Dachel Media Update: Flu Flu Flu
By Anne Dachel
I guess if you're a health official, you can say anything and it remains unchallenged. Three major newspapers in New York City directly quote NY Health Commissioner Mary Bassett citing two entirely different statistics on mortality from the flu.
There's a big whoop-la going on over the ruling by the NY State Supreme Court ruling AGAINST the flu shot mandate for preschool kids in NYC.
The press immediately warned us about the impending death toll from the flu....BUT JUST WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE??? Just how deadly is the flu????
FOR YEARS we've been told that 36,000 Americans die of the flu each year. On DEC 17, News 4 in Jacksonville FL and Forbes Mag. reminded us that 36,000 of us will die this year of the flu....
Dec 17, 2015, New York Daily News: Manhattan judge tosses requirement that city preschool students get flu shots
Dec 17, 2015, New York Post: NY judge strikes down rule requiring preschoolers to get flu shots
Dec 17, 2015, SILive.com: Court blocks flu shot mandate for preschoolers
Dec 16, 2015, WIBW Topeka, KS: Is it a cold or the flu? How to tell - and what to do about it
Dec 17, 2015, ABC7 New York:: Judge blocks New York City flu vaccine requirement for preschoolers
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez sided with parents who opposed the requirement that was supposed to take effect Dec. 31 for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years, barring them from city day care and preschool programs if they were not immunized.
Preschool programs that accepted children without the shots would have been fined.
…The city doesn't have the power to impose the requirement without getting approval from the state legislature, Mendez ruled.
…“I am extremely disappointed by today's decision,” Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement.
“Influenza kills an average of 36,000 people each year in the United States, and the virus is spread easily in child care settings to children and their families. The vaccination requirement will save lives. …”
“I am extremely disappointed by today's decision,” Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement.
“Influenza kills an average of 36,000 people each year in the United States, and the virus is spread easily in child care settings to children and their families. …”
"I am extremely disappointed by [Wednesday's] decision. Influenza kills an average of 24,000 people each year in the United States, and the virus is spread easily in child care settings to children and their families.
Actually I found a number of news outlets citing 24,000 and others 36,000. So shouldn't someone have to clarify this? We're talking about a difference of 12,000 deaths. Does anyone really know how many people of the flu?
WIBW Topeka, KS http://www.wibw.com/features/toyourhealth/headlines/Is-it-a-cold-or-the-flu-How-to-tell---and-what-to-do-about-it-362716331.html
"Up to 20 percent of Americans come down with the flu every year and on average, adults get two or three colds a year -- kids get even more," said CBS News medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips.
..."The flu causes more than 24,000 deaths a year and about 200,000 hospitalizations, sometimes more," Phillips said.
Video: "Big setback tonight for health advocates and medical experts who insist that flu shots are important. Tonight a New York judge overturning....
"....The ruling means that parents in New York City will have the choice..." TV doctor Richard Besser: "We vaccinate our children for a couple of reasons: one is to protect them, but the other is to protect those around them, who can't get vaccinated for reasons..."
BTW...Dr. Besser has been in AOA stories before...
WHO Says Yes to Mercury No to Meat - AGE OF AUTISM
Dachel Media Review: Sharyl Attkisson Resigns from CBS ...
Dr. Wakefield on Good Morning America - AGE OF AUTISM
Age of Autism Weekly Wrap: The "Very Very Small" Autism ...
It seems that doctors will promote vaccines by any means necessary. Of course the New York coverage didn’t include any reason why parents may want to exempt a child from the flu vaccine. Instead the flu vaccine is presented as life-saving and non-vaxxing parents as risk taking.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which is on sale now from Skyhorse Publishing.
Since I am weak in statistics, would anyone like to sort this out for me. How does the CI influence the quality of this evidence? Thanks Thanks Dr. Yazbak for asking the right question.
19% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7%–29%) effective in preventing medical visits against all influenza across all age groups, and was 18% (CI = 6%–29%) and 45% (CI = 14%–65%) effective in preventing medical visits associated with influenza A (H3N2) and influenza B (Yamagata lineage), respectively…”
Posted by: michael | December 23, 2015 at 06:07 PM
Ronald,
Thank you for sharing about Dr. Bredesen's research. Your link didn't work for me, but I looked it up. Of course, most scientists would reject this approach because they can't tell which of all the strategies worked, but if they worked and none are harmful, and people will surely die without them, who cares if we don't know how it works as long as we see results? And how unethical is it to subject people with dementia to reductionist research methods that have a slim chance of saving their lives, especially when there is already a program that has shown success?
