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Friday 30 October 2020

Too much faith in experts


 This piece from the BMJ back in February is worth reading. Not my field but it raises some interesting questions -

TAMIFLU & INFLUENZA VACCINES: MORE HARM THAN GOOD?


Owen Dyer reminds us that we have spent billions on a drug that possibly does more harm than good. (BMJ 2020;368:m626—February 19) The same thing can be said about influenza vaccines.


We hear so much about the vital importance of flu shots that it will come as a nasty surprise to learn that they increase the risk of illness from noninfluenza virus infections such as rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, RS viruses, parainfluenza viruses, adenoviruses, HMP viruses and enteroviruses. This has been shown in at least two studies that have received little attention from public health authorities:

4 comments:

Graeme said...

A damn sight too interesting. I wonder how credible these studies are and why PHE has been ramping up flu jabs this year

A K Haart said...

Graeme - I don't know how credible the studies are, but they are in the BMJ and the rationale behind them appears to make sense.

wiggiatlarge said...

I took the wife for her flu jab last week, and despite not having one myself for years was cajoled into joining her.
The only actual doctor on duty was my injector and I asked her if this was any better than the last batch, what do you mean, well I said the last batch only had around 5% efficacy so wasn't really worth having, I got the look of someone who really thought I shouldn't know that, and I still didn't get an answer.

A K Haart said...

Wiggia - it is possible that the doctor didn't even know how effective the last batch was. They get paid for it and that may be all that matters to them.