Dr. David Brownstein, M.D
Dr. David Brownstein,  editor of Dr. David Brownstein’s Natural Way to Health newsletter, is a board-certified family physician and one of the nation’s foremost practitioners of holistic medicine. Dr. Brownstein has lectured internationally to physicians and others about his success with natural hormones and nutritional therapies in his practice. His books include Drugs That Don’t Work and Natural Therapies That Do!; Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It; Salt Your Way To Health; The Miracle of Natural Hormones; Overcoming Arthritis, Overcoming Thyroid Disorders; The Guide to a Gluten-Free Diet; and The Guide to Healthy Eating. He is the medical director of the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, Mich., where he lives with his wife, Allison, and their teenage daughters, Hailey and Jessica.

Tags: flu | vaccine | children | Cochrane
OPINION

Should Children Get the Flu Vaccine?

David Brownstein, M.D. By Wednesday, 12 February 2014 04:43 PM EST Current | Bio | Archive

The Cochrane Collaboration is an independent.nonprofit medical research organization with representatives from more than 120 countries. They release reports that help healthcare practitioners and policymakers develop informed decisions about healthcare.
 
Most importantly, the Cochrane Collaboration does not accept commercial funding. Cochrane reports have not been favorable to the idea that everyone over the age of six months should get the flu vaccine. In fact, their reports have found little effectiveness with any of the influenza vaccines.
 
For instance, the Cochrane Collaboration reviewed 51 studies that had surveyed 294,000 children and reported that there was “no evidence that injecting children 5 to 24 months of age with the flu shot was any more effective than placebo.”
 
In children over two years of age, it was only effective 33 percent of the time in preventing the flu.
 
In other words, the failure rate was 67 percent. In a 2011 report — one of the most pro-flu vaccine reports to come from the Cochrane Collaboration — researchers looked at 75 studies that encompassed approximately 300,000 subjects. They studied both the efficacy and effectiveness of live vaccines, meaning that results were studied both in clinical trials and in real world situations.
 
The authors reported that six children under age six need to be vaccinated with live vaccine to prevent even one case of the flu. In other words, five out of six children — 83 percent — got no benefit from vaccination.
 
The scientists stated that they could find “no usable data for those aged two years or younger.”
 
For the inactivated flu vaccine, the same authors found that the vaccine performed no better than placebo in children two years old and younger. For children over the age of six, the inactivated vaccine is not much better.
 
They found that 28 children over the age of six need to be vaccinated to prevent once case of the flu. In other words, the inactivated flu vaccine has a 96 percent failure rate, as 27 out of 28 children over the age of six got no benefit.
 
And remember, this was one of the most positive flu vaccine reports to come from Cochrane. The authors of this Cochrane review caution that any positive results from the flu vaccine need to be looked at with a cautious eye because of the bias from Big Pharma-sponsored flu vaccine trials.
 
The authors also point out that this report referenced studies sponsored by Big Pharma — which are more likely to produce positive results than publicly funded studies.

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Dr-Brownstein
The Cochrane Collaboration is an independent.nonprofit medical research organization with representatives from more than 120 countries. They release reports that help healthcare practitioners and policymakers develop informed decisions about healthcare.
flu,vaccine,children,Cochrane
413
2014-43-12
Wednesday, 12 February 2014 04:43 PM
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