Stop Damaging Children With Influenza Vaccines - bmj

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*Stop Damaging Children With Influenza Vaccines

<http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?id=6009#newspost>*

National authorities worldwide promote influenza vaccines, arguing they

are not just effective, but extremely safe. The US NIAID director

claimed that / " the track record for serious adverse events is very good.

It's very, very, very rare that you ever see anything that's associated

with the vaccine that's a serious event " ./ There is now abundant

evidence that such optimism is misguided. In Australia last year, one

febrile convulsion occurred for every 100 to 200 young children

vaccinated with CSL's influenza vaccine. Now in the US there have been

similar concerns. A recent analysis of the American experience reported

a rate of 60 seizures per 100,000 influenza vaccinations when given

together with conjugated pneumococcal vaccine. However this is likely to

under-estimate the true rate. In 2005, when a new study demonstrated

that influenza vaccines were not saving elderly lives, many argued that

this underscored the importance of vacc inating more children. Yet we

have no evidence demonstrating that children are benefiting from this

strategy but do have evidence that these vaccines are hospitalizing

children. The recent H1N1 " pandemic " and our immunisation response show

that in children we likely caused more harm than good. Public health

authorities should not continue to recommend (as in the US), that all

children receive routine influenza vaccine until we have much better

safety and efficacy data.

* J Collignon, Doshi & Tom Jefferson, Australian National

University, British Medical Journal

*Calls for close watch on flu vax

With the flu season not far away, a public debate about the safety of

flu vaccination has ignited calls for better surveillance...

FULL STORY

<http://cl.exct.net/?qs=dc284dbe3c78adcfb15103fb61430738bdd04802f5c3ad4b5f75d9ea\

bb04445b>.

uk: *Useless Pneumococcal Vaccines For UK Elderly To Be Stopped

<http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?id=6019#newspost>*

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued a

" Dear Healthcare Professional letter " advising that the pneumococcal

vaccination programme for those aged 65 years and older should stop. In

the letter, they state that / " Following a detailed review of the

evidence on the impact of the programme and on the clinical

effectiveness of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV), JCVI has

concluded that the protection the vaccine provides is poor and is not

long-lasting in older people. In addition, the programme has had no

discernable impact on the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease in

older people. The committee has advised, therefore, that there is little

benefit to continuing the programme and that it should be stopped. "

/ *UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, NeLM news service

*/

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*/COI in Drug Studies Sneaking Back/*

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Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Hidden financial conflicts-of-interest are sneaking into published drug

research through the back door--meta-analyses.

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http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/782/9/

Rethink flu vaccine policy, says health expert.

<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/rethink-flu-vaccine-policy-says-hea\

lth-expert/story-e6frg6nf-1226015538824>

A leading flu expert has called for a rethink of flu vaccine policy, in

the light of evidence suggesting people vaccinated against seasonal flu

shortly before swine flu swept the globe had a greater risk of serious

illness from the new strain...

" That's the opposite of what we expect vaccines to do - we expect

vaccines to decrease your risk (of getting flu) by about 80 per cent,

not increase it, " he said. " In the vast majority of people, (seasonal

flu) gives a mild infection, or is even asymptomatic - which protects

against other (flu) viruses much more broadly. To me, this is a red flag

for saying we need to reassess the whole vaccine strategy, of

vaccinating people without risk factors. " ...

Sydney Australian, Australia. 4 March 2011.