As for Clinton, no doubt she wondered how she could get the most bang for her campaigning buck, put her finger up to the wind and decided on AD.
Posted by: Linda1 | December 23, 2015 at 05:32 PM
Dr. Iannelli,
You mentioned that “we actually know exactly how many kids die from the flu each year… There were 147 pediatric flu deaths last year, mostly in unvaccinated kids.”
According to the CDC’s MMWR of June 5, 2015 “Influenza Activity — United States, 2014–15 Season and Composition of the 2015–16 Influenza Vaccine” there were 141 and not 147 reported laboratory-confirmed, influenza-associated pediatric deaths during the 2014-2015 season. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6421a5.htm
According to the report: “For the 2014–15 influenza season, as of May 23, 2015, a total of 141 laboratory-confirmed, influenza-associated pediatric deaths had been reported from 40 states and New York City. The deaths occurred in 14 children aged <6 months, 23 aged 6–23 months, 22 aged 2–4 years, 45 aged 5–11 years, and 37 aged 12–17 years; mean and median ages were 7.2 years and 5.9 years, respectively. Among the 141 deaths, 109 were associated with an influenza A virus, 29 were associated with an influenza B virus, two were associated with an influenza virus for which the type was not determined, and one was associated with an influenza A and influenza B virus coinfection.”
Please note that this final report did not mention how many of these unfortunate children had been vaccinated or revaccinated in 2014-15 and did not list their underlying health issues and or co-morbidities.
The report did mention that “The majority of influenza A (H3N2) viruses sent to CDC for antigenic and/or genetic characterization were different from the influenza A (H3N2) component of the 2014–15 Northern Hemisphere seasonal vaccines (A/Texas/50/2012)… …Previous influenza A (H3N2)–predominant seasons have been associated with increased hospitalizations and deaths compared to seasons that were not influenza A (H3N2)–predominant, especially among children aged <5 years and adults aged ≥65 years (3–6). … Influenza vaccination this season offered reduced protection against the predominant circulating viruses, drifted influenza A (H3N2), compared with previous seasons when most circulating and vaccine strain viruses were well-matched. Data collected during November 10, 2014–January 30, 2015, indicated that the influenza vaccine was 19% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 7%–29%) effective in preventing medical visits against all influenza across all age groups, and was 18% (CI = 6%–29%) and 45% (CI = 14%–65%) effective in preventing medical visits associated with influenza A (H3N2) and influenza B (Yamagata lineage), respectively…”
Are you still certain that a dose of last year’s vaccine would have spared these unfortunate children?
Posted by: Ed Yazbak | December 23, 2015 at 05:14 PM
Linda1
"Clinton vows to find Alzheimer’s cure by 2025
Hillary Clinton is laying out an aggressive plan to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease within a decade, which she says will be achieved by a dramatically boosting spending by four times the current levels.
The Democratic presidential front-runner vows to spend $2 billion per year “to prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible by 2025.” She will announce her plan at a campaign stop in Iowa later on Tuesday."
A few months ago, I heard SEN Wicker propose a bill to combat AD called EUREKA. As I remember, he talked about costs on the order of $2B. It might have been an annual cost, but I have not been able to find any confirmatory numbers on the Web.
But, the Clinton approach, the Wicker approach, and the existing mainstream approaches all treat AD as this mystery, and they promote the fiction that we need to invest billions to find the 'magic bullets'/cures that will eliminate this disease. As I have shown in p.262-264 of my book, Dr. Dale Bredesen, a clinician at UCLA, has demonstrated reversal of AD/cognitive impairment. He uses a combination of elimination of causes/ contributing factors and supplements to achieve biomarker targets. His published results show success in nine out of ten patients described (http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v6/n9/pdf/100690.pdf). I comment on his experiments in the book.
Because he does not separate out cause elimination from supplements in his experiments, we cannot gauge which one is mainly responsible for the AD reversal. My own guess is that cause elimination is the major driver. Given that he has eliminated essentially one or two handfuls of causes, and one can identify hundreds of contributing factors, I suspect that eliminating these additional contributing factors that I have identified would give even better results.
