New York City to Require Flu Shots for Preschoolers and California Moves to Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions for the Poor from Dr. Mercola
New York City to Require Flu Shots for Preschoolers and California Moves to Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions for the Poor
July 10, 2018 • 75,335views
Story at-a-glance
June 28, 2018,
the New York Court of Appeals unanimously ruled the New York city health
department has the right to require annual flu vaccinations for
children attending child care and preschool
June 26, 2018,
the California state Senate Committee on Human Services passed AB 1992
on June 26 — a controversial bill that eliminates the personal belief
vaccine exemption for families on welfare
Recent research
found infectious influenza viruses in the exhaled breath of people who
had gotten seasonal flu shots and contracted influenza. Those vaccinated
two seasons in a row shed a greater viral load of influenza A virus
According to
the researchers, study results suggest there may be an association
between flu vaccinations and the promotion of lung inflammation and
increased shedding of influenza A viruses via breathing
Studies also
show annual vaccination leads to reduced protection against influenza;
each vaccination is likely to make you progressively more prone to
getting sick from influenza
By Dr. Mercola
Recent events again highlight the need for Americans to stand up for
their right to know, and freedom to choose, when it comes to medical
risk taking. The New York Court of Appeals not only has given the nod of
approval to New York City's health department requirement that all
preschoolers must get annual flu shots, but the California legislature
is also moving toward eliminating the personal belief vaccine exemption
for families on welfare.
Aside from the loss of the human right to informed consent to medical
risk taking, these decisions are all the more incomprehensible
considering the lack of scientific evidence supporting the safety and
effectiveness of annual flu vaccination from cradle to grave and
one-size-fits-all vaccination policies and laws. Again and again, we see
vaccine policy built on lobbying dollars without real concern for human health and welfare.
Informed Consent to Medical Risk Taking Is a Basic Human Right
As noted by National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) president
Barbara Loe Fisher in her Independence Day commentary on zero tolerance
vaccine laws,1
"Today, we are witnessing the erosion of core values that our
constitutional democracy was founded upon. One example is a public
campaign led by the medical establishment to demonize and discriminate
against anyone opposing zero tolerance vaccine laws that violate human
rights in the name of public health." Informed consent
is a basic human right in which a person has the ability to voluntarily
accept or reject a treatment or medical procedure, including use of
pharmaceutical products, after being fully informed of all possible
risks and benefits. According to the University of Washington School of
Medicine,2
"The most important goal of informed consent is that the patient has an
opportunity to be an informed participant in her health care
decisions."
It's a simple enough premise, but throughout history we've seen cases
where informed consent was not only challenged but completely ignored,
and this trend not only exists to this day, it has flourished in recent
years, with cities, states and federal government pushing for mandatory
vaccine laws with no ability to opt out. As noted by Fisher:3
"There are only two laws that require American citizens to risk
their lives. The first is a federal law, the military draft, which
requires all healthy male adults to risk their lives in a war declared
by the government to protect national security. The second is a state
law requiring all healthy children to risk their lives in a war that
doctors declared on microbes two centuries ago.
However, unlike adults who are NOT punished for following their
conscience and refusing to fight in a war to protect national security,
parents CAN be punished for following their conscience and refusing to
risk their children's lives in a war to theoretically protect the public
health.
State sanctions include segregation and loss of the unvaccinated
child's right to a school education or permitting pediatricians to deny
medical care to children if their parents refuse one or more government
recommended vaccinations.
Two different laws that require healthy Americans to risk injury
or death: one conscripting adults in what government clearly defines as
an emergency military action; and the other conscripting children in a
mandatory vaccination program that is not defined as an emergency
military action but is operated like one."
New York City Gets Green Light to Require Annual Flu Vaccinations for Preschoolers
Case in point, June 28, 2018, the New York Court of Appeals
unanimously ruled the New York City health department has the right to
require flu vaccination for preschoolers. The requirement was initiated
in 2013 by city public health officials.
