According to the GP e-magazine, Pulse, January 2018, the flu vaccine has not worked again this year, particularly with the over 75's, who conventional doctors believe to be the most 'at-risk' group. As a result, doctors have been advised by NHS England to order a separate vaccine for them next year.
"A letter from NHS England’s Public Health Commissioning Team instructed practices order a separate flu vaccine for patients who are over 75 years of age, after PHE announced in September that last year’s vaccine was not ‘significantly effective’ in older patients."
The NHS England's letter goes on: ‘The adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine is currently considered to be the only licensed cost-effective option for this group.’
This should not come as a surprise. The lack of effectiveness of the flu vaccine has been reported for several years now, and Australia has already reported that during its winter the vaccine had been hopelessly ineffective.
Dr George Kassianos, GP and RCGP immunisation lead, is reported as advising GPs to follow NHS England's advice.
'We know from the PHE publications that last year, the effectiveness of the conventional influenza vaccines in the over-65s was not apparent. Over-75s fared particularly badly to the point that the JCVI called the effectiveness of the conventional vaccine in the elderly “disappointing”.
When the effectiveness of a vaccine "is not apparent" it is disappointing indeed! But conventional medicine continues to recommend the flu vaccine, regardless of its ineffectiveness, its safety or its cost. The gravy-train continues - unabated!
The article also reported that the UK "is in the grip of the current flu season, with rates of GP consultations and hospitalisations increasing week by week" which confirms my oft-repeated argument that the reason for the NHS crisis every winter is that conventional medicine just does not work, it is not effective, £billions is paid out every year on drugs and vaccines that fail to make us better, and through their side effects actually make us sicker.
So, what is the excuse for this year's failure? Have the wrong flu strains been selected this year, yet again?. It does not appear so.
"In Scotland, early testing showed just over half of the circulating strains were the same as those for which this season's vaccine offers protection."
This suggests that the right strains were selected - but that the vaccine still does not work! Quite an amazing admission.
I scoured the article to see if there was any report that this year's vaccine has been any safer than it has proven to be in past years. I could find no such reassurance! So what is the outcome?
"... (English) data on hospitalisations suggested the dreaded 'Aussie flu' H3N2 was on the rise - with 112 hospitalisations in 19 hospitals last week, compared to five across 12 trusts the week before - for which there was no vaccine made available to patients."
So the flu vaccination the NHS offers to patients continues to be ineffective, harmful to our health, and expensive. So it provides us with the worst of all worlds!
Yet at the same time, the NHS is trying to stop doctors using homeopathy (for any condition). Homeopathy has safe, effective and inexpensive strategies to both prevent and treat influenza. It is time for us to all start using them. It is time to abandon conventional medicine, and its almost total dependance on useless, harmful and expensive pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.
POSTSCRIPT
One of my regular complaints about the conventional medical establishment, which controls the NHS, and the Department of Health, is that the information it provides to patients is neither open or transparent, and sometimes it is downright dishonest!
Given the information given to GP's, discussed above, I watched the Chief Medical Officer,
Professor Dame Sally Davies, speaking on television about the NHS crisis yesterday, and in particular, the significant part flu related issues were playing in it. She spoke about the importance of the flu vaccine for NHS staff, and suggested that in order to provide patients with the best service possible there was good reason to make the vaccination COMPULSORY. I consider her remarks to be dishonest.
"A letter from NHS England’s Public Health Commissioning Team instructed practices order a separate flu vaccine for patients who are over 75 years of age, after PHE announced in September that last year’s vaccine was not ‘significantly effective’ in older patients."
The NHS England's letter goes on: ‘The adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine is currently considered to be the only licensed cost-effective option for this group.’
This should not come as a surprise. The lack of effectiveness of the flu vaccine has been reported for several years now, and Australia has already reported that during its winter the vaccine had been hopelessly ineffective.
Dr George Kassianos, GP and RCGP immunisation lead, is reported as advising GPs to follow NHS England's advice.
'We know from the PHE publications that last year, the effectiveness of the conventional influenza vaccines in the over-65s was not apparent. Over-75s fared particularly badly to the point that the JCVI called the effectiveness of the conventional vaccine in the elderly “disappointing”.
When the effectiveness of a vaccine "is not apparent" it is disappointing indeed! But conventional medicine continues to recommend the flu vaccine, regardless of its ineffectiveness, its safety or its cost. The gravy-train continues - unabated!
The article also reported that the UK "is in the grip of the current flu season, with rates of GP consultations and hospitalisations increasing week by week" which confirms my oft-repeated argument that the reason for the NHS crisis every winter is that conventional medicine just does not work, it is not effective, £billions is paid out every year on drugs and vaccines that fail to make us better, and through their side effects actually make us sicker.
So, what is the excuse for this year's failure? Have the wrong flu strains been selected this year, yet again?. It does not appear so.
"In Scotland, early testing showed just over half of the circulating strains were the same as those for which this season's vaccine offers protection."
This suggests that the right strains were selected - but that the vaccine still does not work! Quite an amazing admission.
I scoured the article to see if there was any report that this year's vaccine has been any safer than it has proven to be in past years. I could find no such reassurance! So what is the outcome?
"... (English) data on hospitalisations suggested the dreaded 'Aussie flu' H3N2 was on the rise - with 112 hospitalisations in 19 hospitals last week, compared to five across 12 trusts the week before - for which there was no vaccine made available to patients."
So the flu vaccination the NHS offers to patients continues to be ineffective, harmful to our health, and expensive. So it provides us with the worst of all worlds!
Yet at the same time, the NHS is trying to stop doctors using homeopathy (for any condition). Homeopathy has safe, effective and inexpensive strategies to both prevent and treat influenza. It is time for us to all start using them. It is time to abandon conventional medicine, and its almost total dependance on useless, harmful and expensive pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.
POSTSCRIPT
One of my regular complaints about the conventional medical establishment, which controls the NHS, and the Department of Health, is that the information it provides to patients is neither open or transparent, and sometimes it is downright dishonest!
Given the information given to GP's, discussed above, I watched the Chief Medical Officer,
Professor Dame Sally Davies, speaking on television about the NHS crisis yesterday, and in particular, the significant part flu related issues were playing in it. She spoke about the importance of the flu vaccine for NHS staff, and suggested that in order to provide patients with the best service possible there was good reason to make the vaccination COMPULSORY. I consider her remarks to be dishonest.
- She did not take the opportunity to tell patients what the NHS has already told doctors - that the flu vaccine is not effective.
- What she said implicitly implied was that the vaccine worked, and would ensure that NHS staff were not absent from work because of flu, which does not correspond to the letter to doctors.
- She is suggesting that doctors and nurses are FORCED to take the vaccine, quite regardless of the government's policy on PATIENT CHOICE.
- She said nothing about the serious side effects associated with the flu vaccine - not a surprise, conventional medicine never does, and the media never asks!
Lying to patients is one thing. Lying to doctors and is quite another, and the mixed messages they are receiving will surely be noted. The take up of vaccines by doctors and nurses is always significantly lower than the general population. Perhaps they already know about the effectiveness and dangers of the flu vaccine! If so, perhaps they can start telling their patients.