The point is, we don't have to wait for these magical cures to arrive, after spending many tens of billions of dollars. They are here and now, not only for AD, but for ANY chronic disease. They are not being implemented presently because they would not be profitable for all the myriad industry-government-institutional-academic-practitioner links in the 'healthcare' chain.
I'll end with a quote from Dr. Bredesen, which is aimed for AD specifically, but which could be expanded to EVERY chronic disease:
"In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, there is not a single therapeutic that exerts anything beyond a marginal, unsustained symptomatic effect, with little or no effect on disease progression. Furthermore, in the past decade alone, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted for AD, at an aggregate cost of billions of dollars, without success. This has led some to question whether the approach taken to drug development for AD is an optimal one."
Posted by: Ronald Kostoff | December 23, 2015 at 03:06 PM
Rouleur
One conclusion I come to is that it is alright for people like you if governments tell outrageous lies in order to support the policy (just because you believe in the policy). And can you tell us at what point we can ever start trusting governments because they lie compulsively, so even if they tell us something which is true occasionally, how do we know?
Perhaps you are familiar with the story of the little boy who cried wolf - this is certainly relevant when governments want us to jump to attention with one health scare after another but just shrug and walk away at the mountain of chronic disease and neurological impairment. Anybody can see that policy is distorted by setting health agendas in this way.
Posted by: John Stone | December 23, 2015 at 04:33 AM
36,000 flu deaths? Nonsense. In the Vietnam war era the US lost about 54,000 soldiers over about TEN years. I personally knew about a dozen young men among that number. So, the *venerable* CDC claims 36,000 flu deaths PER YEAR and I have not known anyone in my 64 years to have died of flu. How many of these supposed deaths were definitively tested to be actual influenza? 36,000 per year over the course of my lifetime is in the millions and I haven't been aware of even one case in my personal experience! Their claim does not pass the common sense smell test. --brad
Posted by: Tribulusterrestris | December 23, 2015 at 02:16 AM
Based on Mr. Yazbak's citation that "only" 8.5% of "influenza associated" deaths in the 31 reporting years of the CDC report he discusses were actually related to influenza, it appears that "only" 17,275 people were killed by influenza in that time period (that is, 203,309 x .085). That might seem like "only" a small number except perhaps to the friends and family of those who died. Similarly, based on 2.1% of influenza associated deaths with underlying respiratory and circulatory causes being actually attributable to influenza, we have another 15,368 deaths caused by influenza that matter "only" to their survivors. That's a lot of potentially preventable deaths, even given vaccines with highly variable seasonal effectiveness.
I might be new to the debate, but the idea that doctors diagnose based on vaccination status seems entirely specious. The report form used by health care professionals to report pediatric influenza deaths is detailed as to symptoms, timing of onset, lab results, course of care, and diagnosis, all without regard to "vaccination status." There is at the end a way to record whether the dead child had received an influenza vaccine and if so, when and what type. None of that suggests diagnosis based on vaccination status. www.scdhec.gov/Health/docs/HAN/flu/InfluenzaDeath-form.pdf
And it's not CDC making these numbers up for pediatric death cases. As Dr. Iannelli indicated, for pediatric death cases since 2004 these are actual numbers--not extrapolations as is the case with adult mortality numbers--reported by health care providers to the CDC. To suggest that individual doctors, clinics, and hospitals are fabricating or "making up" these reports of children dying of influenza is reprehensible.
Posted by: Rouleur | December 23, 2015 at 02:07 AM
Jenny Allen, Thank you for providing the inspiration for this amusing title for a book,an article....
BALONEY: The science behind the influenza vaccination.
Posted by: michael | December 23, 2015 at 12:21 AM
Regarding pediatric flu deaths, the CDC defines these as those in individuals less than 18 years of age. There are 73.6 million minors in the US using 2014 figures. Assuming the 147 deaths is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), that results in 2 deaths per million minors. Furthermore, The CDC states that 60% of pediatric deaths were in minors “who were at high risk of developing serious flu-related complications”. In other words, they had something else seriously wrong with them. So if your children are healthy, the yearly odds of death from the flu are literally one in a million.