Five families sued the health department in 2015 to have the
requirement overturned and two lower court rulings agreed the city had
overstepped its legal authority. This final decision by the Court of
Appeals now cements the city's legal right to require flu shots for
children aged 6 to 59 months before they're permitted to attend child
care or preschool. In the decision, Judge Leslie Stein wrote:4
"Undisputedly, there is a very direct connection between the flu
vaccine rules and the preservation of health and safety. The rules
challenged here do not relate merely to a personal choice about an
individual's own health but, rather, seek to ensure increased public
safety and health for the citizenry by reducing the prevalence and
spread of a contagious infectious disease within a particularly
vulnerable population."
In response to the decision, New York City health commissioner Mary Bassett said:5
"Vaccines save lives and are an effective public health tool to
prevent the spread of disease. The severity of this past influenza
season reminds us of how deadly influenza can be. The influenza vaccine
is the best protection against seasonal influenza for everyone.
Children who receive the influenza vaccine are less likely to get
sick, less likely to need medical attention and less likely to die from
influenza. This decision will help us protect more than 150,000
children in city-regulated day cares and preschools across the city."
'Vaccine-Before-Welfare' Bill Moves Forward in California
Meanwhile, the California state Senate Committee on Human Services passed AB 19926
June 26 — a controversial bill that eliminates the personal belief
vaccine exemption for families on welfare. Already, welfare recipients
are required by state law to be up to date on all government mandated
vaccines or lose a portion of their welfare benefits.
AB 1992, authored by Assemblyman Kansen Chu, improves access to the
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS)
program — a public assistance program that provides financial aid and
services — for families whose children are not fully vaccinated or have
difficulty proving that their children have received the required
vaccinations.
Estimates suggest 4,000 families in California are not meeting the
vaccine requirement for public assistance, and this bill would give
families who want to vaccinate their children greater access to
vaccination services.
The bill also lowers the monthly penalty for not being fully
vaccinated from $130 to $50, extends the time that families have to
produce vaccination records from 45 days to six months, and grants
county welfare workers access to medical databases to determine whether
the child has received the required vaccines in cases where parents
cannot produce the records.
However, the bill also eliminates the personal belief exemption,
which means welfare recipients would no longer have the legal right or
ability to opt out of vaccine requirements. Candace Connelly testified
before the committee, saying "her choice not to vaccinate her children
shouldn't preclude her from receiving benefits."
According to a report by GV Wire,7
Connelly "objected to the 72 doses required in a child's lifetime,
noting the potential for vaccine injury. 'Surely if parents have rights,
one of them is to decide what gets injected into their children … I
don't believe I should have money taken out of my benefits because I
don't think that is a safe thing for my child.'"
AB 1992 Moves to Senate Appropriations Committee
Chu's reasoning for including this provision in his bill is that the
personal belief exemption from vaccines to attend public and private
school was already removed by SB 277 in 2015.8
According to Chu, removing the personal belief vaccine exemption for
welfare recipients simply makes the bill "comply with current law."9 Sen. Janet Nguyen objected to the removal of the personal belief exemption.10
Sen. Connie Leyva also objected, saying "I believe requiring proof of
vaccinations in order for someone to receive their benefits is unfair
and unnecessary. We should not be basing it off their need, and not off
of vaccinations." Stefanie Fetzer, an advocate with Parents United 4
Kids, also commented:11
"This is NOT a public health issue. Vaccination rates are high.
There is no crisis mitigating such a heavy handed, totalitarian piece of
legislation. Our legislators are testing the water. How far can they
go? Can they withhold a parents' ability to feed their children if the
parents are unwilling to ignore their religious or personal convictions?
Why are our legislators targeting this poor, minority community?"
Fisher, on behalf of the NVIC, has also spoken out against the bill, saying,12
"It is cruel to withhold welfare benefits from families in need. NVIC
opposes AB 1992 and any legislation that threatens Americans with
punishment for making voluntary vaccine decisions for themselves or
their children."
Despite objections, the bill passed 4-0 out of the Senate Committee
on Human Services. Leyva did not vote and Nguyen was not present during
the voting; the remaining committee members, Scott Wiener, Steven
Glazer, Mike McGuire and Anthony Portantino, voted in favor. A seventh
member, Tom Berryhill also was not present. Next, AB 1992 will be
reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Why the Lack of Concern for Vaccine Safety?
