It seems that the CDC, while certainly concerned about human health, is also concerned about phama industry financial health and profits. Most of you have probably seen the new recommendation that all children get a flu shot, every year! Like kids aren’t already getting enough shots, now the CDC wants to add a yearly flu shot to the repertoire. I certainly hope that this will not become a mandatory requirement for school, as a lot of people just do not want flu shots for either themselves or their family (I am one of them).

This was an interesting opinion piece on the subject, and also points out the rather disturbing factors that figure into this equation, namely to “buy” flu shots so that the manufacturers continue to make them.

From foodconsumer.org:

The panel’s advice came roughly two weeks after the U.S. health officials at the CDC showed concerns about the efficacy of the flu vaccine that does not well-match the strains that are circulating currently in all the 50 states.

As estimated, large percentages of flu strains are not covered by the flu vaccine, meaning that vaccine’s efficacy is in doubt. And indeed, it has been observed that some people who got flu shots still came down with the illness that often causes only inconvenience.

However, Dr. Joe Bresee of the CDC’s influenza division said early “While a less-than-ideal virus match between the viruses in the vaccine and those circulating viruses can reduce vaccine effectiveness, we know from past influenza studies that the vaccine can still protect enough to make illness milder or prevent flu-related complications.”

Early this month, the CDC released news saying that 6 children died from flu complications, but the agency did not elaborate any case. Sensitive health observers took a note of this and predicted earlier that the CDC’s vaccine panel in the regular meeting this year would make their recommendations for flu vaccine in a way to cover all people.

So even though the vaccine is often less than effective, they still want to push this yet on more of the population. A lot of people do not want this vaccine, and while it would be difficult to mandate it for adults, I suppose that the CDC/pharm lobby figure that they can push up usage (and profit) by forcing it on children instead.

One very hazy area is the actual death rate from the flu. The CDC touts the magic number “36,000″ as the number of Americans who die from the flu each year, and if you ever notice, that number does not change. It remains the same whether its a bad year or a good year, and I imagine that if everyone on earth got a flu vaccine, they would still be touting that same number.

You know why? It’s not an actual number and amazing how the media never questions it. It’s a computer guesstimate. Notice that the CDC never actually posts the real number of people who die due to flu complications. That’s because the number is incredibly low, and doesn’t fit into the scare tactics of “needing” a vaccine.

If you ever take a look at their actual statistics, the CDC lumps influenza and pneumonia together. That makes the number higher. When divided up, the real casualty from flu is probably about 1 to 1.5% of these 36,000, and the rest was due to pneumonia.

But getting back to kids…this year, 22 children had died of the flu, but last year, which was a milder season, 68 children died. While it is sad that these children died, it is not a reason to force the vaccine on 59 million children, in order to avoid 22 deaths. That’s like saying that school age children shouldn’t be allowed in cars, because so many die in traffic accidents (a helluva lot more who died of the flu). Or backyard pools should be banned, because children have drowned in them ( a lot more than die of the flu)

This is perhaps the most insidious comment:

Even in the group aged 6 months to 2 years, the inoculation rate was only 20% during the 2006-2007 period, according to Reuters reporting today, a rate that has made CDC officials to show their worry last year that the pharmaceutical companies may cease producing the flu vaccine because of the low usage rate. One top official at the CDC indicated last year that even for the sake of the vaccine makers, people should go get flu shots.

So in other words, we should all get the flu vaccine just to keep the manufacturer happy? Are these people daft or what?

If someone wants to get a flu vaccine, or wants to get a child vaccinated, then fine. But making flu vaccines mandatory for anyone is way out of line, simply because of the fear that the manufacturer isn’t making a huge profit. First, how about the CDC publishing real numbers as far as death rates from the flu. That would be a start. It is amazing how the mainstream media just spits out that 36,000 number like its a mantra. Haven’t any reporters noticed that its a little weird how the number never changes?

Second, vaccine production needs an overhaul. There must be some way that the government and manufacturers can come to an agreement about the vaccine.