As a comparison, the pediatric death rate for motor vehicle accidents is about 22 per million, accidents other than motor vehicles is 15 per million, and suicide is 10 per million. The point being that if a parent is a worrywart, their time is better spent dwelling on other things.
Like any other invasive medical intervention, vaccination entails a greater than zero risk. Is it worth it with a one in a million odds of preventing the child’s death (assuming its 100% effective which it isn’t)? Perhaps, but it certainly isn’t the no-brainer as presented by the medical establishment.
It seems clear that the goal of pediatric flu vaccines isn’t to protect children, but to protect the elderly and immune compromised through herd immunity. This may be a worthwhile goal (again assuming it’s effective) but it’s extremely disingenuous to claim it’s for the child’s benefit as the medical industry asserts.
As to the entire population, extrapolating the pediatric deaths to the population as a whole results in only 635 deaths. If the 36,000 figure is true, it would require a death rate 57 times that of the pediatric population. Call me skeptical.
Posted by: Jeff C | December 22, 2015 at 07:39 PM
Further, the influenza vaccine program presents a clear and present danger to the citizens upon whom it is foisted. Experts in the employ of the United States government have said exactly that. Here is the obituary of Dr. J. Anthony Morris:
"Dr. Morris was chief vaccine officer for the Bureau of Biological Standards at the National Institutes of Health and later with the Food and Drug Administration, when the bureau was transferred to that agency in the 1970s."
"The incidence of swine flu among the vaccinated was seven times greater than it was among those who had not been vaccinated, according to news reports. In addition, 12 Americans who had been vaccinated against swine flu died of complications related to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a polyneuropathy affecting the peripheral nervous system. More than 200 were paralyzed, news accounts said."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/vaccine-specialist-j-anthony-morris-dies-at-95/2014/07/03/e786b9b8-0228-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html
Posted by: Ottoschnaut | December 22, 2015 at 07:03 PM
The CDC as a matter of policy simply makes stuff up. So one would have to look elsewhere for accurate data on confirmed influenza deaths. Start with the fact that only about 20% of patients who seek medical treatment for flu actually have it.
More to the point- regardless of the number of cases of flu- it is incontestable (if you believe in the scientific method) that the influenza vaccine program is a colossal failure at preventing influenza. Here is what the science says:
" We could not correlate increasing vaccination coverage after 1980 with declining mortality rates in any age group. Because fewer than 10% of all winter deaths were attributable to influenza in any season, we conclude that observational studies substantially overestimate vaccination benefit."
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=486407
Posted by: Ottoschnaut | December 22, 2015 at 06:55 PM
Per the December 10, 2005 British Medical Journal article by Dr. Peter Doshi entitled, "Are US flu death figures more PR than science?" the CDC interchanges the terms "flu death and flu associated death" even though they are two different terms entirely. Dr. Doshi goes on to write, "CDC states that the historic 1968-9 “Hong Kong flu” pandemic killed 34 000 Americans. At the same time, CDC claims 36 000 Americans annually die from flu. What is going on?
Meanwhile, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), “influenza and pneumonia” took 62 034 lives in 2001—61 777 of which were attributed to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was flu virus positively identified. Between 1979 and 2002, NCHS data show an average 1348 flu deaths per year (range 257 to 3006)."
In 2001, only 18 deaths could be confirmed by laboratory testing to have been due to influenza. That's quite a far cry from 36,000 dead due to influenza. Conjectural computer modeling just doesn't cut it when it comes to laboratory verification of actual influenza deaths. What a great big lie these flu death statistics are in reality.
Posted by: Someone | December 22, 2015 at 05:39 PM
Just for proof of my point - not that any is needed as it is so obvious.
"To minimize the problem of false positive laboratory results, it is important to restrict case investigation and laboratory tests to patients most likely to have measles (i.e., those who meet the clinical case definition, especially if they have risk factors for measles, such as being unvaccinated,[...]"
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt07-measles.html
And here is the UK's National Health Service: "Following assessment, if a diagnosis of measles is considered likely, it is essential to notify the local Health Protection Unit (HPU)" and subsequently: "Measles is very unlikely in people who have been fully immunized", followed by “Consider a different cause if the patient is likely to have immunity” http://cks.nice.org.uk/measles#!diagnosissub
And this is for diphtheria: "Because diphtheria has occurred only rarely in the United States in recent years, many clinicians may not include diphtheria in their differential diagnoses. Clinicians are reminded to consider the diagnosis of respiratory diphtheria in patients with membranous pharyngitis and who are not up-to-date with vaccination against diphtheria."
