Researchers at the Mayo Clinic set out to determine whether the flu vaccine was effective in reducing the number of hospitalizations for all children, and especially the ones with asthma. The study involved 263 children who were evaluated from six months to 18 years of age, each of whom had had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The investigators determined which children had and had not received the flu vaccine, their asthma status, and who did and did not require hospitalization. Records were reviewed for each subject with influenza-related illness, for flu vaccination preceding the illness, and hospitalization during that illness.
“They found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine. In asthmatic children, there was a significantly higher risk of hospitalization in subjects who received the TIV, as compared to those who did not (p= 0.006).”
So, will these disturbing findings–namely, ineffectiveness of the TIV vaccine coupled with evidence of harm–lead the the Center for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to rescind their recommendation for annual influenza vaccination for all children aged six months to 18 years?
Or will our public health policy continue to be guided by the entrenched pharmaceutical industry?
When evidence suggests that current vaccine recommendations are harming children it is unethical to delay issuing a cautionary advisory by invoking “more studies are needed” to delay action. Public health policy should be guided by the precautionary principle–“Above all, do no harm”–not by business interests.
Source: Alliance For Human Research Protection, 22nd May 2009 – also reported on the Diseases in the vaccinated page 2.
