Immunology expert says flu vaccine doesn’t protect as promoted
“We have overpromoted and overhyped this vaccine, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, as well as its Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. “It does not protect as promoted. It’s all a sales job: it’s all public relations”
There is no current scientific evidence to support the idea that herd immunity can be achieved by getting the flu shot. Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, as well as its Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance.has said that we will never achieve herd immunity with the flu vaccine unless a more effective one is developed.
“We have overpromoted and overhyped this vaccine, he said, “It does not protect as promoted. It’s all a sales job: it’s all public relations”, Dr.Osterholm said.
Dr. Osterholm is a frequently invited guest lecturer on the topic of epidemiology of infectious diseases. He serves on the editorial boards of nine journals, including Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and Microbial Drug Resistance: Mechanisms, Epidemiology and Disease, and he is a reviewer for 24 additional journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association, and Science.
Dr. Osterholm is eminently qualified to speak about the flu shot. His credentials are so long that they fill an entire page.
Dr. Osterholm is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
Dr. Osterholm is eminently qualified to speak about the flu shot. His credentials are so long that they fill an entire page.
Here are a just a few of his qualifications:
He is a frequently invited guest lecturer on the topic of epidemiology of infectious diseases.
He serves on the editorial boards of nine journals, including Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and Microbial Drug Resistance: Mechanisms, Epidemiology and Disease, and he is a reviewer for 24 additional journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association, and Science.
He was appointed to the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity. In July 2008, he was named to the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center’s Academy of Excellence in Health Research. In October 2008, he was appointed to the World Economic Forum Working Group on Pandemics. I encourage you to read the complete list of credentials here: Dr. Michael T. Osterman
He says that the efficacy and effectiveness of the flu vaccine have been overstated. Its effectiveness is extremely low or even absent in some years. He is straightforward about the safety concerns.
But to hear it told on social media, getting your flu shot is safe and is also your moral obligation.
A social media rant by an ER nurse named Beth Purkey recently went viral. Beth claimed that being an “ACTUAL certified medical professional” (to use her own words) makes her qualified to set the facts straight about the flu vaccine’s efficacy and safety. She presents an the illusion of knowledge and no evidence. She provided absolutely no evidence to back up her claims.
She’s an ER nurse, not an immunologist. She said a lot of things that aren’t accurate. When making medical decisions about what you inject into your body you would think that people wouldn’t relay on a social media rant to form their opinion. Yet over 375,000 people shared her post.
. Let’s compare what Beth said with what Dr. Michael T. Osterholm says about the flu vaccine.
Olsterholm advises people like Beth, “Stop trying to spin it”” “We have overhyped and over promoted this vaccine. Will people trust us if they don’t think that we’re being honest and forthright with the public data? Are we becoming nothing more than the anti-science people? Let’s be honest about what it is. Stop trying to spin it.”
Let’s compare what Beth says to the expert:
Beth Purkey: When healthy people vaccinate, we protect the newborns and the grandparents and the chemo patients and the ones who truly cannot receive the vaccine. It’s called herd immunity, and it’s the cornerstone of a healthy society.
Dr. Olsterholm: , Induced Herd Immunity depends on a lot of factors, including the effectiveness of a vaccine. The effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies from almost completely ineffective to moderately effective .
For that reason, induced herd immunity will never be accomplished unless a more effective and safe vaccine is produced.
"It's much more complicated than we thought," Osterholm says. "I know less about influenza today than I did 10 years ago." Why flu vaccines so often fail
Influenza research today is a humbling experience. The more we learn the less we understand,” says Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy. Osterholm points to the fact there is much more to making the vaccine work than predicting the correct strains circulating in a given year. Scientific American
The CDC points out:
During years when the flu vaccine is not well matched to circulating influenza viruses, it is possible that little or no benefit from flu vaccination may be observed. During years when there is a good match between the flu vaccine and circulating viruses, it is possible to measure substantial benefits from flu vaccination in terms of preventing flu illness and complications. However, even during years when the flu vaccine match is good, the benefits of flu vaccination will vary, depending on various factors like the characteristics of the person being vaccinated, what influenza viruses are circulating that season and even, potentially, which type of flu vaccine was used. Vaccine Effectiveness: How well do Vaccines really work?
Dr. Osterholm isn’t anti-vaccine. He still says that Individuals — particularly the elderly and others at increased risk of developing serious and even deadly complications from the influenza — should still get an annual flu shot, he stressed, but health officials should “be honest about what it is. Stop trying to spin it… the problem is if we oversell it and make these statements that are just not true about how effective it is. Then we’re doing exactly what the anti-science people are doing.” Olsterman says officials should be more frank about the limits of the fly vaccine.
But what can it hurt to get it if there is even a small chance it might be effective? There is potential for harm people should have the right to weigh the risks and benefits for themselves and their families. They should have the freedom to choose how they want to protect themselves and those around them.
People have the right to know that vaccines aren’t as safe as Beth Purkey claims.
Dr Olsterholm vs Purkey on the safety of vaccines and efficacy of the flu vaccine:
Beth Purkey: The vaccine does NOT cause strokes, auto-immune diseases, or severe allergic reactions.