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt01-dip.html
Posted by: rtp | December 22, 2015 at 05:35 PM
Vince, you have been told repeatedly that doctors use vaccination status when they make their diagnoses - rendering all the data on these conditions meaningless and yet for some reason you keep on repeating the lie that this data is valid.
Why do you do that?
How can you keep on claiming the data is valid when you know perfectly well that it is massively biased in favour of the vaccines?
Posted by: rtp | December 22, 2015 at 05:28 PM
"There were 147 pediatric flu deaths last year, mostly in unvaccinated kids."
Those numbers are meaningless because doctors are prejudiced to diagnose (or test for) influenza in patients that are not vaccinated.
A self-fulfilling prophecy.
Just like all so-called vaccine success stories.
If the flu vaccine worked then flu hospitalisations would have collapsed since the introduction of flu shots several decades ago. But they haven't. They have increased - the vaccine is completely useless.
Just like all vaccines.
Posted by: rtp | December 22, 2015 at 05:26 PM
@Vincent, MD
Some more info you might want to digest: Back in 2003-2004 when the SARS Panic made headlines and stopped international air travel - another pathetic episode of a contrived Pandemic.
That Fall the U.S. CDC intensified and promoted earlier Flu Vaccinations for children and infants. Resulting in the largest spike in so-called pediatric "flu-associated deaths" for said Flu Season.
More toxic flu shots, more deaths ---- maybe a valid association? You bet.
More vaccinations, more deaths. Gee? Wonder Why? Maybe more toxic flu vaccines?
Posted by: david m burd | December 22, 2015 at 04:50 PM
@ Vincent,
You, sir, are either a fraud and/or a fool.
U.S. child flu deaths per the CDC are related as "flu-associated", also called "ILI" (Influenza Like Illness).
And, as is easily documented (and I have here on Age of Autism), most U.S. "flu-associated child deaths" have been treated with extremely toxic antivirals drugs that CAUSE red blood cell death; such a drug is Ribavirin, a nucleoside analogue that literally kills red blood cells needed to carry oxygen.
Vincent, your world of toxic medicines is inexcusable, and demonstrably deadly.
How you rationalize is up to you. But, you might go back to basics: Excellent nutrition, and don't poison infants with your medicines.
Posted by: david m burd | December 22, 2015 at 04:32 PM
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/clinton-vows-to-find-alzheimer%e2%80%99s-cure-by-2025/ar-BBnPlCh?li=BBnb7Kz
"Clinton vows to find Alzheimer’s cure by 2025
Hillary Clinton is laying out an aggressive plan to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease within a decade, which she says will be achieved by a dramatically boosting spending by four times the current levels.
The Democratic presidential front-runner vows to spend $2 billion per year “to prevent, effectively treat and make a cure possible by 2025.” She will announce her plan at a campaign stop in Iowa later on Tuesday.
The annual $2 billion in spending will be part of a “historic, decade-long investment” that would bring up spending levels from the $586 million spent by the National Institutes of Health this year...
“This is a tsunami, epidemic that could single-handedly crush Medicare and Medicaid,” warned Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, director of the Genetics and Aging Research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“It’s an unmet medical need of the greatest type,” he said.
He also highlighted that the plan would benefit women – who are almost two-thirds more likely to have the disease – and both African Americans and Hispanics who are about two times as likely to have the disease."
Posted by: Linda1 | December 22, 2015 at 03:56 PM
Vincent,
"There were 147 pediatric flu deaths last year, mostly in unvaccinated kids."
Totally unvaccinated? As in, they never got any other vaccines that damaged their immune system and made it less likely that they could fight off the flu?
Quantify "mostly" and define "unvaccinated".
