Reminder that the yearly influenza death counts are almost entirely fabricated to drive up demand for the influenza vaccine
https://aspe.hhs.gov/cdc-%E2%80%94-influenza-deaths-request-correction-rfcQuote
At the 2004 "National Influenza Vaccine Summit," co-sponsored by CDC and the American Medical Association, Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at the NIP, spoke on using the media to boost demand for the vaccine. One step of a "Seven-Step `Recipe' for Generating Interest in, and Demand for, Flu (or any other) Vaccination" occurs when "medical experts and public health authorities publicly...state concern and alarm (and predict dire outcomes)—and urge influenza vaccination" (www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/36/2004_flu_nowak.pdf). Another step entails "continued reports...that influenza is causing severe illness and/or affecting lots of people, helping foster the perception that many people are susceptible to a bad case of influenza." Preceding the summit, demand had been low early into the 2003 flu season. "At that point, the manufacturers were telling us that they weren't receiving a lot of orders for vaccine for use in November or even December," recalled Dr Nowak on National Public Radio. "It really did look like we needed to do something to encourage people to get a flu shot." If flu is in fact not a major cause of death, this public relations approach is surely exaggerated. Moreover, by arbitrarily linking flu with pneumonia, current data are statistically biased. Until corrected and until unbiased statistics are developed, the chances for sound discussion and public health policy are limited.
https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2795/rr-6Quote
I was perturbed and slighty astonished last week to see last winter's excess mortality being largely attributed to the bad flu season, though it is well-established that this was not the case - the main culprit being on this occasion apparently the Office for National Statistics [ONS].
The BBC reported [1]:
"There were around 50,100 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2017-18 - the highest since the winter of 1975-76, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
"The increase is thought to be down to the flu, the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine in older people and spells of very cold weather last winter."
The Daily Mail reported [2]:
"More than 50,000 excess deaths were recorded across England and Wales last winter, official figures show.
"Excess deaths refer to the amount of patients that died unexpectedly, calculated by comparing the mortality rate from winter months to the rest of the year.
"The shocking figures have been partially blamed on the deadly strains of flu that swept the nations over the colder months of December to March. "
So the government are now apparent not only blaming fluctuations in winter mortality on flu but all excess winter mortality on flu, to the the tune of more than 50,000 deaths. The reality is that Public Health England had already published the flu mortality figures for the season in May [4]:
"Through the USISS mandatory scheme, a total of 3,454 ICU/HDU admissions of
confirmed influenza were reported across the UK from week 40 2017 to week 15 2018,
including 372 deaths, based on combined data from England, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. In England, the total number of influenza confirmed admissions to ICU/HDU
was 3,175 (rate of 0.22 per 100, 000 population) and 320 deaths during the same
period...
"The cumulative number of cases and deaths were higher compared to the 2016 to 2017
season (992 cases (rate of 0.06) and 112 deaths) and to the 2015 to 2016 season
(2,173 cases (rate of 0.14 per 100, 000) and 166 deaths) in England. This season
represents the highest number and rate observed since the beginning of the scheme
..."
On this basis, the number of deaths in England and Wales in an admittedly exceptionally bad year would have been only in the region of 335-340 deaths, and the ONS seem to have exaggerated the risk to the public by in the region of 150 times.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee have been complaining about low flu vaccine uptake again [5] but we do not even have any information about the vaccination status of the people who died. There are serious ethical issues both for medicine and government here which have yet to be addressed.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/128722-prime-number/Quote
Numbers justify fear. 50,000 abducted children, for example, or 50,000 predators prowling for children online. That last figure appeared in a recent introduction for NBC’s “Dateline.” And last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cited Dateline’s number. But where did it come from? So far as statistics go, it turns out that 50,000 is something of a Goldilocks number in the media – not too big and not too small, but for scaring the public - just right.
You literally cannot make this shit up.
Quote (Thor123422 @ Mar 25 2019 09:03am)
Some vaccines are undeniably effective, such as MMR, smallpox, and polio vaccines. We virtually eliminated these diseases in the United States (smallpox was globally eliminated due to mass distribution of the vaccine).
Some are questionable, such as yearly influenza (its hard to oredict future prominent strains) and H1N1 (fear leading to expedited research methods).
While I'm not going to deny that certain pediatric vaccines have absolutely been effective in eradicating disease outbreaks, I would be very interested in seeing these sorts of reviews for the entire vaccine schedule and related adjuvants/preservatives. Are you not worried about health research and policy essentially being pay-to-win for people who's interests are far from humanitarian?
This post was edited by Perd_Hapley on Mar 30 2019 03:52am