The CDC begs to disagree. Here is what they say about sever allergic reactions:
An allergic reaction could occur after the vaccinated person leaves the clinic. If you see signs of a severe allergic reaction (hives, swelling of the face and throat, difficulty breathing, a fast heartbeat, dizziness, or weakness), call 9-1-1 and get the person to the nearest hospital.) -CDC
Dr. Olsterholm:
There is no process for selecting influenza vaccine strains that reduces the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), as the reason influenza vaccine causes GBS is still unclear. Influenza vaccination of health workers
On the safety side, licensed vaccines have a good track record, though Guillain-Barre syndrome, febrile seizures, and narcolepsy issues bear watching, according to the report. It says it will be challenging for new flu vaccines to meet or exceed the current safety profile.
“I’m an insider,” Dr. Osterholm said. “Until we started this project, I was one of the people out there heavily promoting influenza vaccine use. It was only with this study that I looked and said, ‘What are we doing?’ ”-Dr. Michael T. Osterholm
The truth is that there is little evidence that the existing flu vaccine will provide consistent, high levels protection across populations. And we know that flu vaccine may falter even when the right strains are used to make it, perhaps because of how it is produced or quirks of individual immune systems. each person has the personal responsibility to inform their conscience properly about vaccines. People should not be coerced or forced to put something into their bodies that goes against their conscience or that will harm them.
there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that Herd immunity can be achieved with the flu shots of today.
Dr. Osterholm has said that we will never achieve herd immunity with the flu vaccine unless a more effective one is developed.
Weighing the risks and benefits of medical interventions is a task that takes more research than relying on a social media post.
“I’m an insider,” Dr. Osterholm said. “Until we started this project, I was one of the people out there heavily promoting influenza vaccine use. It was only with this study that I looked and said, ‘What are we doing?’ ”
For further reading:
Afluria vaccine insert:
https://www.fda.gov/…/Vaccin…/ApprovedProducts/UCM263239.pdf
Fluvirin vaccine insert: https://labeling.seqirus.com/…/Fluvirin-Prescribing-Informa…
Fluzone vaccine insert:
https://www.fda.gov/media/99172/download
Fluarix vaccine insert:
https://www.fda.gov/…/Vaccin…/ApprovedProducts/UCM335392.pdf
FluMist vaccine insert: https://www.azpicentral.com/flumist…/flumistquadrivalent.pdf
Stroke following influenza vaccination: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258725/
https://journals.sagepub.com/…/p…/10.1177/201010581202100413
Autoimmunity post-influenza vaccination: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/…/0e4c485b1a80b196139c861a…
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22235046
Guillain-Barré syndrome after vaccination
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19730016
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17560693
We could not correlate increasing vaccination coverage after 1980 with declining mortality rates in any age group. Because fewer than 10% of all winter deaths were attributable to influenza in any season, we conclude that observational studies substantially overestimate [flu] vaccination benefit. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15710788
MSG neurotoxicity: https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/a…/abs/pii/S018844091400263X
Mercury (thimerosal) neurotoxicity: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12773768/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/a…/abs/pii/S0161813X04001147
VICP settlements: https://www.myvaccinelawyer.com/about-us/notable-settlements
VAERS Data: https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html
Less than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported to VAERS: https://healthit.ahrq.gov/…/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-repor…
Flu vaccine 20% effective: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…/2018/…/180419131015.htm
Flu vaccine 29% effective: https://www.webmd.com/…/last-flu-seasons-vaccine-only-29-ef…
Vaccine Failure: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4962729/
Influenza virus accounts for only 7% of diagnosed "flu" cases in the US: https://web.archive.org/…/clinicale…/x/mce/file/05-10-09.pdf
PNAS study finds that people who receive flu shots emit 630% more flu virus particles into the air, compared to non-vaccinated individuals:
http://www.pnas.org/content/115/5/1081
Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22423139/…
Vaccine market is projected to be $59 Billion by the year 2020:
https://www.statista.com/…/revenues-in-the-global-vaccine-…/
Industry & CDC corruption and fraud: https://www.facebook.com/100000349373954/posts/2459727907382164?sfns=mo
CDC Members own more than 50 vaccine patents: https://www.lawfirms.com/…/cdc-members-own-more-50-patents-…
CDC Patent on Flu vaccine: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6169175
CDC Vaccine Price List: https://www.cdc.gov/…/vaccine-managem…/price-list/index.html
CDC twists the statistics about flu deaths to scare people into getting vaccinated: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/…/death-by-influenza_b_466144…
CDC invites media to use fear tactics to increase flu vaccine uptake: https://bit.ly/2MCcmfV
Pay for performance program for providers: http://www.chcs.org/media/BGILBERT.pdf
2017 Blue Cross Blue Shield Performance Recognition Program (page 6): https://thephysicianalliance.org/…/2017_BCN_BCBSM_PRPBookle…
Oh, and since the industry has decided to start recommending unproven medical interventions for pregnant women, here is a study indicating the increased risk of miscarriage associated with influenza vaccination:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/artic…/pii/S0264410X17308666
Compiled by Caitlyn RN