Posted by: Linda1 | December 22, 2015 at 03:43 PM
To enlarge on the CDC link supplied by Ed Yazbak (below):-
“Estimating Seasonal Influenza-Associated Deaths in the United States: CDC Study Confirms Variability of Flu” http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm
Quotes from above:-
"the study confirmed previous findings that about 90% of influenza associated deaths occur among adults 65 years and older...................It has been recognized for many years that influenza is infrequently listed on death certificates and testing for seasonal influenza infections is usually not done, particularly among the elderly who are at greatest risk of seasonal influenza complications and death..........Influenza virus infection may not be identified in many instances because influenza virus is only detectable for a short period of time and/or many people don’t seek medical care until after the first few days of acute illness. For these and other reasons, statistical modelling strategies have been used to estimate seasonal flu-related deaths for many decades, both in the United States and the United Kingdom......
....Only counting deaths where influenza was included on a death certificate would be a gross underestimation of seasonal influenza’s true impact."
What a load of BALONEY!!! This is pure guesswork dressed up as science. Worse, this scaremongering propaganda is being used to scare parents into vaccinating their children, even though the CDC is admitting child flu deaths represent a small percentage of estimated cases.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | December 22, 2015 at 02:36 PM
Thanks John Stone - I can always depend on you to help me! Thanks and I do mean that.
Posted by: Benedetta | December 22, 2015 at 02:31 PM
Most people are aware of the 36,000 yearly flu deaths estimate that many experts use. This was an average number of flu deaths that experts found during the 1990s.
An estimate that uses a much longer time frame, including more recent flu seasons, from 1976 to 2007, has found an average of 23,607 deaths.
There is a lot of variability from year to year, though, with a low of 3,349 deaths during the 1986-87 flu season to a high of 48,614 in 2003-04, which was considered a severe flu season.
Unlike flu deaths in adults, which are just estimates, we actually know exactly how many kids die from the flu each year, as it has been a nationally notifiable condition since 2004.
There were 147 pediatric flu deaths last year, mostly in unvaccinated kids.
Posted by: Vincent Iannelli, MD | December 22, 2015 at 02:18 PM
Hi Benedetta
Initials MG, so presumably not.
Posted by: John Stone | December 22, 2015 at 01:47 PM
Ed:
It that Thompson -- William Thompson?
Thanks for pointing out that few cases of flu cause pneumonia.
Posted by: Benedetta | December 22, 2015 at 01:35 PM
"Does anyone really know how many people die of the flu?"
The following statements by the CDC can be found today under “Estimating Seasonal Influenza-Associated Deaths in the United States: CDC Study Confirms Variability of Flu” http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm
CDC does not know exactly how many people die from seasonal flu each year
The number of seasonal influenza-associated (i.e., seasonal flu-related) deaths varies from year to year because flu seasons are unpredictable and often fluctuate in length and severity. Therefore, a single estimate cannot be used to summarize influenza-associated deaths. Instead, a range of estimated deaths is a better way to represent the variability and unpredictability of flu. An August 27, 2010 MMWR report entitled “Thompson MG et al. Updated Estimates of Mortality Associated with Seasonal Influenza through the 2006-2007 Influenza Season. MMWR 2010; 59(33): 1057-1062.," provides updated estimates of the range of flu-associated deaths that occurred in the United States during the three decades prior to 2007. CDC estimates that from the 1976-1977 season to the 2006-2007 flu season, flu-associated deaths ranged from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people.
CDC estimated that only 8.5% of all pneumonia and influenza deaths and only 2.1% of all respiratory and circulatory deaths were influenza-related.
Posted by: Ed Yazbak | December 22, 2015 at 11:49 AM
From The Journal of Advanced Practice Nursing 10/15/14 -
"Do Not Believe Everything You Read About Flu Deaths"
Please see article at link. Last paragraph:
"The CDC unabashedly decided to create a mass market for the flu vaccine by enlisting the media into panicking the public. An obedient and unquestioning media obliged by hyping the numbers, and 10 years later it is obliging still."
http://www.asrn.org/journal-advanced-practice-nursing/1212-do-not-believe-everything-you-read-about-flu-deaths.html
Posted by: Linda1 | December 22, 2015 at 11:19 AM
If the number of deaths attributable to the flu really are 36,000 a year .. a highly questionable .. likely deliberately inflated number .. that number none-the-less pales when compared to the number of "preventable deaths" that occur in US Hospitals EVERY year .. which are reported by the following article to be 400,000.