In a series of articles, the World Mercury Project questions the
apparent disinterest of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the
Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) in improving vaccine safety,
choosing instead to engage in smear campaigns against anyone who
questions the conventional dogma and who counters false vaccine safety
claims with scientific facts:13
"In the face of snowballing vaccine scandals — from fudged safety
trials that use other vaccines as placebos, to persistent use of
neurotoxic aluminum adjuvants, to the accelerated rollout of unproven
vaccines that may be causing more problems than they solve — these and
other vaccine advocacy organizations are not only turning a blind eye
but are … beefing up public relations (PR) intended to stifle discussion
…
Due to the well-funded medical-pharmaceutical-media apparatus
that endlessly repeat the mantra that ALL vaccines are safe for ALL
people ALL the time, it is nearly impossible to get a fair hearing for
common-sense questions about vaccine safety, no matter how urgent such
questions may be."
In addition to the AAP and IAC, the World Mercury Project also
singles out three organizations that are closely allied with AAP, all of
which "frame their aims in terms of cementing vaccine infrastructure
and funding," according to the featured article:
The 317 Coalition, whose members include vaccine manufacturers. The
coalition's focus is to increase funding to Section 317 of the Public
Health Service Act, the law that governs federal purchases of vaccines.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia and coinventor of a rotavirus vaccine, is on
the steering committee, as are the executive director and chief strategy
officer of the IAC
Every Child by Two (ECBT), which promotes the mandatory use of
vaccines to state and federal legislators, supports the elimination of
all personal belief vaccine exemptions and generates "vaccine safety
talking points." Here, Offit is on the board of directors
The Adult Vaccine Access Coalition, the focus of which is to lobby
for "necessary federal policy changes" to boost adult vaccination rates
According to the World Mercury Project,14
" … [T]he AAP, IAC and … ECBT are among the leading actors propagating
misleading assertions about vaccine safety. All three are also actively
lobbying legislators to effectively jettison informed consent in favor
of mandatory vaccines."
Leading Vaccine Educators Are Bound by Conflicts of Interest
The AAP, IAC and ECBT were also the focus of an investigative report
into the partnerships between the CDC and non-profits promoting vaccines15
published in the British Medical Journal late last year. In the paper,
"The Unofficial Vaccine Educators: Are CDC Funded Non-Profits
Sufficiently Independent?" BMJ associate editor Peter Doshi wrote:
"[S]urvey data have documented that parental concerns over
vaccination safety and timing are common, even among those whose
children receive all recommended vaccines.
In 2015, a U.S. federal advisory committee warned that public
confidence in vaccines cannot be taken for granted, and some prominent
vaccine advocacy organizations are pushing for greater compulsion. But
are these groups — which present themselves as reliable sources of
information — providing the public with independent information?"
The AAP, IAC and ECBT all receive funding from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and vaccine manufacturers. AAP is
also on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which
determines which vaccines should be added to the childhood and adult
vaccine schedules.
At the same time, these three nonprofits are also actively lobby for
legislation aimed at removing religious and conscientious belief vaccine
exemptions from state vaccine laws, which has been successful in some
states like California.
This, despite the fact that federal law prohibits nonprofit
organizations from using CDC or other federal agency money for lobbying
efforts. According to Doshi, it's unclear whether the CDC's relationship
with these three organizations has crossed into illegal territory, as
he could not determine exactly how much money was received from the CDC
and vaccine makers respectively.
But, as noted by World Mercury Project, "It is clear that when these …
nonprofits receive grant money from CDC, those grants free up other
monies for lobbying purposes."
Doshi also notes that "These groups are so strongly pro-vaccination
that the public is getting a one-sided message that all vaccines are
created equal … regardless of the circumstances." What's more, their
inherent bias and financial ties with the CDC and vaccine manufacturers
completely undermine their ability to appraise CDC vaccine
recommendations.
