'Influenza vaccine has no effect': study

This is the inevitable outcome of a swine flu that is now known to be a hoax (if not that it was an engineered bioweapon (see also here), at least that it was hyped to secure massive profits for pharmaceutical companies), as well as the mass-development of vaccines for conditions that don't warrant vaccines, even if they were effective (a cervical cancer vaccine for boys, etc). Not to mention the thousands who died from H1N1 despite being vaccinated, or the hundreds who have come down with the mumps despite being vaccinated. And perhaps the polio outbreak caused by the very vaccine intended to prevent the disease has something to do with it, or pharmaceutical companies disturbing habit of releasing viruses into populations only to present their expensive vaccines as the solution. I could go on.

The Local -

There is no evidence to support the contention that the influenza vaccine administered to the over 65s is of any more use than opening the windows and washing hands, a new study from the Cochrane Collaboration claims, according to a report in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

The Cochrane Collaboration, an international not-for-profit organization providing up-to-date information about the effects of health care, has compiled data from 40 flu seasons worldwide.

The institute has concluded from the studies that there is no clear evidence to suggest that the flu jab offers any more protection than cheaper, hygiene-based methods such as hand-washing.

"Our analysis is compiled using millions of data from 40 seasons worldwide. What we have seen is that the influenza vaccine can at best have a very small effect," said Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors of the report, to the newspaper.

The Swedish Welfare Board (Socialstyrelsen) has for the past 40 years advised all those over 65-years-old to take an annual dose.

Most local health authorities in Sweden pay for the flu jab at a cost to the taxpayer of 25-30 million kronor ($3.5 million) per annum.

This is not the first time the Cochrane Collaboration has sounded the alarm over the paltry effects of the vaccine with a report published four years ago drawing the same conclusions, according to the newspaper.

The institute has now selected the best 75 of the available studies for this latest review of the evidence. While conceding that the studies are not of the best research quality, it concludes there is little evidence to suggest that the flu vaccine has any real effect.

The institute thus recommends a larger international, state-financed study to examine the vaccine and existing healthcare recommendations.