A statement was made in January by the CDC chief: “85% of children who died from the flu this season were unvaccinated.”
Upon superficial glance, this claim might appear quite frightening to those who have not investigated the scientific literature on vaccines. The CDC has a propensity to omit important information, and the above claim implies that the flu deaths are attributed to a lack of vaccination.
It’s important to understand why the deaths are NOT because they avoided the flu vaccine.
Vaccine Status Gas Lighting
The first point to keep in mind is that “unvaccinated” does not imply vaccine free history, it only means the individual did NOT receive this year’s seasonal influenza vaccine. [1] Further, one must also ask: where is the evidence (data) that proves the vaccination status of these individuals?
We do not know the influenza vaccination history of the “unvaccinated” and the “vaccinated” individuals. It is likely that this is the first time many in the ‘vaccinated’ group have received the flu shot, and the ‘unvaccinated’ group could have possibly received the flu shot in prior seasons (possibly many years). [2]
Why is this important?
Studies have demonstrated that seasonal influenza vaccine induces original antigenic sin — which means it selectively trains your body to produce an antibody response that will likely be worthless for the subsequent year’s influenza strain.
This is because your immune system “remembers” how it previously responded to a pathogen, and this memory can be quite detrimental if its response is incorrect toward different strains (poor training is worse than no training). Thus, people who receive the seasonal flu shot are at higher risk for contracting more virulent, pandemic strains of the influenza that could potentially be fatal. [2,3]
Flu Shot Suppresses Your Immune System
Conversely, natural immunity (contracting the influenza naturally and subsequently convalescing) enables your immune system to have “heterosubtypic immunity,” — that is, the ability to produce antibodies to various flu strains. Moreover, immunity is a multifaceted process that includes antibodies as one component of the overall response; natural exposure to pathogens engages all layers of the immune system (vaccines do not).
Thus, the putative unvaccinated individuals who died quite possibly received prior year(s) flu shots that incorrectly trained their immune system.
The flu vaccine is highly immunosuppressive – studies demonstrate that vaccinees have an increased susceptibility to infection. [3] If you have received the flu shot last year, or multifarious times prior, your immune system is likely weaker this year.
No control for confounding variables in the data. We do not have any information on the health statuses of the vaccinated and unvaccinated deaths. [4]
Is there healthy user bias interfering: have many in the unvaccinated group been injured by prior vaccines, therefore immuno-compromised, and more vulnerable to death? What are the diets, vitamin D3 status, and further, other health seeking behaviors of each person?
Therefore, this statistical scare tactic (85% unvaccinated) is absolutely rendered useless when fastidiously examined.
Summary
In light of what the scientific literature imparts to us regarding the effects of vaccines on the immune system, it can be almost unequivocally guaranteed that the reason these individuals died from the flu was NOT because they avoided this year’s flu shot.
Of course, this assumes the CDC is being honest about the vaccination statuses of the flu victims, which may be a precarious assumption given prior history.
With that being said – in either case – the claims that the influenza vaccine is beneficial are uncorroborated by scientific data. Safety is another integral concern as well, which deserves its own article.
References
- https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/cdc-chief-85-of-children-who-ve-died-this-flu-season-were-unvaccinated.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21880755
- http://www.metronews.ca/life/health/2012/09/09/canadian-problem-maybe-not-study-finds.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404712/