As it stands, there's no one to counter and cross-check those
recommendations because everyone involved is on the same pro-vaccine
team. The drug companies manufacturing and selling vaccines have no
incentive to look at safety issues either, as this would merely cut into
profits and undermine the partial product liability shield given to
them by the U.S. Congress in 1986 and the total immunity from vaccine
injury lawsuits handed to them by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011.
Besides, 9 out of 10 of the world's leading drug companies spend far
more money on marketing their drugs and vaccines than they do on
research and development.16
Flu Vaccine Allows Transmission of Disease, Study Shows
Getting back to where we started, the notion that "the influenza
vaccine is the best protection against seasonal influenza for everyone,"
is not supported by a large body of good scientific evidence. Recent
basic science research into the shedding of influenza viruses adds yet
another nail in the proverbial coffin of junk science that too often is
used to promote seasonal flu shots.
The new study,17
published in the journal PNAS January 18, 2018, found infectious
influenza viruses in the exhaled breath of people who had gotten
seasonal flu shots and contracted influenza. Those vaccinated two
seasons in a row had a greater viral load of shedding influenza A
viruses. According to the authors:
"Our findings, that upper and lower airway infection are
independent and that fine-particle exhaled aerosols reflect infection in
the lung, opened a pathway for a deeper understanding of the human
biology of influenza infection and transmission …
Self-reported vaccination for the current season was associated
with a trend toward higher viral shedding in fine-aerosol samples;
vaccination with both the current and previous year's seasonal vaccines,
however, was significantly associated with greater fine-aerosol
shedding in unadjusted and adjusted models.
In adjusted models, we observed 6.3 times more aerosol shedding
among cases with vaccination in the current and previous season compared
with having no vaccination in those two seasons. Vaccination was not
associated with coarse-aerosol or NP shedding. The association of
vaccination and shedding was significant for influenza A but not for
influenza B infections …
Finding infectious virus in 39 percent of fine-aerosol samples
collected during 30 minutes of normal tidal breathing in a large
community-based study of confirmed influenza infection clearly
establishes that a significant fraction of influenza cases routinely
shed infectious virus … into aerosol particles small enough to remain
suspended in air and present a risk for airborne transmission …
The association of current and prior year vaccination with
increased shedding of influenza A might lead one to speculate that
certain types of prior immunity promote lung inflammation, airway
closure, and aerosol generation … If confirmed, this observation,
together with recent literature suggesting reduced protection with
annual vaccination, would have implications for influenza vaccination
recommendations and policies."
Flu Vaccines May Do More Harm Than Good
Here, researchers provide evidence for an association between seasonal flu shots
and increased shedding of influenza A viruses via breathing. They also
note that other studies suggest annual flu vaccination leads to reduced
protection against influenza, which means each vaccination is likely to
make you progressively more prone to getting sick. The question that
remains to be definitively answered is: Are vaccinated individuals with
influenza more contagious than unvaccinated individuals with influenza?
Studies have also shown that getting flu shots makes you more prone
to more severe respiratory illness (see below). Yet, New York City is
willing to place all young children at risk for long-term complications
from influenza vaccination
— for what? To support the vaccine industry and meet a 100 percent flu
vaccination rate for all children relentlessly pursued by public health
department officials?
The flawed mandatory vaccination ideology pays no attention at all to
studies that provide mounting evidence that vaccines can cause acute
and chronic illness while failing to work as advertised.
The CDC and AAP direct doctors to give infants and children seasonal
influenza shots starting at 6 months of age. Most studies find higher
rates of health problems after just one or two flu shots. What's going
to happen to the health of children as they grow up if they are required
to get a flu shot each and every year, starting in the year they were
born? This simply cannot be shrugged off as a question that isn't up for
public discussion.
A 2017 article in Science magazine18
delved into some of the finer points about individuality and how
people's immune responses vary depending on a number of different
factors, including the age at which you're exposed to influenza viruses
for the very first time.
That first exposure will actually influence how your immune system
responds to influenza viruses for the rest of your life. Knowing this,
what kind of adverse effects on healthy immune function might one expect
when a child's first exposure to influenza viruses are vaccine strain
viruses created in a drug company lab that atypically manipulate the
immune system to produce artificial immunity? It's a gamble that no one
has the answer to as of yet.