Admittedly .. this article was published by the Trial Lawyers association .. but .. a quick google search reveals NUMEROUS articles (FORBES) .. claiming these types of "preventable deaths" are between 300,000 to 400,000 A YEAR.
http://www.thenationaltriallawyers.org/2015/01/hospital-deaths/
Common sense suggests that public health officials and elected representatives would better serve the public interest if they focused their energies on "preventing 300 to 400,000 deaths a year in hospitals" .. instead of squandering their time focusing on a flu vaccine that is .. more often than not .. by their own admission .. sometimes less than 30% effective. Of course .. unlike the flu vaccine ... no one is going to PAY money to focus attention on hospital preventable deaths.
And so .. truth be known ... the annual hoopla about flu deaths each year is about "marketing" the flu vaccine .. having nothing to do with protecting those 400,000 unsuspecting PATIENT/VICTIMS .. that will die through preventable medical mistakes and errors.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | December 22, 2015 at 07:07 AM
"Does anyone really know how many people die of the flu?"
Well, in an article published here in 2011 David Burd had dug out the real mortality figures for the recent season from MMWR - a tally of 206 but no mention I think of how many of those were vaccinated, how many had vaccine strain etc.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/06/death-by-flu-the-big-lie-crumbles.html
The figures - when size of population has been taken into account - were remarkably similar when the UK Department of Health answered a query in BMJ Rapid Responses late on Christmas Eve 2009 about mortality from flu in England and Wales:
"Estimate of ‘flu deaths is found in the annual mortality statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics. These statistics record the underlying cause of death. They are based on all registered deaths, based on the information on death certificates. The number of deaths for England & Wales with an underlying cause of influenza (ICD-10 code J10-J11) for the four recent calendar years are: 39 (2008), 31 (2007), 17 (2006) and 44 (2005). Many more deaths are attributed to pneumonia, some of which will be secondary to influenza."
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/01/sir-liams-skeleton-the-uk-department-of-health-fabricates-flu-deaths-to-boost-vaccination.html
But they too were basing their public projections on fanciful calculations derived from excess winter deaths, which had nothing to do with flu. The real average figure was a mere 33 when they were talking about 12,000, or 25,000 in the media, so the estimates are several hundred times the reality.
Posted by: John Stone | December 22, 2015 at 03:54 AM
"Does anyone really know how many people die of the flu?"
Nope - They DON'T, and I am sick and tired of the same old tired numbers bandied about claiming to accurately record flu sickness and deaths, without a SHRED of evidence to back them up. It's a bit like Offit's notorious claim tiny babies can deal with 100,000 vaccines at once, later 'modified' to 10,000. These figures are pulled out of nowhere, and I suppose we should laugh at the differing numbers of US flu deaths reported .....EXCEPT....It's NOT funny.
During the much hyped Welsh measles outbreak a few years ago, a senior Welsh Health spokesperson stated there were hundreds of thousands of measles cases and around 100 child deaths annually. These ridiculous stats were earnestly reported by the BBC and parents were extolled to get MMR jabs for their children. Following complaints and internet publicity, the Beeb edited their internet web report, but there was no public apology. Years later these numbers, like Offits are still getting included in news and other health reports worldwide. (The TRUTH (UK)? 2 child measles deaths post MMR vaccine; both children had very serious co-morbidies precluding vaccination. There have been at least 4 deaths officially confirmed as caused by MMR vaccine.)
US Citizens should now DELUGE the NY Health Office with requests for an official breakdown of Flu deaths, including the numbers of child deaths and the ages of other cases.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | December 22, 2015 at 03:22 AM
It would be nice to know the health outcomes of the people getting the flu vaccine
Then we could all decide if the risk outweighs the benefits.
I mean - if we had got the actual flu would we still have developed gluten sensitivity - celiacs , or was that just the vaccine that does that?
Oh, and it would have been nice if the medical people could have figured out it was gluten sensitivity - that was messing up our GI tracks and thyroid 30 years ago. I mean a timely diagnosis is kind of important.
Am I wrong?
Posted by: Benedetta | December 21, 2015 at 11:03 PM
I called the NY health office directly and asked for clarification. I was told I would need to identity myself and put the request for clarification in writing before I coukd get a response.
Posted by: Kathryn | December 21, 2015 at 06:29 PM
Prelude to the legislature adding yearly influenza vaccine to the mandated schedule, no doubt.
Posted by: Linda1 | December 21, 2015 at 06:11 PM