January 12, 2014

Case Closed: New Flu Vaccine Worthless

The absolute risk reduction between the vaccines was  0.46% (1.89%-1.43%).  The headlines should read, “New Flu Vaccine is 0.46% More Effective.”  Going one step further, it takes 217 eldelry people to receive the high dose flu vaccine to prevent one case of the flu.  That is the number needed to treat based on this study.  That means that 216 out of 217 elderly people received the flu vaccine for naught—it did not help them prevent the flu.  They paid double the price and were exposed to possible adverse effects.
Case closed?  I agree, case closed.  This new flu vaccine is worthless and too expensive—it is double the price of the regular flu shot, which is also worthless.
***Read article at Dr. Brownstein's Blog***

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