Mounting Body of Research Questions Validity of Annual Flu Vaccination as a Public Health Measure
Other studies have shown that:
With each successive annual flu vaccination, the theoretical protection from the vaccine appears to diminish19,20
A 2012 Chinese study21
found a child's chances of contracting a respiratory infection after
getting the seasonal flu shot rose more than fourfold, and research
published in 2014 concluded that resistance to influenza-related illness
in persons over age 9 years in the U.S. was greatest among those who
had NOT received a flu shot in the previous five years.22
More recent research suggests the reason seasonal flu shots become
less protective with each dose has to do with "original antigenic sin."
Here, they found that influenza vaccine failed to elicit a strong immune
response in most participants,23 which was explained as follows:24
"What's at play seems to be a phenomenon known as 'original
antigenic sin.' Flu vaccines are designed to get the immune system to
produce antibodies that recognize the specific strains of the virus
someone may encounter in a given year.
These antibodies target unique sites on the virus, and latch onto
them to disable it. Once the immune system already has antibodies to
target a given site on the virus, it preferentially reactivates the same
immune cells the next time it encounters the virus.
This is efficient for the immune system, but the problem is that
the virus changes ever so slightly from year to year. The site the
antibodies recognize could still be there, but it may no longer be the
crucial one to neutralize the virus.
Antibodies produced from our first encounters with the flu,
either from vaccines or infection, tend to take precedence over ones
generated by later inoculations. So even when the vaccine is a good
match for a given year, if someone has a history with the flu, the
immune response to a new vaccine could be less protective."
The flu vaccine can increase your risk of contracting other, more serious influenza infections
Canadian researchers found that people who had received the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008 had twice the risk of getting sick with the pandemic H1N1 "swine flu" in 2009 compared to those who did not receive a flu shot the previous year.25 These findings were replicated in a 2014 ferret study.26
Similarly, a 2009 U.S. study compared health outcomes for children
between 6 months and age 18 who do and do not get annual flu shots and
found that children who receive influenza vaccinations have a three
times higher risk of influenza-related hospitalization, with asthmatic
children at greatest risk.27
The concept of heterologous immunity may account for these findings.
Heterologous immunity refers to the concept that your immune system is
directional, and that once you've encountered a pathogen, your body is
better equipped to fight pathogens that are similar.
However, in the case of influenza vaccines, this directionality
appears to work against you. By learning to fend off certain influenza
virus strains contained in the vaccine, your immune system becomes less
able to fend off other influenza strains and disease-causing pathogens.
As noted in a 2014 paper on heterologous immunity:28
"Immunity to previously encountered viruses can alter responses
to unrelated pathogens … Heterologous immunity … may be beneficial by
boosting protective responses.
However, heterologous reactivity can also result in severe
immunopathology. The key features that define heterologous immune
modulation include alterations in the CD4 and CD8 T cell compartments
and changes in viral dynamics and disease progression."
In other words, while influenza vaccine may offer some level of
protection against the three or four viral influenza strains included in
the vaccine, depending on whether the vaccine used is trivalent or
quadrivalent, it may simultaneously diminish your ability to ward off
infection by other influenza strains and types of viral or bacterial
infections.
Heterologous immunity is also addressed in a 2013 paper,29
which notes that "vaccines modulate general resistance," and "have
nonspecific effects on the ability of the immune system to handle other
pathogens." Researchers stated that:
"… [O]ur current perception of the immune system is … simplistic.
It was, to a large extent, shaped in the 1950s with the formulation of
the clonal selection hypothesis.
This line of thinking has emphasized the adaptive immune system
and the specific antigen recognition and specific memory, which have been
crucial in vaccine development, perhaps at the expense of examining
cross-reactive features of the immune system as well as the memory
capacity of the innate immune system.
Although tens of thousands of studies assessing disease-specific,
antibody-inducing effects of vaccines have been conducted, most people
have not examined whether vaccines have nonspecific effects because
current perception excludes such effects."
