination mitigates influenza illness severity”
Researchers from the Cochrane Group reviewed all the available literature on flu vaccines
and the elderly from 1966 – 2009 totaling 75 studies and concluded that
“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”
So since 1966 there has not been one good quality study on the safety and efficacy of flu vaccines and the elderly
The researchers recommend that large quality studies should be conducted on the elderly population.
Not only does the flu vaccine fail to demonstrate a reduction in hospitalization, it actually shows that it can increase hospitalization.
In a study on Children who received the trivalent influenza vaccine researchers discovered
that it caused a 3x increased risk of hospitalization compared to those who did not receive
the vaccine !!
A new study that was just published this January 2020 examining Department of Defense personnel
showed that flu vaccines increased your risk of contracting coronavirus by 36%.
*note: coronavirus is a family of viruses. There are different strains and mutations.
Researchers concluded:
“Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus”
Another study that was conducted in 2012 supported this finding.
It showed that flu vaccines caused a 4.4 fold increase in non influenza upper respiratory infections.
So to summarize:
Flu vaccines are not effective at preventing the flu.
Flu vaccines have not been shown to reduce hospitalization rates.
Flu vaccines have shown to increase hospitalization rates in children.
Flu vaccines have been shown to increase your risk of non influenza upper
respiratory infections (including coronavirus)