John Hopkins U scientist questions CDC push for flu vaccine
Amid the push by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, for mass flu vaccination, the anti-vaccine group is questioning the safety and effectiveness of mandatory flu shots. A report on flu vaccines in the British Medical Journal, written by a John Hopkins University scientist, claims the CDC push is based on low-quality studies.
Dr Peter Doshi from the university’s School of Medicine not only questions how beneficial and safe are the vaccines but also points out that some people are forced to be vaccinated or else could lose their jobs. Because of the push by drug companies, which benefit financially from the sale of vaccines, and public officials who support widespread vaccination each fall, in 20 years, the volume of vaccines available in the US has ballooned to 135 million doses from 32 million doses in 1995.
The CDC is pushing for vaccination because influenza has risks of serious complications that could be fatal to elderly people and patients with chronic ailments. Doshi disputes the CDC’s claim, reports Newswire.
He says that the CDC acknowledged that perceived cut in death rates could be because of the “healthy-user effect.” The effect is the tendency of healthy people to be immunised, while randomised trial of flu vaccine on older people showed no decrease in deaths, Doshi stresses.
Doshi says that there was only one less case of influenza in randomised controlled trials if healthy adults in the US. But he says an Australian study reports that one in every 110 children under five years old vaccinated in 2009 for the H1N1 flu had convulsions. Among adolescents, an increase in narcolepsy cases was observed.
Besides Doshi, a neurosurgeon and wellness book author, Dr Russell Blaylock, said the vaccine is “completely worthless.” He also cites another study released in February that found the flu shot was only 9 percent effective in protection seniors against the most virulent flu bug in the 2012-13 season.
Meanwhile, an Australian artist, cartoonist Michael Leung, compares compulsory vaccination to fascism. He borrowed a scene from Michaelangelo’s famous “The Creation” painting found in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican to hit the Victoria government. The scene was that of God the Father touching the hand of Adam, which Leung altered by adding a vaccine, and captioning the cartoon that came out in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, “The God of Science grants politicians the divine right to enforce mass medication upon babies and small children.”
The dig was directed at Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy who introduced legislation in the state parliament mandating full vaccination for children to be accepted in childcare or kindergarten. But the bill exempts kids whose parents “are conscientious objectors” to vaccination and who could not be immunised for medical reasons.
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