Flu vaccine doesn't work well in statin users
Statin drugs
— taken by 1 in 4 Americans over the age of 45 — may interfere with
your immune system's ability to respond to the influenza vaccine.30,31
After vaccination, antibody concentrations were 38 percent to 67
percent lower in statin users over the age of 65, compared to non-statin
users of the same age.32 Antibody concentrations were also reduced in younger people who took statins.
Flu vaccine does not prevent most types of influenza
Independent scientific reviews have also concluded that flu shots
have only a "modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working
days lost," and have no effect on complications of influenza.33,34
Moreover, the influenza vaccine fails to prevent influenza-like illness
associated with other types of viruses responsible for about 80 percent
of all respiratory or gastrointestinal infections during any given flu
season.35,36,37,38
Vaccination does not lower mortality in the elderly
Research39
published in 2006, which analyzed influenza-related mortality among the
elderly population in Italy associated with increased vaccination
coverage between 1970 and 2001, found that after the 1980s, there was no
corresponding decline in excess deaths, despite rising vaccine uptake.
According to the authors, "These findings suggest that either the
vaccine failed to protect the elderly against mortality (possibly due to
immune senescence), and/or the vaccination efforts did not adequately
target the frailest elderly. As in the U.S., our study challenges
current strategies to best protect the elderly against mortality,
warranting the need for better controlled trials with alternative
vaccination strategies."
Another 2006 study40
showed that, even though seniors vaccinated against influenza had a 44
percent reduced risk of dying during flu season than unvaccinated
seniors, those who were vaccinated were also 61 percent less like to die
BEFORE the flu season ever started.
This finding has since been attributed to a "healthy user effect,"
which suggests that older people who get vaccinated against influenza
are already healthier and, therefore, less likely to die anyway, whereas
those who do not get the shot have suffered a decline in health in
recent months.
Flu vaccination during pregnancy raises your risk of miscarriage
Research published September 25, 2017, in the medical journal Vaccine41,42,43
found that women who had received a pH1N1-containing flu shot two years
in a row were more likely to suffer miscarriage within the following 28
days. While most of the miscarriages occurred during the first
trimester, several also took place in the second trimester.
The median fetal term at the time of miscarriage was seven weeks. In
all, 485 pregnant women aged 18 to 44, who had a miscarriage during the
flu seasons of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, were compared to 485 pregnant
women who carried their babies to term.
Of the 485 women who miscarried, 17 had been vaccinated twice in a
row — once in the 28 days prior to vaccination and once in the previous
year. For comparison, of the 485 women who had normal pregnancies, only
four had been vaccinated two years in a row.
Vitamin D substantially outperforms flu vaccine
In a 2014 analysis44
of the available research on inactivated influenza vaccines, the
Cochrane Collaboration (which is considered by many as the gold standard
for scientific meta-reviews) concluded that:
"Injected influenza vaccines probably have a small protective
effect against influenza and ILI [influenza-like illness] … as 71 people
would need to be vaccinated to avoid one influenza case, and 29 would
need to be vaccinated to avoid one case of ILI. Vaccination may have
little or no appreciable effect on hospitalizations … or number of
working days lost."
For comparison, a 2017 scientific review45,46
of 25 randomized controlled trials found the number needed to treat
(NNT) for vitamin D is 33, meaning one person would be spared from acute
respiratory infection for every 33 people taking a vitamin D
supplement. This evidence suggests that vitamin D supplementation is, at
bare minimum, more than twice as effective as the flu vaccine. Among
those with severe vitamin D deficiency at baseline, the NNT was 4.
Effectiveness of flu vaccine is typically below 50 percent
February 16, 2018, the CDC published interim estimates of the 2017/2018 seasonal influenza vaccine's effectiveness for the U.S.47
The overall adjusted vaccine effectiveness against influenza A and
influenza B virus infection associated with medically attended acute
respiratory illness was 36 percent. Put another way, the vaccine did not
work 64 percent of the time.
More precisely, vaccine effectiveness is estimated to be 25 percent
effective against the A(H3N2) virus; 67 percent effective against
A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses and 42 percent effective against influenza B
viruses. In 2015, a CDC analysis48
revealed that, between 2005 and 2015, the flu vaccine was less than 50
percent effective more than half of the time, so this year's low
effectiveness rating (36 percent) was no great surprise.
