Results tagged “effectiveness” from Vaccination News

Britain will not be following the lead of America and vaccinating children against flu, it was reported today.

Government advisers have concluded there is not enough evidence that vaccination is effective in children, according to Pulse magazine.

Countries like the USA are rolling out flu vaccination to help limit the impact of a bird flu epidemic should it happen. The vaccines do not protect against the H5N1 bird flu strain but scientists are concerned about the dangers of an epidemic of the two kinds of flu at the same time.

Greg Ciola Interviews Mary Tocco

When was the last time you heard an honest debate on the flu shot where experts from both conventional and alternative medicine were allowed to present their facts and debate the issues? There are plenty of independent researchers not beholden to the drug companies that have a wealth of interesting information to share that if disseminated widely, would cause many to stop and think twice before getting jabbed with a flu shot. The one good thing we’ve hopefully learned is to get a second opinion before making any major medical decision. Getting a flu shot is a major medical decision.

Crusador editor, Greg Ciola, is pleased to interview vaccine researcher Marry Tocco about the dangers of the flu shot. Before succumbing to fear thinking that you’ll die or become horribly sick if you don’t get a flu shot, listen to what Mary Tocco has to say first, pray about it, and decide for yourself whether you should take a shot after weighing all the facts.

CEDAR HILLS — Kara Davis is a staunch believer that you shouldn't give cocktails to babies, especially if a newborn is injected with one in the arm or foot before ever leaving the hospital.

But while Davis and a growing population of like-minded parents share their concerns out loud and on the Internet, others, including a majority of hospital doctors, say those "cocktails" — also known as vaccines — are crucial to saving lives.

Davis, 53, although not an expert, recently persuaded her son not to allow his newborn to receive a hepatitis B vaccine, which is normally administered within the baby's first 48 hours. Davis did allow her six children to be vaccinated when they were young, but that was before she started doing research that generated her ill feelings toward the common shots.

BANGKOK, 8 December (IRIN) - International pharmaceutical companies are racing to prepare, and obtain regulatory approval for, a vaccine to protect humans against avian influenza, but scientists do not know whether the vaccines under development would be able to protect people from a potential pandemic influenza strain, if it eventually emerges.

At present, 27 human clinical trials of vaccines against several different strains of avian influenza are under way by more than a dozen western drug companies, and so far, they have resulted in some immune response in those vaccinated.

However, the vaccines now in development are based on strains of the lethal H5N1 virus that have circulated in Vietnam, Indonesia and Turkey and influenzas are fast mutating viruses, so it is unclear whether vaccines developed from old strains will offer any protection against new strains.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Influenza vaccination for pregnant women expecting to deliver during influenza season does not seem to reduce the occurrence of respiratory illness in their newborn infant, new research suggests.

Influenza vaccination is currently recommended for children between 6 and 23 months of age. Vaccination in younger children has proven unsuccessful because the vaccine does not stimulate much of an immune response at that age, according to the report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

One solution to provide protection to these young infants might be to vaccinate the mother in hopes that protective antibodies would be passed to the developing baby while still in the womb. Whether this strategy actually helps prevent respiratory disease in the child is unclear.

The initial doses of bird flu vaccines that were stockpiled by US authorities are less effective now - they lose their strength over time. As the vaccines have a shorter 'shelf-life' than was first expected, it is possible that the US stockpile would now cover one million fewer people than previously thought.

In other words - as the vaccines have a shorter shelf-life than we had previously thought, many of the first ones that were bought may now not be so good.
(Shelf life = How long a drug can be kept/stored before it has to be thrown away. A bit like 'expiry date' on foods. If a drug has a two-year shelf life and was made on 1 January, 2007, it must be discarded by the end of 2008.)

I am always happy to post articles by Steven Woloshin, Lisa Schwartz and Gilbert Welch.

Despite 64 published studies over the past 35 years, we really don't know how well the flu vaccine works to prevent serious illness and death in the elderly. How is this possible? The answer has to do with how the studies were done.

Fifty-nine of the 64 studies were observational; that is, studies where scientists simply count up outcomes (e.g., the number of flu-like illnesses among people who did or did not get the vaccine). Observational studies cannot prove cause and effect. And findings that are encouraging -- for example, fewer deaths observed among those vaccinated -- may not mean the vaccine works. Rather, such results may simply reflect that the people who get vaccinated are generally healthier than those who do not.

This is a third website about vaccination risks and effectiveness.

A lot of work has been put into this website, and for sure it does look prettier and more professional than previous two - Vaccination Liberation and The Vaccination Hoax.

I welcome you to check the VRAN website out: 

VRAN website is designed to provide you with more information about risks and potential side-effects of vaccines, to get support if you or someone you know may have suffered adverse reactions from vaccines, and to foster a multi-disciplinary approach to child and family health.

VRAN - Vaccination Risk Awareness Network is a not-for-profit educational society. Formed in response to growing parental concern regarding the safety of current vaccination programs in Canada.

VRAN continues the work of the Committee Against Compulsory Vaccination, started by Ontario parents in 1982 in protest of the Immunization of School Pupils Act.

Unlike other internet-sites, VRAN does not collect any personal data on any visitor unless specifically disclosed by the visitor (i.e. in the membership-application).

Another website that expresses anti-vaccination point of view.

And another disappointment. Not due to contents of this website. On the contrary, what's written there is very interesting. However, the creator of this website doesn't know much about how the website should look to be appealing to its visitors. Though I have to admit it's not as ugly as Vaccination Liberation.

Maybe I should contact him?

Anyways, the link to the summary is here - http://www.whale.to/vaccines/note.html.

Recently I came across website related to Vaccination Liberation.

As much as I hate its design and understand that many visitors may and will be repulsed by site layout, fonts size, etc, I have to admit that the information presented there is relevant and absolutely worth reading. If you are not afraid to break your eyes for 5 minutes, proceed to the overview at http://www.vaclib.org/intro/present/overview.htm