When the experts disagree…addendum

My cynical hat stays on when I see and hear the news media willingly joining in the annual frenzy to market flu remedies and especially the flu vaccine.
This week’s Chronicle of Higher Education reports that, despite endorsements by the pharmaceutical industry and their allies in the public health sector, the flu vaccine is performing at levels that would be a failing grade in most classrooms. The federal government reported on Friday that this year’s influenza vaccine appears to be cutting the risk of getting sick by only 62 percent. Even one of its strongest advocates, the Centers for Disease Control admits that, “What we’ve known for a long time is that the flu vaccine is far from perfect,” according to CDC Director, Thomas R. Frieden. Also acknowledging the deficiency is professor of vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania, Paul A. Offit who concedes that, “It’s not a great vaccine in terms of preventing infection, or even mild to moderate symptoms.”
Echoing these sentiments is the at the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Michael T. Osterholm, who notes that, “…the few studies on the subject, including one soon to be released, show vaccination produces no significant difference in the severity of symptoms.
In view of the uncertainty of the benefits of flu shots, the potential injuries become an even greater concern. According to Chicago’s Vaccine Injury Law Project, flu shots have been associated with neurologic disorders including Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS); severe allergic reaction; chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP); brachial neuritis; and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). Others have suggested links between the shots and autism, pneumonia, Alzheimer’s disease and death.
As a chiropractor I have no position on this ongoing controversy other than to remind the reader that there is so much money involved in the big business of manufacturing and selling vaccines that it would be fitting for each of us to think twice and become truly informed before lining up for shots.