The Flucelvax vaccine
introduced during the 2017-2018 flu season, grown in dog kidney cells
rather than chicken eggs, was also a failure. Touted as a
new-and-improved flu shot that would protect more people, FDA research
found no significant difference between it and the conventional flu shot
in protecting seniors.
While flu vaccines overall had a 24 percent effectiveness in
preventing flu-related hospitalizations in people aged 65 and older, the
Flucelvax vaccine had an effectiveness rate of only 26.5 percent in
that population.49
Flu vaccine does not lessen influenza severity
While health officials are fond of saying that getting a flu shot
will lessen your symptoms should you contract influenza, a 2017 study50
by French researchers, which aimed to assess the veracity of such
claims, found it not to be true. Looking at data from vaccinated and
unvaccinated elderly patients diagnosed with influenza, all they found
was a reduction in initial headache complaints among those who had been
vaccinated. According to the authors:
"Compared to non-vaccinated influenza patients, those who had
been vaccinated had a slightly reduced maximum temperature and presented
less frequently with myalgia, shivering and headache.
In stratified analyses, the observed effect was limited to
patients infected with A(H3) or type B viruses. After adjusting by age
group, virus (sub)type and season, the difference remained statistically
significant only for headache, which was less frequent among vaccinated
individuals."
Flu vaccine is associated with serious disability
Permanent disability such as paralysis from Guillain-Barre Syndrome
(GBS) is a risk you need to take into account each time you get a flu
shot. As early as 2003, the CDC recognized the flu vaccine causes an
excess of 1.7 cases of GBS per 1 million people vaccinated.51
Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows GBS
is the top injury for which people are receiving financial compensation
through the federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP), and the
flu vaccine is now the most common vaccine cited by adults seeking a
vaccine injury compensation award.52
Shoulder damage is another risk, caused by improper injection technique.53,54,55
Shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) includes
chronic pain, limited range of motion, nerve damage, frozen shoulder and
rotator cuff tears, and is typically the result of the injection being
administered too high on the arm. This risk is particularly high when
people get vaccinated outside of a doctor's office or other clinical
setting.
Many people getting flu shots in a public setting like a grocery
store or pharmacy simply roll up their sleeves or pull down the top of
their shirt, exposing only the upper part of their deltoid, thereby
increasing the risk of getting the injection in the joint space rather
than the muscle.
GBS and SIRVA were both added to the Vaccine Injury Table in 2017.56,57
By adding those vaccine complications to the table, vaccine-related GBS
and SIRVA cases brought before the "Vaccine Court" in the U.S. Court of
Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., will be more likely to receive
federal vaccine injury compensation.
In this lecture, immunologist Tetyana Obukhanych, Ph.D., author of
"Vaccine Illusion: How Vaccination Compromises Our Natural Immunity and
What We Can Do to Regain Our Health," explains how vaccines damage your
immune function, which can result in any number of adverse health
effects.
Defend Your Vaccine Freedom
Today, children across America are being compelled to get dozens of
doses of vaccines. The flawed mandatory vaccination ideology turns a
blind eye to the mounting evidence that vaccines can cause acute and
chronic illness and fail to work as advertised. Americans need to stand
up for their right to informed consent and freedom to choose when it
comes to taking any medical risks.
Thankfully, the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center
(NVIC) provides the public with independent, empirically driven
information on vaccines. They are tireless advocates for vaccine safety
and are fighting to defend informed consent protections in the public
health system. This charitable organization has been working since 1982
to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education. They
provide information and counseling to those reporting vaccine reactions,
as well as to advocate for the legal right to make vaccine choices.
Help defend your vaccine freedom by donating to NVIC today. Your
donation helps provide the public with life-saving information on
informed vaccine decision-making, vaccine injuries and vaccine safety
research. I’ll personally match your donations to NVIC for this crucial
cause. Please consider donating to NVIC to help support their life
saving mission and join the vaccine freedom of choice movement today.
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